Help with Wire Wrapping

[bugmenot]

I'd like to take some of my projects off of breadboard, and into something more permanent. For various reasons, I can't solder, so I'd like to Wire Wrap. But I need some help:

1. Where can I get a Wire Wrap board which doesn't need sockets glued into it? The Art of Electronics has a picture of one of these, but I can't find them anywhere.

2. What about things which don't fit into sockets, such as jacks or potentiometers?

3. What holds the sockets into the board? Do I need to glue them on? What about discrete pins?

 

[chemelec]

I'd like to take some of my projects off of breadboard, and into something more permanent. For various reasons, I can't solder, so I'd like to Wire Wrap. But I need some help:

1. Where can I get a Wire Wrap board which doesn't need sockets glued into it? The Art of Electronics has a picture of one of these, but I can't find them anywhere.

2. What about things which don't fit into sockets, such as jacks or potentiometers?

3. What holds the sockets into the board? Do I need to glue them on? What about discrete pins?

Wire Wrapping went by the wayside YEARS AGO.

Why Can't you Solder it?
More Info would help!

 

[Mikebits]

A company called Vector has the boards you need. They also have the pins you need. see data sheet.
https://www.vectorelect.com/Catpdf/New%20Page%2075.pdf
Most of this stuff can be ordered through digikey. Wire wrapping takes time to master and initial investment can set you back a bit. You might want to reconsider soldering.

 

[Snaz]

we had to wire wrap in college, and MANN what a pain. especially if you're using 14 pin or more IC sockets. it took us 55 hours of actual wire wrap and i swore never again lol

 

[3v0]

Given the cost and unreliability of WW I suggest leaving the designs on the solderless BB.

 

[mike50]

Wire wrap is far more reliable than solderless breadboards and, in fact, has been shown to be more reliable than solder joints too. I use it for prototyping a lot and I find it is not much more work than using a solderless breadboard.

 

[saturn1bguy]

WW is so reliable, in fact that's how the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer) went to the moon.

One doesn't need boards that sockets stick to. Any board will do. One "seats" the socket with the first wire wrap, or with a wire wrap dedicated to that function, which can then be removed once a few wires have been attached. Too many people have a bad experience with WW because they've lost the art of it, or were taught improperly. For example, people daisy-chain their wires, which is a bad way to go. If done correctly never more than three wires need be removed to change the circuit.

 

[3v0]

Maybe when using top quality gold plated pins WW works well.

My experiance and that of the people I know has not been good.
A few connections go bad over time. It is not a large sample and
it was with sockets that students could afford a longb time ago.

FWIW the AGC had a very short active life

Each his own.

 

[k7elp60]

I have done a lot of wire wrapping. I usually solder the 4 corner pins of IC sockets just to hold them in place. I wrap 30 guage wire on resistor leads, capacitor lead, LED's etc. I have some projects that were built over 10 years ago that were mostly WW and they still function normally to date.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I've done my share of ww. Very reliable but the sockets are not cheap or very common anymore. I still use the tiny stripper and do point to point soldering on protoboards.

 

[saturn1bguy]

Maybe when using top quality gold plated pins WW works well.

Gold is a must.

FWIW the AGC had a very short active life

But had to be the most reliable machine ever made given its mission to bring three people back and endure the incredible jolting and rumbling of liftoff. They chose WW because of the reliability, that's the fact.

If people don't like it, they don't have to use it

 

[saturn1bguy]

I wrap 30 guage wire on resistor leads, capacitor lead, LED's etc. I have some projects that were built over 10 years ago that were mostly WW and they still function normally to date.

That's bit of luck, there, IMHO. WW's reliability comes from the square pins the wire bites into. Wire wrapping round component leads is much less desirable. Usually such components as Rs and Cs are fitted into IC WW sockets, sealed with GLPT, or equiv, and then wrapped.

 

[ampedtech]

Wire wrap is very robust and dependable. In fact a correctly done wire wrap has less oxidation than a solder joint.
Wire wrap was used (and still in flight) on the BOEING 747-400. There is a rack with thousands of connections in the "electronics bay" of that airplane. This not the same system you seek. All the pins are permanently mounted and no components are installed on this system. It is only for point to point wire connection.

answers to your questions:
The sockets and individual pins snap into place. Individual pins will deal with items that do not go into sockets. The frictional holding of pins and sockets is relatively easy to over come so if your project is going to get banged around much you need to deal with it. Try hot glue. Don't know where to get items. One of the draw backs to ww is changing a connection particularly, if there are several wraps on above the one you want to change. Almost all my projects are solded.

 

[saturn1bguy]

but the sockets are not cheap or very common anymore

True.

Gold 103WW sockets (three-level) are the way to go here, but harder and harder to find. It's a perfectly workable prototyping solution given one has the tools, materials, and know-how.

 

[3v0]

I stand corrected. Must have been the student grade (budget) parts we were using.

When it comes to prototyping everyone has to find his own path. If you have a method that works for you, great.

Personaly I do not hand wire boards because I enjoy PCB layout. I do not expect the first rev to be perfect in any way. But it does provide a lot of info that can be usedon the next.

When I hand wired my boards I found it difficult to pick up a project that had been sitting idle for a while. Mostly a lack of good documentation on my part. One of the nice things about doing a PCB is that I always have a good working schematic that I can match to the PCB by rev number.

3v0

 

[Mikebits]

I have done a lot of wire wrapping. I usually solder the 4 corner pins of IC sockets just to hold them in place. I wrap 30 guage wire on resistor leads, capacitor lead, LED's etc. I have some projects that were built over 10 years ago that were mostly WW and they still function normally to date.

If you use the correct type of WW vector boards and sockets, you should not need to solder the 4 corners of the socket as it should press fit into place.

I have WW a great deal of boards in the past using a powered WW gun and the boards were very rugged. Hand wrappers do not seem to be so robust.

It is also common with WW boards to use one side of the board as +V and other side as gnd which you solder the pins to the plane. This adds to reliability and signal integrity.