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I am using protoboards for the first time, and I can't seem to get the circuits I am making on them to work. I would have no problem getting these circuits working on a breadboard, but for some reason (bad soldering?) it's just not working on the perfboard.

This is a pretty simple circuit I am trying to make using a Teensy 3.2 Arduinolike microcontroller. It uses four push button switches, each of which have a pin connected to the same ground line. This ground line is connected to one of the outer pads on the protoboard. There are four wires each connected to a pad and to a switch.

I then connect the ground pad to the negative rail on the breadboard by Teensy is sitting on, and connect each of the four wires to a data pin on the Teensy. I then run code that detects each button press, however none of the buttons are working. Any ideas just from my pictures on why I am not getting any connections? Do the external pads on the protoboard not conduct on either side of the board?

I won't have access to a multimeter until tomorrow.

front of board back of board

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What does the other side of the board look like? \$\endgroup\$
    – Ron Beyer
    Jan 27, 2022 at 3:12

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It looks like you are soldering your jumper wires onto the pads at the edge of the board on the top side, and expecting them to feed through to the bottom side. I don't believe that the top pads are connected to the bottom ones, and you will need to solder the wires to the bottom side where the other wires are soldered.

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The vias (with the holes) do connect front to back. However the pads at the edge (without holes) do not connect front to back. Your off-board wires are on the wrong side of the board.

Another problem is that the switch terminals you've connected are both on the same side of the switch (electrically speaking). These switches aren't square. The actual switch mechanism connects the two long sides together.

If you connected opposite corners of the switch, instead of terminals that share an edge, then it would work.

Omron B3F-1000 is a typical example of this type of pushbutton switch:

https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/307/en-b3f-13826.pdf

enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ just connect diagonal pins and the switch will always be connected correctly \$\endgroup\$
    – jsotola
    Jan 27, 2022 at 8:10

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