A breadboard with a completed circuit

A breadboard is a reusable solderless device used to build a (generally temporary) prototype of an electronic circuit and for experimenting with circuit designs. This is in contrast to stripboard (veroboard) and similar prototyping printed circuit boards, which are used to build more permanent prototypes or one-offs, and cannot easily be reused. A typical solderless breadboard will have strips of interconnected electrical terminals, known as bus strips, down one or both sides—either as part of the main unit or as separate blocks clipped on—to carry the power rails. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (768x1024, 458 KB) A solderless breadboard. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (768x1024, 458 KB) A solderless breadboard. ... A solder is a fusible metal alloy, with a melting point or melting range of 180-190°C (360-370 °F), which is melted to join metallic surfaces, especially in the fields of electronics and plumbing, in a process called soldering. ... For other uses, see Prototype (disambiguation). ... An electronic circuit is an electrical circuit that also contains active electronic devices such as transistors or vacuum tubes. ... Veroboard is the trademark name of the electronics prototyping board manufactured by the Vero Electronics company. ... Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ...

A modern solderless breadboard consists of a perforated block of plastic with numerous tin plated phosphor bronze spring clips under the perforations. The spacing between the clips (lead pitch) is typically 0.1" (2.54 mm). Integrated circuits (ICs) in dual in-line packages (DIPs) can be inserted to straddle the centerline of the block. Interconnecting wires and the leads of discrete components (such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, etc.) can be inserted into the remaining free holes to complete the circuit topology. In this manner, a variety of electronic systems may be prototyped, from small circuits to complete central processing units (CPUs). However, due to large stray capacitance (from 2-25pF per contact point), solderless breadboards are limited to operating at relatively low frequencies, usually less than 10 MHz, depending on the nature of the circuit. Solderless breadboards are further limited by their voltage and current rating. Typically the spring clips are rated for 1 Ampere at 5 Volt and 0.333 Ampere at 15 Volt (5 Watt). Phosphor bronze is an alloy of copper with 3. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... This article is about the unit of length. ... Integrated circuit of Atmel Diopsis 740 System on Chip showing memory blocks, logic and input/output pads around the periphery Microchips with a transparent window, showing the integrated circuit inside. ... ICs in DIP14-Package Several PDIPs and CERDIPS. The large CERDIP in the foreground is an 8080 processor. ... See Capacitor (component) for a discussion of specific types. ... Resistor symbols (non-European) Resistor symbols (Europe, IEC) Axial-lead resistors on tape. ... An inductor is a passive electrical device employed in electrical circuits for its property of inductance. ... “CPU” redirects here. ... Capacitance is a measure of the amount of electric charge stored (or separated) for a given electric potential. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... Current can be measured by a galvanometer, via the deflection of a magnetic needle in the magnetic field created by the current. ... Josephson junction array chip developed by NIST as a standard volt. ... Current can be measured by a galvanometer, via the deflection of a magnetic needle in the magnetic field created by the current. ... Josephson junction array chip developed by NIST as a standard volt. ... For other uses, see Watt (disambiguation). ...

The jump wires for breadboarding can be obtained in ready-to-use jump wire sets or can be manually manufactured. The latter can become tedious work for larger circuits. Ready-to-use jump wires come in different qualities, some even with tiny plugs attached to the wire ends. Jump wire material for ready-made or home-made wires should usually be 22 AWG (0.33 mm²) solid copper, tin-plated wire. The ends should be stripped 3/16" to 5/16" (approx. 5 mm to 8 mm). Shorter striped wires might result in bad contact with the board's spring clips (isolation being caught in the springs). Longer striped wires increase the likeness of short-circuits on the board. Needle-nose pliers and tweezers are helpful when when inserting or removing wires, particularly on crowded boards. American wire gauge (AWG), also known as the Brown and Sharpe wire gauge, is used in the United States and other countries as a standard method of denoting wire diameter, especially for nonferrous, electrically conducting wire. ... Needle-nose pliers are both cutting and gripping pliers used by electricians and other tradespersons to bend, re-position and cut wire. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

It is helpful to use differently colored wires and adhere to some color coding discipline. However, the number of available colors is typically far less than the number of signal types or paths. So typically a few wire colors get reserved for the supply voltages and ground (e.g. red, blue, black), some more for main signals, while the rest often get random colors.

These days solderless breadboard strips of different manufacturers have very similar layouts. Some manufacturers provide separate bus and terminal strips. Others just provide breadboard blocks which contain both in one block. Typically power distribution strips, a/k/a bus strips, run on both long sites of a terminal strip or between terminal strips. A bus strip usually contains two columns, one for ground, one for a supply voltage. Some breadboards only provide a single-column power distributions strip on each long site. In the middle of a terminal breadboard strip one typically finds a notch running in parallel to the long side. The notch is to mark the centerline of the terminal strip and provides limited airflow (cooling) to ICs straddling the centerline. The clips on the right and left of the notch are each connected in a radial way, typically five clips in a row on each site of the notch are electrically connected. The five clip columns on the left of the notch are often marked as A, B, C, D, and E, while the ones on the right are marked F, G, H, I and J. When e.g. a skinny DIL IC is plugged into a breadboard the pins of one side of the chip are supposed to go into column E while the other goes into column F on the other side of the notch.

A "full size" terminal breadboard strip typically consists of 63 or 64 rows of connectors, each row containing the above mentioned two sets of connected clips (A to E and F to J). "Small size" strips typically come with 30 to 32 rows.

Terminal Strip:

 A B C D E F G H I J 1 o-o-o-o-o v o-o-o-o-o 2 o-o-o-o-o o-o-o-o-o 3 o-o-o-o-o o-o-o-o-o ~ ~ 61 o-o-o-o-o o-o-o-o-o 62 o-o-o-o-o o-o-o-o-o 63 o-o-o-o-o ^ o-o-o-o-o 

Bus Strip:

 V G o o | | o o | | o o | | o o | | o o | | | | o o | | o o | | o o | | o o | | o o | | | | ~ ~ o o | | o o 

Typically breadboard strips of one brand can be clipped together to make a larger breadboard. In a more robust and slightly easier to handle variant one or more breadboard strips are mounted on a sheet of metal. Typically, that backing sheet also holds a number of binding posts. These posts provide a clean way to connect an external power supply. Several breadboard images in this article show such solderless breadboards. Two insulated, color-coded binding posts at the bottom center of a signal generator Uninsulated binding posts on a loudspeaker connected to stackable banana plugs A binding post is a connector commonly used on electronic test equipment to terminate (attach) a single wire or test lead. ...

Modern SMD components do not fit on a solderless breadboard. Their lead pitch is smaller than the 0.1" (2.54 mm) of the breadboard, and they anyhow don't have pins to plug into the board. This problem is usually solved by using breadboard SMD adapters, also known as SMD to thru-hole adapters. These adapters are small PCBs on which a particular SMD component is soldered on, and which provides 0.1" spaced pins which are supposed to be plugged into the breadboard. Some SMD components, usually larger ones, can also be plugged into a socket, where the socket is soldered onto such an SMD adapter. The need to solder the SMD component or socket onto the adapter partly contradicts the idea of using a solderless breadboard for prototyping. Surface-mount components on a flash drives circuit board Surface mount technology (SMT) is a method for constructing electronic circuits in which the components (SMC, or Surface Mounted Components) are mounted directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards (PCBs). ...

Naming history

A binary counter wired up on a large breadboard

The breadboard derives its name from an early form of point-to-point construction. In the early days of radio, amateurs would nail copper wire or terminal strips to a wooden board (often literally a board for cutting bread), and solder electronic components to them. See, for example the first image in this reference ^[1]. Sometimes a paper schematic diagram was first glued to the board as a guide to placing terminals, components and wires. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (3072 × 2304 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (3072 × 2304 pixel, file size: 2. ... Point-to-point construction is the way most electronics were constructed before the 1950s. ...

The hole pattern for a typical etched prototyping PCB (printed circuit board) is similar to the node pattern of the breadboards shown above.

The integrated circuit for the Polaroid SX-70 camera was breadboarded before Texas Instruments fabricated the custom chip. It was rumoured to have been built from discrete components on a 4 ft. x 8 ft. piece of plywood, and was fully functional. The project was so secret that Texas Instruments engineers were only given functional specifications, but not told the purpose of the chip.^{[citation needed]} breadboard File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... breadboard File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ... A Polaroid camera is a type of camera with self-developing film usually called an instant camera. The invention of modern instant cameras is generally credited to American scientist Edwin Land, who unveiled the first commercial instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1947, 10 years after founding the Polaroid Corporation. ... SX-70 with electronic flash attachment SX-70 folded up. ... Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ...

Over time the term breadboard has been used for all kinds of devices used for building prototype or one-of electronic devices. For example US Patent 3,145,483 ^[2], filed in 1961, granted in 1964, describes a wooden plate breadboard with mounted springs and other facilities. Another example is US Patent 3,496,419^[3], filed in 1967 and granted in 1970, which refers to a particular printed circuit board layout as a Printed Circuit Breadboard. Both examples also refer to and describe other types of breadboards as prior art. It should be noted that these are only examples of the usage of the term breadboard. The existence of a patent does not indicate that the particular invention was in widespread usage. Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ...

Alternatives

Alternative methods to create prototypes are point-to-point construction, reminiscent of the original breadboards, wire wrap, and boards like stripboard. Complicated systems, such as modern computers comprising millions of transistors, diodes and resistors, do not lend themselves to prototyping using breadboards, as sprawling designs on breadboards can be difficult to lay out and debug. Modern circuit designs are generally developed using a schematic capture and simulation system, and tested in software simulation before the first prototype circuits are built on a printed circuit board. Integrated circuit designs are a more extreme version of the same process: since producing prototype silicon is expensive, extensive software simulations are performed before fabricating the first prototypes. However, breadboard prototyping techniques are still used for some specialised applications such as broadband RF circuits, or where software models of components are inexact or incomplete. Point-to-point construction is the way most electronics were constructed before the 1950s. ... This article deals with electronics manufacturing and prototyping techniques, see Wire wrap jewellery for the jewellery related topic Wire wrap is a technique for constructing small numbers of complex electronics. ... Veroboard is the trademark name of the electronics prototyping board manufactured by the Vero Electronics company. ... Assorted discrete transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device, commonly used as an amplifier or an electrically controlled switch. ... Closeup of the image below, showing the square shaped semiconductor crystal various semiconductor diodes, below a bridge rectifier Structure of a vacuum tube diode In electronics, a diode is a component that restricts the directional flow of charge carriers. ... Resistor symbols (non-European) Resistor symbols (Europe, IEC) Axial-lead resistors on tape. ... Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware thus making it behave as expected. ... Schematic capture or schematic entry is a step in the design cycle of electronic design automation at which the electronic diagram, or schematic of the designed electronic circuit is created by a designer. ... Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ... Integrated circuit of Atmel Diopsis 740 System on Chip showing memory blocks, logic and input/output pads around the periphery Microchips with a transparent window, showing the integrated circuit inside. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Radio waves. ...

An example of a complex circuit built on a breadboard. The circuit is an Intel 8088 single board computer.

Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 721 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2203 × 1833 pixel, file size: 929 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This photo is of an Intel 8088 based single board computer constructed on a Breadboard. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 721 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2203 × 1833 pixel, file size: 929 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This photo is of an Intel 8088 based single board computer constructed on a Breadboard. ... The Intel 8088 is an Intel microprocessor based on the 8086, with 16-bit registers and an 8-bit external data bus. ...

Use of the term in software engineering

A breadboard prototype^{[citation needed]} (also known as an evolutionary prototype) is an iteratively designed piece of software designed to evolve into a full-fledged system. This contrasts with a throwaway prototype (often associated with a proof-of-concept) that is discarded.

See also

• Printed circuit board
• Stripboard
• Perfboard
• Iterative design
• wire wrap

Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ... Veroboard is the trademark name of the electronics prototyping board manufactured by the Vero Electronics company. ... Perfboard is a base for prototyping circuit boards. ... Iterative design is a design methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analyzing, and refining a work in progress. ... This article deals with electronics manufacturing and prototyping techniques, see Wire wrap jewellery for the jewellery related topic Wire wrap is a technique for constructing small numbers of complex electronics. ...

References

External links

• Java applet breadboard simulator