CHAPTER 23 ■ THE MOTHERBOARDPlacing Components with a Helping Hand
- Place the board on a Helping Hand tool (see Figure 23-4).
Figure 23-4. Helping Hands makes laying out a circuit board much easier
- Highly Recommended: Test components with a multimeter before placing them
on the breadboard. This gives you a sense of confidence in their quality and
values before permanently soldering them in place. At the very least, measure
the trimpots and center them to their middle resistance.
■ Note After being soldered into a circuit, it isn’t always possible to accurately measure the resistance or
diode test the individual components using a multimeter. This is due to the fact that the components to which
they are connected may loop back electricity to the opposite multimeter test probe, thus skewing values.
- Lay out the components onto the breadboard (see Figure 23-5). Try to place
components so that they are nearest the other components to which they will
connect. This reduces the length of the wires and reduces the number of wires
that cross over each other.
Example Layout
A suggested layout appears in Figure 23-5. Notice that the LEDs are distributed on the far sides to increase
visibility. The comparator is in the center flanked by transistors because the comparator connects to the
greatest number of components. The brightness balancing and headlight brightness-adjusting trimpots are
far forward to make them easy to reach from the front of the robot.