
“Dead bug style” circuit wiring is the cute name for soldering together components without a printed circuit board. The “dead bug” is the integrated circuit flipped upside down with its “legs” sticking up.
Over at the Dangerous Prototypes forum, a maker shows off his dead bug skills, which he used to solder a Little Wire:
My level of boredom was not enough to actually etch a PCB for it so I did a freeform version of it. With a fine tip on the soldering iron, 0.4 mm solder, a stereo microscope and a hour or two of soldering and bending wires even an old fart like me can get the parts together without a PCB.
(A Little Wire is a USBtiny compatible AVR programmer.)


This style of circuit building is also known as “ugly construction,” but that name certainly wouldn’t apply here. Excellent work.
I have a bunch of SMD Attiny85s that I can’t figure out how to program. This is very impressive.
While the style certainly looks neat, never underestimate the utility of a ground plane. (Something I’ve learned the hard way with op-amps suddenly oscillating out of control without one.)
err.. plain. Sorry, it’s late, spelling goes to heck.
ack. had it right the first time, and no way to delete my ‘correction’?
Doesn’t matter, we still love you.
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