What is it useful for? How to use it?

Introduction

The breadboard is used to create and test electronic circuit. The advantage of the breadboard is that completely reusable for all your circuits because it doesn’t need solder.

The word breadboard referred to the wooden plate, used to build circuit, which were attach the electronic components.

The breadboard will help you to create prototypes of your circuit and before use a PCB board for solder your components.

The breadboard is an essential element for the beginners because you can test your components easily and learn rapidly about Arduino with it!

How a breadboard is working?

The breadboard is composed of many hole of 0.1 inch (2.54 mm) to plug your components. Theses holes are connected together to the horizontal or vertically.

a) Horizontally holes

The lines connected at the horizontal are at the one at the extremities of the breadboard.

The both lines at each side of the breadboard, the + and the – are symbolized with the line red and blue.

By plugging the 5V on the + side and the ground on the -, you cna plug all your components on the same lines to power them. Theses both lines are connected in parallels.

Here is an example of powering the breadboard:

Be careful to place your components the right way!

This is impossible, you can’t plug a component in this way because theses holes are connected horizontally and you will create a short circuit and burn your component

This is a good use of the breadboard.

b) Vertically holes

It is in the middle of the breadboard, where you have to plug your components. Theses holes are connected vertically.

How to put our component?

The components can be placed horizontally on the breadboard.

You can connect components together by connecting one of theirs pins together on the green line you can see on the picture. That way, the LED and resistor are connected together.

On a large breadboard, you can see a separation in light grey where there isn’t any hole .

This separation is useful to disconnect the both side of the vertically holes. As you can see on the picture on the right : the both leds are not short circuit together even if they are in the same hole thanks of the separation.

Be careful to plug your component in the right way!

On the breadboard, when you plug your components in the middle, you have to be careful that two components are not placed on the same vertically holes.

This is an example of what you must not do. Theses both components are connect on the same vertically holes therefore they are in short circuit.

his is the right example if you want to connect both components together.

How to connect two remote components?

If you need to connect two distant components, you will need to use a bond wires between the both components. You can plug it directly on the breadboard and away the both vertical holes will be connected together.

Bond wires

The bond Arduino wires are electric wires with a small diameter, to do low power electronics. They are two types of nozzle : male nozzle and female’s one.


a) Male nozzle

Having a tip, male wire can be connect to the breadboard to connect two components together through the breadboard.

 

b) Female nozzle

The female nozzle is used to plug directly the wire to the pin of your component, without using a breadboard.

c) Male/Female nozzle

A type of wire which also really useful is the Male/Female wire. This kind of wire has a Male and female nozzle at each side of the wire. It can be really useful to to plug a component directly to the Arduino card.

Once your circuit is working, you can build it on a PCB board.

To go further: PCB board

The PCB board is designed in a factory and permits to have an industrial version of your circuit.

 

a) Factory PCB card

They are assembled of one or many thin layers of copper separated by an insulating material. The connection between each components is called track.

b) DIY PCB card

If you want to do your own PCB board and not buying one in a factory, you can buy an empty PCB board. They are lightweight and have holes to plug and solder your components.

Nevertheless the bond wires are not included like in a breadboard therefore you will need to solder the components together. The result will less clean than if it was done in a factory but you can modify it if you have done a mistake for example.
In a nutshell, if you want to do your PCB card, if you have the choice to do it by yourself or send your project in a factory that will do it for you. If you choose the second option, we have made a course about Fritzing software and at the end of this course you will find a part dedicated at the factory PCB card.