Picture to Circuit Board coding

[SparkyCal]

Sorry- I did not realize that providing a description and not a picture was causing so much angst.

Here is the board I was referring to in this thread,

https://www.electronicspoint.com/forums/threads/circuit-board-coding.292865/

Apologies if anyone got upset.

 

[Bluejets]

Pics too small to see any detail.

Pretty simple when placing a query is to provide as much info as you can.
You can see what you have but we cannot.
What may seem irrelevant to you may be an important point.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Sorry- I did not realize that providing a description and not a picture was causing so much angst.

It is not about "angst", but the old adage is true: a picture is worth a 1000 words.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Pics too small to see any detail.

@SparkyCal : See our resource how to improve the quality of your photos.

 

[hevans1944]

Pics too small to see any detail.

On my laptop running Windows 10 Professional, holding down the "CTRL SHIFT +" keys (three keys) simultaneously causes the image to enlarge each time the "+" key is released and pressed again... up to a maximum of eight presses. Doing this still does not reveal much about the markings on the prototyping board, although some detail is revealed. Poor photography to go along with the poor written description. GIGO effect in full force here in this thread. <sigh>

Anyhoo, the prototype board is what it is. If the OP doesn't like it, take the advice posted on the other thread (now closed by a moderator) and have one made to your liking. Avoid buying anything from China without vetting the vendor and the product. And be aware that what you order today may not be the same as what will be delivered tomorrow, or that what your ordered and received last week was the same as what you think you are ordering today. It's a crap shoot when ordering anything from Asian vendors, and no bargain at any price if what you get doesn't meet your expectations.

 

[bertus]

Hello,

There must be an production failure on the board:



Bertus

 

[davenn]

Hello,

There must be an production failure on the board:


Bertus

which is what I and others suggested in the other thread

 

[SparkyCal]

Once again, sorry for the issues. I have taken new photos. To illustrate my point:

You will notice there is a resister lead on K1.

You would think that if I flipped the board around and found K1, it would match up to that very same lead. But it does not. You will noticed that K1 on the flip side is vacant.

Someone described my post as more of a rant. In a way, it was. I guess I was asking, is there any logic top presenting a board in this way? Would it not make more sense to design it so that if I flipped the bpoard and looked at K1, it would have the same resistor lead?

 

[SparkyCal]

I guess it is an error in production , because I have other boards that do not have this issue. Being new to electronics, I just wanted to know if this truly was an issue, or if there was any logic behind it that I was missing.

P.S. Thanks for your patience. I do appreciate everyone on this board and it was not my intention to cause an issue.

 

[hevans1944]

If you have any more of these prototyping boards, I have an elegant solution to your dilemma: take a small piece of fine sandpaper and remove the lettering from one side of the board. Your choice as to which side, but I suggest that you "fix" all the boards at the same time, and remove the lettering from the same side on all of them.

If you really wanna do a "professional looking" job, use an ink-jet or a laser printer to make a strip of paper with your very own terminal descriptions (use a mouse-print sized type font) and glue that onto the board. Spray paint a coat of clear Krylon on the paper after gluing it to the board. I did this on a couple of projects when I had a day job and they really looked spiffy when I finished them. Today, I would just take a couple of nice photos (like you just posted!) and add comments, text explanations, arrows pointing to gazintas and gazoutas, that sort of thing, using Microsoft Paint program.

 

[SparkyCal]

Thank-you. I have a number of boards that are included as part of electronic kits I have ordered. Thus, they are all slightly different. Soem have the problem I have described, while others do not. To be honest, it is not a big problem. I was just wondering about the "why" . Thanks to everyone.

 

[hevans1944]

I was just wondering about the "why" .

Wonder no more! I used to purchase prototyping boards from an electronics distributor that offered name-brand, made in the U. S. of A., fully documented boards... I could go to the manufacturer's website and download a spec sheet showing exactly how the board I ordered would look on both sides. Fine business, that, especially for the more complicated boards like PC expansion slot boards. Only down side was the boards were not cheap.

Then, wouldn't you know it, after years of the Government telling us how bad the Communist China mainland government was (Taiwan still had a seat in the United Nations then, representing China) President Nixon opened up mainland China to trade with us and the world. At the time everyone thought that was the only "good idea" that Tricky Dicky ever had. It took awhile, but eventually the almighty dollar prevailed and manufacturing migrated to China, where costs were signficantly lower than equivalent facilities in the USA. There are huge cultural and language differences between China the rest of the world, so it is inevitable that some misunderstandings will occur, and that these will never be "corrected" because it isn't profitable to do so.

 

[bertus]

Hello,

Sparkfun has good quality prototyping boards in all kind of sizes and shapes:
https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/149?filter_option[subcategory][]=category_301&filter_price_floor=&filter_price_ceil=

For even more choices have a look at newark:
https://canada.newark.com/c/tools-p.../prototyping-boards?searchref=searchlookahead

Bertus

 

[hevans1944]

Back in the day, Vector Electronics was always my "go to" source for prototyping materials. Reliable products, well manufactured, mostly affordable if it could be charged to a customer's contract. Then (I don't remember when) other manufacturers entered the game with mostly good products that sold for waaay less than Vector products. I bought of few prototyping boards from Radio Shack that were marginally acceptable, although none with plated-thru holes and just enough copper to solder onto component leads. It went downhill from there as far as imported boards were concerned. Lately, the Chinese PCB factories have reversed the downward quality trend, but they can only make what the PCB designer gives them for artwork and instructions on how to apply it. Best bet is to design your own and have a few dozen made for you. The price is really reasonable now.