aha! Thank you. This gives me a start. Is it just personal preference on prototype boards vs. hot glue vs. soldering?
Learn to solder, it's fun and easy. I really like this vintage PACE electronics series, and learned a lot from it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIT4ra6Mo0s&list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837 . The main problem with soldering is buying a solder iron that's not the $15 crappy ones. This Hakko is what most people seem to have, it's a great station for the price. https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station/dp/B00ANZRT4M
If you aren't going to solder, check into posi-locks. I use them for quick prototypes, but they'll hang in there for lots of uses. https://www.ebay.com/itm/293853836834 . Or, use solder seals. These things can save you a ton of time in some situations, when you're just doing a few connectors per unit, or your big connectors to the power supply. These things are bulletproof. https://www.amazon.com/VOLT-Connectors-Soldering-Connector-Terminals/dp/B07DRDWFDB There are a surprisingly large number of no-solder connections - there's a great one I found just last year that's like a 5-way splitter, great for your power or ground planes, has meant I don't need to put together a board in a couple of small builds.
But realistically you'll need to do some soldering to even just attach some wires to the board, so you can use these no-solder technologies after that. Buying a bundle of male-female 4-pin JSTs solves a lot of that, you can do the one solder to the board, then everything else is solderless.
Besides breadboard, you can also get perfboard. I tend to build first on a real breadboard with jumpers, then put together a few units on a perfboard, then if I'm going to make more than 4 or 5 of something, pull down Eagle and send something off to OshPark.
One thing: I find invaluable having "buck converters". Here's an aliexpress link but you can find them lots of places. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32708810351.html This allows you to standardize on a certain voltage power supply, or pick the power supply your LEDs are running at, then step down to 5v or 3.3v. For example if you use 5v LEDs but want to use a mix of 3.3v and 5v parts, or I buy nothing but 12v power supplies now and just step everything down to 3.3v or 5v or both, depending.
You can find little "project boxes" to put it all together. There's something called "conformal coating" you can apply to a board to make it waterproof, if you want to go that way like for a wearable, and minimize whether you even have a box. If you have a 3d printer, learn to make little boxes - you can print standoff and whatever you need for holes, if you get even half decent at design. The free copy of Fusion360 and a $200 printer will get you a long way but you'll go down the rabbit hole of 3d printing :-)
You also might reconsider using arduino-qua-arduino. With ESP32's running between $4 (chinese sourced) and $11 (american sourced espressif manufactured), and supporting the Arduino software environment, I find it hard to use those stupid large arduino boards (I guess they have micros but they're still big!). There are some great ARM CORTEX dev boards too - besides adafruit and sparkfun (which tend to be a little pricy) there are lots of choices (like small ones with good battery support Tinypico) and slightly larger more bare bones ones (ESP32-PICO-D4).
Good luck, it's a big jump.
Just a fair warning, the random cheapo soldering irons that just plug the wand directly into the wall are shit. It will be hell trying to solder large components like keyboard switches.
If you expect to do soldering in the future aside from this project, I would buy something with a discrete power station or even a low end Hakko model. If you get a soldering iron that costs less than $50, you are probably going to have a bad time.
Now, if this is the only thing you think you will need soldered for a long time, you could walk into the Makerspace and pay one of the student employees to do it for you. A bunch of the same components soldered over and over should only be what, 1-2 hours work? (I'm assuming you didn't design your own control board that needs a bunch of tiny components soldered on.)
TS100 is great and portable. But if you don't care about portable, The Hakko FX888D is better.
I don't know about the Sywon but the x-tronic will fall apart (they use plastic that is not heat safe to screw on the element body) and the weller is "alright" but nowhere near good.
Hakko makes good irons you can buy once and use forever. You want an iron with temperature control, not just a dial.
This Hakko soldering station has served me well
Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station FX-888D FX-888 (blue & yellow) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ANZRT4M/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_AX3S9HPX6QEE82XEGQCD
In the list is a Pinecil that works on USB power (high amperage though).
If you want a station, can't really go wrong with the Hakko FX888D https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station/dp/B00ANZRT4M/
There are some other cheaper Chinese made soldering/hot air stations that would allow you to do more surface mount stuff but I couldn't suggest one.
Temp control is the way. BIG difference if all you've used was the rat shack 25-35w pencils. Worth the money IMO.
I know it's a little pricey, but this is what I was HIGHLY RECOMMEND over anything cheaper even though there are some good cheaper irons, this one is pretty top tier and definitely going to last you for basically any soldering project you're ever going to have.
One of my first ones was this budget one, and it was pretty awesome.
I love you and i love almost everything from Japan 😆 this one?
Damn man that TS100 looks dope! I didbt know they had thin, "smart" soldering irons like that! I actually have a tactile Z button and planned on doing the mod soon. Do you know if the TS100 would work for that (and wires) in general? I was originally recommended a solder station like this.
It seems some of the solder stations also have hot air rework built in which would be nice for removing solder.. but damn are they bulky, ugly and pricey.
That TS100 looks really convenient. Plus firmware updates? Awesome. Hopefully it could work for rewiring and such as well. I wonder if that's a better choice than a solder station.