Breadboard Tutorial

This Tutorial will teach you everything you need to know about breadboards, also known as protoboards or solderless boards. From the name origin to a complete guide how to use it, step by step. You can read the steps or watch the tutorial. I learned a lot about breadboards and electronics by listening to books such as Electronics all-in-one for dummies and Circuit Engineering. Here´s a 30-day free trial worth the try.

Material Used in this Tutorial:

1. Breadboard KIT
2. Breadboard
3. Precut wires
4. Hookup wires
5. Jumper Wires
6. 9v Battery
7. Battery snap cap

I also listened to audiobooks to learn and improve my electronic knowledge. I recommend these:

Electronics All-in-One for Dummies

Circuit Engineering

There are several types of breadboards but I want to introduce you to the three most common ones:

1. 830 Tie Points - most common breadboard
2. 400 Tie Points - medium breadboard
3. 170 Tie Points - mini breadboard

Where tie points are the holes in the breadboard where you can insert electronic components legs.

You can find the different types of breadboards in the "Supplies" section.

The name comes from early days of electronics where people would literally drive nails or screws into boards used to cut bread to create their circuits. It is a foundation to create prototype circuits. Using a breadboard, protoboard or solderless board will prevent you to solder a draft circuit. The second image shows an example of a circuit created on a breadboard.

You have several types of power supplies but I am only going to talk about three:

• Conventional power supply (image 1) - NOT RECOMMENDED

You can used a conventional power supply although it's not recommended because if you happen to short circuit you may cause damage to the power supply.

• Arduino board (image 2) - NOT RECOMMENDED

You could use the Arduino board 5V and GND pins to power the breadboard but it's also not recommended to protect your Arduino from damage.

• 9V Battery (image 3) - RECOMMENDED

My favorite option is to use a 9 volt battery to power the circuit. It's cheap and will do the job for training purposes. You can practice and simulate many circuits with a 9V battery and in case of short circuit you just need to replace the battery which is not too expensive compared to other power supplies.

You can find my preferred power supply type in the "Supplies" section.

Once more, you have several types of wires. I Normally work with three different kind of wires:

• Hook up wire (image 1 - black wire)

These wires are very cheap and are handy when you don't know the length you need beforehand. You can cut the wire as needed. Takes you more time if you need to cut several wires.

• Jumper wire (image 1 - orange wire)

Jumper wires are very handy and I like to used them when I know it's not a complex circuit. On the other hand, if it's a circuit with many wires, this solution can create a lot of confusion because it's hard to trace back where the wire is coming from.

• Pre-cut wires (image 2&3) - PREFERRED SOLUTION

This is my favorite solution since you don't have the work to cut wires, the set comes with different wire lengths and using these wires is by far the most organized solution to build a prototype circuit and having a clean circuit where you can trace back the wires is a key aspect for the project to be successful (image 3).

You can find all of the solutions in the "Supplies" section.

If you remove the back layer you will find a sticky side that you can glue to anything you´d like. (image 1)

Strip the breadboards back and you will find the metal strips that are inside the breadboard. These metal strips are responsible for making both the mechanical and electrical connections of the components you insert into the breadboard. (image 2)

This is why it is also called a solderless board. It allows you to bond electronic components together without any soldering action.

If we have a closer look to the strip that was removed, we can see 5 clips that line up with the holes on the breadboard. These clips are what make the solderless connections and are responsible for holding the components in place. It´s strong enough to hold the component and at the same time weak enough to release it once you want to retrieve it or put it in a new location.

The first picture shows all existing connections in a breadboard.If you recall from step 5, each line corresponds to a strip that has 5 clip. Basically holes A1, B1, C1, D1 and E1 correspond to a clip, meaning that these holes are all connected. They are not connected to hole A2, D2 or J1 for example. Keep in mind that only the strip directly connects components.

The second picture is another example of what you just read.

There is the positive power bus rail, where you should connect your positive power supply wire, usually RED.

You also have the negative power bus rail, where you should connect your negative power supply wire, usually BLACK.

Check pictures 3 and 4 for more detail on power bus rails.

First tip while building your own circuits is to take in consideration that many electronic components have polarity. As you can see in the first picture, LED have polarity.The easiest way to identify the positive leg (+) is to look for the longest leg. The longest leg is always associated to the positive leg of an LED. Therefore, the shortest leg is the negative leg. On the other hand, resistors don't have polarity so you can connect it the way you wish.

You might have been wondering what is this big split in the board separating it into two different sides which are not connected. This is because if you need to use a DIP (Dual In-line Package) in your prototype circuit you need a separation between the parallel rows otherwise it would be shorted. A DIP is an electronic component package with a rectangular housing and two parallel rows of electrical connecting pins.

Picture 3 shows an easy LED circuit with a resistor and a push button. Try to replicate this circuit to get started with electronics! This the perfect first circuit for a begginer.

Hope you enjoyed and it was helpful. If you, consider subscribing to my Youtube channel!