Breadboard (solderless circuit board) is one of the main tools for both those learning the basics of circuit design and professionals.
In this article you will get acquainted with where and how to use breadboard and what they are. After familiarizing yourself with the given basics, you will be able to assemble your own electrical circuit using a solderless breadboard.
Historical excursion
In the early 1960s, chip prototyping looked something like this:
Installed on the platform metal racks, on which the conductors were wound. The prototyping process was quite long and complex. But humanity does not stand still and a more elegant approach was invented: Carefree breadboards!
If you know that bread is translated as bread, and board is a board, then one of the associations that may arise when mentioning the word breadboard is wooden stand, on which bread is sliced (as in the picture below). In principle, you are not far from the truth.
So where did this name come from - breadboard? Many years ago when electronic components were large and awkward, many "do-it-yourselfers" assembled circuits in their "garages" using bread-slicing stands (an example is shown in the picture below).
Gradually, electronic components became smaller and it was possible to reduce prototyping to the use of more or less standard conductors, connectors and microcircuits. The approach has changed somewhat, but the name has migrated.
Breadboard is a solderless circuit board. This is a great platform for developing prototypes or temporary circuits without the need for a soldering iron and all the hassle and time-consuming desoldering that comes with it.
Prototyping is the process of developing and testing a model of your future device. If you don't know how your device will behave under certain specified conditions, it is better to first create a prototype and test its performance.
Solderless circuit boards are used both for creating simple electrical circuits and for complex prototypes.
Another area of application for breadboards is testing new parts and components - for example, microcircuits (ICs).
As mentioned above, the electrical circuit you create may well change and this is the main advantage of using solderless circuit boards. For example, at any time you can include an additional LED in the circuit, which will respond to certain conditions in your circuit. The figure below shows an example of a circuit diagram for testing the functionality of the Atmega chip, which is used in Arduino Uno boards.
“Anatomy of solderless circuit boards”
The best way to explain exactly how a breadboard works is to figure out what the board looks like from the inside. Let's look at the example of a miniature board.
The picture below shows a breadboard with the base at the bottom removed. As you can see, rows are installed on the board metal plates.
Each metal plate looks like the figure below. That is, it is not just a plate, but a plate with clips that are hidden in the plastic part of the circuit board. It is into these clips that you connect your wires.
That is, as soon as you connect a conductor to one of the holes in a separate row, this contact will be simultaneously connected to the other contacts in a separate row.
Please note that there are five clips on one rail. This is the generally accepted standard. Most solderless circuit boards are implemented this way. That is, you can connect up to five components inclusive to a separate rail on the breadboard and they will be interconnected. But there are ten holes in a row on the board!? Why are we limited to five pins? You probably noticed that in the center The circuit board has a separate rail without pins? This rail isolates the plates from each other. Why this is done, we will look at a little later. For now, it is important to remember that the rails are isolated from each other and we are limited to five connected pins, not ten.
The picture below shows an LED mounted on a solderless circuit board. Note that the two LED legs are mounted on insulated parallel rails. As a result, there will be no contact closure.
Let's now look at the breadboard large sizes. On such boards, as a rule, two vertically located rails are provided. The so-called power rails.
These rails are similar in design to horizontal ones, but are connected to each other along the entire length. When developing a project, you often need power for many components. It is these rails that are used for power supply. They are usually marked with "+" and "-" and two different colors- red and blue. As a rule, the rails are connected to each other to get the same power on both sides of the breadboard (see the figure below). By the way, there is no need to connect the plus specifically to the rail marked “+”, this is only a hint that will help you structure your project.
Center rail without contacts (for DIP chips)
A pinless center rail insulates the two sides of the solderless circuit board. Besides insulation, this rail has a second important function. Most integrated circuits (ICs) are manufactured in standard sizes. In order for them to take up minimal space on the circuit board, a special form factor called Dual in-line Package, or DIP for short, is used.
For DIP microcircuits, the contacts are located on two sides and fit perfectly on two rails in the center of the breadboard. It is in this case that contact insulation is an excellent option, which allows you to route each contact of the microcircuit onto a separate rail with five contacts.
The figure below shows the installation of two DIP chips. Above is the LM358, below is the ATMega328 microcontroller, which is used in many Arduino boards.
Rows and Columns (horizontal and vertical rails)
You've probably noticed that solderless circuit boards have numbers and letters near the rows (horizontal rails) and columns (vertical rails). These markings are provided for convenience only. The prototypes of your devices very quickly become overgrown with additional components, and one connection error leads to inoperability electrical diagram or even failure of individual components. It is much easier to connect a contact to a rail, which is marked with a number and a letter, than to count the contacts “by eye”.
In addition, many instructions also indicate the rail numbers, which makes assembling your circuit much easier. But do not forget that even if you use the instructions, the contact numbers on the breadboard do not have to match!
Pegs on breadboards
Some circuit boards are made on a separate stand on which special pegs are installed. These pegs are used to connect a power source to your breadboard. These breadboards are discussed in more detail below.
Other features
When you're designing an electrical circuit, you don't have to limit yourself to just one breadboard. Many circuit boards have special slots and protrusions on the sides. Using these slots, you can connect several breadboards and form what you need working space. The picture below shows four mini breadboards connected together.
Some solderless circuit boards have a self-adhesive backing on the back. A very useful feature if you want to reliably install a breadboard on some surface.
On some large breadboards, the vertical rails to which power is supplied consist of two parts isolated from each other. It is very convenient if your project needs two different power sources: for example, 3.3 V and 5 V. But you need to be extremely careful and before using the breadboard, connect one power source and check the voltage at the two ends of the vertical rail using a multimeter.
We supply power to the breadboard
There are different ways to supply power to the breadboard.
If you are working with Arduino, you can connect the 5V (3.3V) and Gnd pins to two different breadboard rails. The picture below shows the connection of the Gnd pin from the Arduino to the mini breadboard rail.
Typically, the Arduino is powered by USB port on a computer or from an external power source, which we can supply to the breadboard rail.
Solderless circuit boards with pegs
It was already mentioned above that some circuit boards have pins for connecting an external power source.
To get started, you need to connect the pegs to the rails on the breadboard "e using conductors. The pegs are not connected to any one rail, which gives you room to maneuver: which rail to supply power and ground to.
To connect the wire to the peg, unscrew the plastic cap and place the end of the wire into the hole (see photo below). After this, screw the cap back on.
Typically, you will need two pegs: one for power and one for ground. The third peg can be used if you need it alternative source nutrition.
The pegs are connected to the rails, but that's not the end. Now we need to connect external source nutrition. There are several options.
You can use special jacks, as shown in the photo below.
You can use "crocodiles" and even ordinary conductors. Depends entirely on your preferences and the parts you have available.
One of the fairly universal options is to solder the contacts on the jack for your power source and connect the wires to the pegs, as shown below.
You can also use special power stabilizer modules, which are produced for solderless circuit boards. Some modules make it possible to power the breadboard from a USB port, some are made with standard jacks for power supplies. Most of these power stabilizer modules provide voltage regulation. For example, you can select the voltage that will go to the rail: 3.3 V or 5 V. One of the options for such voltage regulator/stabilizer modules is shown in the figure below.
Simple circuit using solderless circuit board
We've covered the basics of working with a solderless circuit board. Let's look at an example of a simple electrical circuit in which we will use a breadboard.
Below is a list of nodes that will be needed for our chain. If you do not have these exact parts, you can replace them with similar ones. Don't forget: the same electrical circuit can be assembled using different components.
- Breadboard
- Voltage regulator/stabilizer
- power unit
- LEDs
- Resistors 330 Ohm 1/6 W
- Connectors
- Tact buttons (12 mm square)
Assembling an electrical circuit
A photo of the assembled electrical circuit using a solderless circuit board is shown below. The project uses two buttons, resistors and LEDs. Please note that two similar circuits are assembled differently.
The red board on the left is a voltage stabilizer that provides 5V power to the breadboard rails.
The circuit is assembled as follows:
- The positive leg (anode) of the LED is connected to 5 V power from the corresponding breadboard rail.
- The negative leg (cathode) of the LED is connected to a 330 Ohm resistor.
- The resistor is connected to the clock button.
- When the button is pressed, the circuit is completed to ground and the LED lights up.
When prototyping, it is important to understand electrical circuits. Let's take a quick look at the electrical diagram of our small electrical circuit.
An electrical diagram is a schematic diagram that uses universal symbols for individual electrical components and shows the sequence in which they are connected. Similar electrical circuits can be obtained using the Fritzing program.
The electrical circuit of our project is shown in the figure below. The 5V supply is represented by the arrow at the top of the diagram. 5V is connected to the LED (triangle and horizontal line with arrows). After this, the LED is connected to a resistor (R1). After this, a button (S1) is installed, which closes the circuit. And at the end of the chain is the ground (Gnd is the horizontal line from below).
Surely the question arises: why do we need electrical circuits if we can simply create a wiring diagram using the same Fritzing? For example, like in a similar picture:
As mentioned above, you can assemble the same circuit in different ways, but the electrical circuit diagram will remain the same. That is, practical implementation may differ, which gives you space for imagination and a more general understanding of the processes that occur in your project.
The one that gave birth to the holivar in the comments. Many Arduino supporters, according to them, just want to assemble something like flashing LEDs in order to diversify their leisure time and play around. At the same time, they don’t want to bother with etching boards and soldering. As one of the alternatives, my friend mentioned the “Connoisseur” designer, but its capabilities are limited by the set of parts included in the kit, and the designer is still for children. I want to offer another alternative - the so-called Breadboard, a breadboard for mounting without soldering.
Be careful, there are a lot of photos.
What is it and what is it eaten with?
The main purpose of such a board is the design and debugging of prototypes various devices. Consists of this device from socket holes with a pitch of 2.54 mm (0.1 inches), it is with this pitch (or a multiple of it) that the pins are located on most modern radio components (SMD does not count). There are breadboards various sizes, but in most cases they consist of the following identical blocks:Scheme electrical connections nests is shown in the right figure: five holes on each side, in each of the rows (in in this case 30) are electrically connected to each other. On the left and right there are two power lines: here all the holes in the column are connected to each other. The slot in the middle is designed for installation and convenient removal of chips in DIP packages. To assemble the circuit, radio components and jumpers are inserted into the holes, since I received the board without factory jumpers - I made them from metal paper clips, and small ones (for connecting adjacent nests) from staples for a stapler.
It may seem that the larger the board, the greater its functionality, but this is not entirely true. There is a very small chance that someone (especially a beginner) will assemble a device that will occupy all segments of the board; here are several devices at the same time - yes. For example, here I assembled an electronic ignition on a microcontroller, a transistor-based multivibrator and a frequency generator for an LC meter: 
So what can you do about it?
To justify the title of the article, I will present several devices. A description of what needs to be inserted and where will be in the images.Necessary parts
In order to assemble one of the circuits described below, you will need the Breadboard type breadboard itself and a set of jumpers. In addition, it is advisable to have a suitable power source, in the simplest case - a battery(s); for the convenience of connecting it (them), it is recommended to use a special container. You can also use a power supply, but in this case you need to be careful and try not to burn anything, since a power supply is much more expensive than batteries. The remaining details will be given in the description of the circuit itself.
LED connection
One of the simplest designs. On circuit diagrams depicted like this:
The parts you will need are: a low-power LED, any 300 Ohm-1 kOhm resistor and a 4.5-5 V power supply. In my case, the resistor is a powerful Soviet one (the first one that came to hand) at 430 Ohm (as evidenced by the inscription K43 on the resistor itself), and as a power source - 3 AA batteries in a container: total 1.5V * 3 = 4, 5V.
On the board it looks like this:
The batteries are connected to the red (+) and black (-) terminals from which jumpers extend to the power lines. Then a resistor is connected from the negative line to sockets No. 18, on the other hand, an LED is connected to the same sockets with the cathode (short leg). The LED anode is connected to the positive line. I won’t go into the principle of operation of the circuit and explain Ohm’s law - if you just want to play around, then this is not necessary, but if you are still interested, then you can.
Linear voltage stabilizer
This may be a rather abrupt transition - from LEDs to microcircuits, but in terms of implementation, I don’t see any difficulties.So, there is such a microcircuit LM7805 (or simply 7805), any voltage from 7.5V to 25V is supplied to its input, and the output is 5V. There are others, for example, microcircuit 7812 - 12V. Here is her connection diagram:
Capacitors are used to stabilize the voltage and can be omitted if desired. This is what it looks like in real life:
And close up:
The numbering of the microcircuit pins goes from left to right when looking at it from the marking side. In the photo, the numbering of the microcircuit pins coincides with the numbering of the bradboard connectors. The red terminal (+) is connected to the 1st leg of the microcircuit - input. The black terminal (-) is directly connected to the negative power line. The middle leg of the microcircuit (Common, GND) is also connected to the negative line, and the 3rd leg (Output) to the positive line. Now, if you apply 12V to the terminals, there should be 5V on the power lines. If you don’t have a 12V power source, you can take a 9V Krona battery and connect it through the special connector shown in the photo above. I used a 12V power supply:
Regardless of the value of the input voltage, if it lies within the above limits, the output voltage will be 5V:
Finally, let's add capacitors so that everything is in accordance with the rules:
Pulse generator based on logical elements
And now an example of using a different microcircuit, and not in its most standard application. The 74HC00 or 74HCT00 microcircuit is used; depending on the manufacturer, there may be different letters before and after the name. Domestic analogue - K155LA3. Inside this microcircuit there are 4 logical elements “NAND” (English “NAND”), each of the elements has two inputs, by closing them together we get the “NOT” element. But in this case, the logic elements will be used in “analog mode”. The generator circuit is as follows:
Elements DA1.1 and DA1.2 generate a signal, and DA1.3 and DA1.4 form clear rectangles. The frequency of the generator is determined by the values of the capacitor and resistor and is calculated by the formula: f=1/(2RC). We connect any speaker to the output of the generator. If we take a 5.6 kOhm resistor and a 33 nF capacitor, we get approximately 2.7 kHz - a kind of squeaking sound. This is what it looks like:
The power lines at the top in the photo are connected to 5V from the previously assembled voltage stabilizer. For ease of assembly, I will give a verbal description of the connections. Left half of the segment (bottom in the photo):
The capacitor is installed in slots No. 1 and No. 6;
Resistor - No. 1 and No. 5;
No. 1 and No. 2;
No. 3 and No. 4;
No. 4 and No. 5;
No. 2 and No. 3;
No. 3 and No. 7;
No. 5 and No. 6;
No. 1 and “plus” nutrition;
No. 4 and “plus” dynamics;
Besides:
The microcircuit is installed as in the photo - the first leg in the first connector of the left half. The first leg of the microcircuit can be identified by the so-called key - a circle (as in the photo) or a semicircular cutout at the end. The remaining IC legs in DIP packages are numbered counterclockwise.
If everything is assembled correctly, the speaker should beep when power is applied. By changing the values of the resistor and capacitor, you can track changes in frequency, but if the resistance is very high and/or the capacitance is too small, the circuit will not work.
Now let's change the resistor value to 180 kOhm, and the capacitor to 1 μF - we get a clicking-ticking sound. Let's replace the speaker with an LED by connecting the anode (long leg) to the 4th connector of the right rug, and the cathode through a 300 Ohm-1 kOhm resistor to the power supply negative, we get a flashing LED that looks like this:
Now let’s add another similar generator so that we get the following circuit:
The generator on DA1 generates a low-frequency signal of ~3Hz, DA2.1 - DA2.3 - a high-frequency signal of ~2.7 kHz, DA2.4 is a modulator that mixes them. This is what the design should look like:
Description of connections:
Left half of the segment (bottom in the photo):
Capacitor C1 is installed in slots No. 1 and No. 6;
Capacitor C2 - No. 11 and No. 16;
Resistor R1 - No. 1 and No. 5;
Resistor R2 - No. 11 and No. 15;
Jumpers are installed between the following sockets:
No. 1 and No. 2;
No. 3 and No. 4;
No. 4 and No. 5;
No. 11 and No. 12;
No. 13 and No. 14;
No. 14 and No. 15;
No. 7 and the negative power line.
No. 17 and the negative power line.
Right half of the segment (top in the photo):
jumpers are installed between the following sockets:
No. 2 and No. 3;
No. 3 and No. 7;
No. 5 and No. 6;
No. 4 and No. 15;
No. 12 and No. 13;
No. 12(13) and No. 17;
No. 1 and “plus” nutrition;
No. 11 and “plus” nutrition;
No. 14 and “plus” dynamics;
Besides:
jumpers between connectors No. 6 of the left and right halves;
jumpers between connectors No. 16 of the left and right halves;
- between the left and right “minus” lines;
- between the power minus and the “-” dynamics;
The DA1 chip is installed in the same way as in the previous case - the first leg into the first connector of the left half. The second microcircuit is placed with the first leg in connector No. 11.
If everything is done correctly, then when power is applied, the speaker will begin to emit three peaks every second. If you connect an LED to the same connectors (in parallel), observing the polarity, you will get a device that sounds like cool electronic gizmos from equally cool action movies:
Transistor multivibrator
This circuit is rather a tribute to tradition, since in the old days almost every beginning radio amateur assembled a similar one.
In order to assemble something like this, you will need 2 BC547 transistors, 2 1.2 kOhm resistors, 2 310 Ohm resistors, 2 22 μF electrolytic capacitors and two LEDs. Capacitances and resistances do not have to be observed exactly, but it is desirable that the circuit have two identical values.
On the board the device looks like this:
The transistor pinout is as follows:
B(B)-base, C(K)-collector, E(E)-emitter.
For capacitors, the negative output is marked on the body (in Soviet capacitors it was signed “+”).
Description of connections
The entire circuit is assembled on one (left) half of the segment.
Resistor R1 - No. 11 and "+";
resistor R2 - No. 19 and "+";
resistor R3 - No. 9 and No. 3;
resistor R4 - No. 21 and No. 25;
transistor T2 - emitter - No. 7, base - No. 8, collector - No. 9;
transistor T1 - emitter - No. 23, base - No. 22, collector - No. 21;
capacitor C1 - minus - No. 11, plus - No. 9;
capacitor C2 - minus - No. 19, plus - No. 21;
LED LED1 - cathode-No. 3, anode-"+";
LED LED1 - cathode-No. 25, anode-"+";
jumpers:
№8 - №19;
№11 - №22;
№7 - "-";
№23 - "-";
When you apply a voltage of 4.5-12V to the power line, you should get something like this:
Finally
First of all, the article is aimed at those who want to “play around”, so I did not provide descriptions of the operating principles of the circuits, physical laws, etc. If anyone asks the question “why is it blinking?” - on the Internet you can find heaps of explanations with animations and other beauties. Some may say that a bradboard is not suitable for drawing up complex diagrams, but what about this:
and there are even more terrible designs. Regarding possible bad contact - when using parts with normal legs, the probability of bad contact is very small; this only happened to me a couple of times. In general, similar boards have already surfaced here several times, but as part of a device built on Arduino. Honestly, I don't understand constructions like this:
Why do you need an Arduino at all, if you can take a programmer, flash it with a controller in a DIP package and install it on the board, getting a cheaper, more compact and portable device.
Yes, it is impossible to assemble some analog circuits sensitive to resistance and conductor topology on a breadboard, but they don’t come across very often, especially among beginners. But for digital circuits there are almost no restrictions.
When designing and assembling new electronic circuits their debugging is definitely required. It is carried out on a temporary circuit board, which allows the components to be positioned quite freely in order to ensure the possibility of quick and convenient replacement and carrying out control and measurement work.
The parts in such a board can be attached by soldering, and the platform itself will be called a breadboard. To avoid unnecessary exposure of components to mechanical and thermal influences, installers and designers use a solderless breadboard. Radio amateurs often call this device a breadboard.
The development board for solderless assembly allows you to mount an electrical circuit and run it without using a soldering iron. In this case, you can check all the parameters and characteristics of the future device by connecting measuring and control devices to the board.
The development board is a plate made of polymer material, which is a dielectric. On the plate in in a certain order drilled mounting holes, into which the leads of parts - components of the future device - should be inserted.
The holes allow the connection of leads with a diameter of 0.4-0.7 mm. They are located on the board, as a rule, with a pitch of 2.54 mm.
To simulate the connections of the component leads to each other, the breadboard has special conductive plates that connect the holes in a certain order.
Typically, these connections are made in groups along the board along its long sides. There may be two or three such rows. These contact groups are used as buses for connecting power.
Between the longitudinal rows, the holes are connected by plates in groups of five. These plates are located in a direction across the board.
Near the holes in the places of future contacts, conductive plates have design features, allowing you to clamp and firmly hold the leads of the parts, while ensuring the presence of electrical contact. This is the meaning of installation without soldering.
Quality prototyping boards can be assembled and disassembled while maintaining a strong and reliable connection between parts up to 50,000 times.
Breadboards produced industrially and purchased in a retail chain, as a rule, have a layout of contacts and conductive connections between the holes.
How to use it correctly
In order to successfully and efficiently use the breadboard, you must also have the following devices:
- several mounting wires with a diameter of 0.4-0.7 mm for installing various jumpers and connecting power;
- side cutters;
- pliers;
- tweezers.
Of course, a soldering iron is not needed for installation without soldering, but it may be needed to solder wires to the power supply terminals if detachable products are not available. Sometimes soldering will have to be used to implement shielding.
Knowing the location of the conductive paths on the breadboard, it is easy to install any circuit and, by connecting it to a power source, check its functionality. To assemble, you only need to insert the component leads into the connector clamps and connect them in the required sequence.
In this case, it is necessary to clearly understand the location of the conductive paths in order to prevent short circuit. If it is necessary to make contacts between tracks on the breadboard, connectors are used.
If the diameter of the pins of the parts does not fit the mounting holes, you can solder or wind pieces of suitable wire to them. Chips and components in BAG packages are installed in the center of the board.
Preparation and shielding
In order to work with a breadboard, especially if it is intended for solderless mounting, you first need to make preparatory work. This is especially true if the board has not been used for a long time.
Preparation includes cleaning the breadboard from dust. You can use a soft brush to do this, and you can use a vacuum cleaner or a can of compressed air to clean the holes.
The next step is to test the conductive paths with a multimeter to avoid wasting time searching for a possible loss of contact when installing the circuit.
When debugging devices, they may not work correctly due to various interferences and induced currents that arise during the operation of the circuit. To eliminate this phenomenon, it is necessary to use shielding of the breadboard.
To do this, use a metal plate attached to the bottom and connected by soldering to a common bus, which will subsequently become negative.
To successfully use a breadboard for soldering and carry out quick debugging, it is advisable to purchase several breadboards of different sizes.
Firstly, it will allow you to collect complex circuits separate blocks, debugging each one, and later connecting them into one device. Secondly, this way you can assemble additional devices that may be needed to control the operation of the main circuit.
It is better to purchase a development board with a set of connecting wires. They are also called “jumpers”.
But in some cases, you can save a significant amount if you buy a board for solderless mounting that is not equipped with connectors. In this case, you can make them yourself from a suitable wire.
The ideal cable is KSVV 4-0.5, used in the installation of systems fire alarm. This cable has 4 insulated cores of thin copper wire with a diameter of 0.5 mm. One meter of cable will be enough to get many connecting jumpers.
During installation, you must always reliably connect all terminals of semiconductors and microcircuits. Even if any pins are not used, they must be connected to a common bus to avoid induced currents.
When using development boards, you can only use low-current parts operating at a voltage of no more than 12 V. Connect to the development board alternating current 220 V voltage from a household power supply is prohibited.
Proper use of a breadboard for solderless mounting will significantly simplify the assembly of the entire circuit and reduce the cost of manufacturing the device in which such a circuit will be used.
Hi all. Today we will talk about solderless breadboard or breadboard, as the bourgeoisie call it. This board, so to speak, is included in the list of mandatory tools that an electronics engineer should have (whether he is a young brainiac who is just taking his first tentative steps or a seasoned brainiac who has seen life).
Knowledge of what types of breadboards there are, how and where such tools are used will help you during development and commissioning own projects various electronic homemade.
The first boards looked like this:
Metal stands were attached to the base, onto which wires and contact terminals of the elements were subsequently secured (simply wound).
Good that technical progress does not stand still - after all, thanks to his influence, we can use such wonderful tools.
As opposed to a solderless breadboard, you can use these (they are much cheaper and are manufactured based on the required parameters).
However, when mounting on a solderless board, you will not need a soldering iron/solder. In addition, you will avoid the difficulties associated with soldering parts on the surface of the board.
The rule of good form, and common sense, has always been and remains the prototyping of electronic circuits. It is important to know how the device will behave under certain certain parameters, before assembling the finished device.
In addition, using a solderless board, you can check the functionality of new components and radio components.
Let's look at the structure of a solderless board
Let's look at the board drawing. It consists of rows of metal plates (rails).
The rails, in turn, consist of clamps into which the “legs” of radio components are installed. All 5 holes in a row are connected together.
Now let's turn our attention to two vertical/horizontal stripes (depending on what position you look at), which are located separately (along the edges) - these are the power plates. All sockets of one long plate are connected to each other.
The central groove insulates the sides of the board. The width of this strip is fixed by the standard. It allows you to install DIP chips in such a way that each pin is installed in a separate rail and allows you to connect up to 4 external pins.
The boards are marked with alphabetic and digital sequences. These designations help you navigate when installing components in order to avoid erroneous connections (which could result in the circuit not working or failure of individual parts).
They also produce boards that are made on separate stands with special clamping terminals. They are used to connect the power supply to the board.
If you noticed, some boards have special grooves and protrusions (they are located on the sides). With their help, you can combine boards and create work surface any size.
Also, some boards have a self-adhesive backing on the back.
The figure shows a method of “powering” the board from Arduino.
If you come across a board with terminals for power supply, you need to connect them to the lines on the breadboard using conductors (jumpers). The terminals are not connected to any line. To connect a wire to a terminal, remove (unscrew) the plastic cap and place the end of the wire into the hole. Reinstall the cap. Typically two terminals are used: for power and for ground.
Now all that's left to do is connect an external power source. This can be done with:
- jumpers;
- “crocodiles” or ordinary wires;
- power stabilizer modules that are produced for solderless boards.
Thank you for your attention. To be continued :)
All people in the world, young and old, know that before you create anything, you must first create a model of this “something,” be it a model of a building, a stadium, or even a small rural toilet. In electrical engineering this is called a prototype. A prototype is a working model of a device. Therefore, experienced electronics engineers, before assembling a device according to a circuit on the Internet, posted by no one knows who and no one understands why, must make sure that this circuit will actually work. Therefore, the circuit needs to be quickly assembled and made sure it works, that is, assembled layout. Well, in order to assemble it, that’s exactly what we need bread board.
Types of development boards
Thick cardboard
A long time ago, when you were not even in the plans, our grandfathers, and maybe grandmothers, you never know :-), used thick cardboard. This is the fastest and cheap way checking circuits. Holes were cut in the cardboard for the terminals of the radio elements and on the other side they were connected using wires and other elements if they did not fit on the front side. It looked something like this:
A – front side type, B – back side.
Everything would be fine, but I had to solder the conclusions, make sure that nothing short-circuited anywhere, and while you are “sculpting” this circuit, you can even inadvertently get confused :-). Yes, and somehow it’s not beautiful.
Homemade breadboards
I still found these times at the radio circle. Back then we made breadboards ourselves. We took a sharp cutter and cut squares on foil PCB. Next, they were coated with solder.
If we needed to connect tracks somewhere, we simply made jumpers between the squares with a drop of solder. It turned out high quality and beautiful. If you were too lazy to solder the radio elements onto a normally wired board with tracks, you simply left it as is and used the device.
Disposable development boards
Manufacturers still “fucked up” on this matter, or as they say in economics, demand creates supply. Ready-made mock-up scarves, single-sided and even double-sided, began to appear for every size and taste.
By the way, you can find them on Ali right away a whole set .
The holes are very conveniently matched to the sizes of the pins of the microcircuits, as well as other radio elements. Therefore, it is very convenient to assemble and test electronic devices on such breadboards. Yes, and they are inexpensive.
back side such development boards have already been ready-made devices will look something like this:
What are the disadvantages of these development boards? It is still better to use them once, since with repeated use their spots may fly off, which will lead to its unsuitability.
Solderless breadboards
Progress is moving with its confident steps across our world, and now they have appeared on the market solderless breadboards.
They cost a little more than simple disposable breadboards, but honestly, it's worth it.
They are very convenient in terms of installing parts, as well as their connection with each other. Wires no larger than 0.7 mm and no less than 0.4 mm in diameter can be inserted into such breadboards. To find out which holes and tracks communicate with each other, we check the whole thing. To design large circuits (suddenly you will develop some kind of control unit for a hadron collider), you can add the same breadboards end-to-end. There are special ears for this. One move, and the breadboard will become a little larger.
Well, what kind of breadboard can there be without connecting wires? Connecting wires or jumpers ( from English- jump), are needed to connect radio components on the breadboard itself.
A little later I bought these jumpers from Aliexpress. They are much more convenient than wire ones:
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Everything is simple here, take the jumper and insert it with a slight movement of the hand
Let's put together a simple circuit for turning on an LED via a button on a breadboard
This is what she will look like
Set the Power Supply to 5 Volts and press the button. LED lights up bright green. This means that the scheme is workable, and we can use it at our discretion.
Conclusion
Solderless breadboards are taking the world by storm. Any circuit on them can be assembled and disassembled in a matter of minutes. After assembling and checking the circuit on the breadboard, you can safely begin assembling it in pure form. I think every self-respecting electronics engineer should have such a breadboard. But keep in mind that it is better not to test circuits with a large current in the circuit, since the contacts of the prototype boards can simply burn out - Joule-Lenz law. Good luck in the development and construction of radio-electronic devices!
Where to buy a development board
A development board with flexible jumpers and even ready-made block 5 Volt power supply can be immediately purchased as a set on Aliexpress. Choose to your taste and color!
If you don’t want to, then the easiest way would be to buy a disposable breadboard and assemble a finished device on it:
