Review
A simple power supply circuit on a stripboard


The Potentials button is handy for checking the connections. It shows all of the PCB tracks carrying the same signal in the same color. This makes it easy to see which tracks are joined together by jumpers. You can also quickly see whether something is connected to the wrong track.
 
The program comes with more than twenty standard board layouts with different configurations and dimensions Three breadboard configurations are also included, so you can use LochMaster for circuits built on breadboards. A layout for the popular Elex prototyping board from Elektor is also available in various sizes. And of course you can also make your own layouts.
 
On our request, Abacom even created a layout for the new Elektor Labs Prototyping Board - New Generation (ELPB-NG), which is available as a download from the Abacom LochMaster forum. That brings us to one of the limitations of LochMaster: it is not designed to be used with double-sided prototyping boards such as ELPB-NG. With them you have to personally keep track of the connections between the front and back sides of the board and the Potentials button is not especially helpful. However, double-sided prototyping boards are not widely used at present. Maybe Abacom could add this functionality in a future version.
 
In any case, LochMaster is a handy program for all sorts of ordinary prototyping boards. It is easy to use and helpful for building relatively small circuits, especially if you do not have a lot of experience in this area.