Just went to radio shack

[plegue]

So im following the tutorial for the fifty dollar robot.  just ordered all the stuff online,  and went to radio shack for the pc board and photoresitors...  so heres my question. I ended up buying a pretty large sized prepunched perfboard. so my question is is a "prepunched perfboard"  going to be sufficient for this project?  is it the same? 
Another question.   im trying to gather as much information as i can about electronics and robotics.  good resources for the electronics and its application(building circuits, etc.)?
TYVM guys.  and good job on this site and the tutorial,  its awsome and ill be building my own fifty dollar robot soon.

[mgargiullo]

Radio shack sells a bunch of different kinds.  Most will work, some will be easier than others.  I built my $50 robot board from a radio shack pc board.  It's about 1.5 x 2.5 inches or so (from memory).  To make your life easier, ensure one side of the board has solder connections (metal circles around the holes).  They sell both kinds (with and without), but I think you'd have to hunt for the kind without.

Have fun, enjoy the process.  read a lot.

[waltr]

My first robot was built on a Radio Shack perf board with solder pads. I just cut it down to the size needed by scoring with an X-acto knife and breaking it.

[GearMotion]

Start here: http://circuitgizmos.com/wordpress/?p=471

Your board should have copper donuts around the holes.



The SoR board could be laid out in about half of the space that it is, but better to follow one of the orientations that others have done. The instructions for board assembly that I point to are good for when you use the 6-pin programmer. (The original instructions used the defunct 10-pin header)

[plegue]

The one i have doesnt have the copper rings. is that not good for this project?

[GearMotion]

I would say "not good for this project" for the reason that without rings the connectors would fall out.

It wouldn't be impossible to use, but it would be exceptionally frustrating. You would end up fighting keeping the parts in place mechanically, fighting making connections.

Give yourself the best bet for success and use the board illustrated. Then do the other things in that blog, such as really cleaning the copper well, using electrical flux (such as the flux pen), tinning your connections, etc.

[plegue]

That really sucks...  what is the perf board used for then?

[GearMotion]

That really sucks...  what is the perf board used for then?

Your type of perf board - without the copper rings - is used for wire-wrapping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_wrap