Hi, I’m getting into electornic circuits (I’ll have a book for xmas).
I guess that for the moment I’m better off with soderless breadoards for prototype and experiments? maybe I’ll buy a couple of board you need to solder, but wich breadboard should I take between :
These are my only two possibilities since it’s about the only place where they sell this kind of stuff (well the only 1 time visit, don’t need to go to one place to buy that, then another for that and blah blah blah)
The first looks normal sived and the second looks quite bigger…
Get the larger breadboard. You will run out of space too fast on the smaller one. 40 pin DIPs take up quite a bit of space, and you need room for some sort of display (non-LCD type, like LEDs, etc.).
Speak for yourself only, please! I regularly have multiple PIC/dsPIC circuits on my breadboard, which is why I needed to get a bigger one. I can easily breadboard full microcontroller circuits with I/O, etc. I need that flexibility.
Oh my god! I have no Idea what you just said linuxguy!
I guess I’ll see how it’s made at addison, if it looks way to cheap, then I’ll go with the GS breadboard. Because I kinda need it as soon as possible so I can start during the vacation (wich is the only time off for me almost!)
DIPs are like the modules you see with the Basic Atom and Atom PRO microcontrollers. They have the same number if pins on each side, and are called Dual Inline Packages. The usual sizes range from small 8 pin DIPs to larger 40 pin DIPs. The Basic Atom and Atom PRO are 28 pin DIL (Dual In Line) modules. They are a bit wider than a standard DIP.
I would recommend not using breadboard ever, too many things to go wrong. Capacitance between contacts, resistance though spring contacts and general contact failures can be misleading and sometimes costly.
If you are new to electronics of this nature then work on proto-board or plain vero. Its always good practice for making the final soldered job.
And to be honest it costs about the same in the long run.
You have to have a good quality solderless breadboard. I did not have one before and it did indeed cause me all sorts of problems. I do not expect these problems with the new breadboard though, and it does have a lifetime warranty.
I am just getting ready to move into this area now. I don’t trust myself to design good PCBs until I get some good schematic capture and PCB layout software. Eagle just doesn’t cut it for me and I find it way to frustrating to deal with. I am looking at gEDA now.
But I have to get a good enough one. I’m scared that the one from Addison will be cheap (well, I don’t think, they have a very good reputation in Montreal), but it’s always a risk. I’ll ask some dudes over there what they think
Veroboard is a trade name but essentially its a piece of copper faced board with 0.1 hole spacing already drilled in it and the copper is cut into parallel tracks on the back. Its designed for prototyping but in a semi-permanent style.
You use wite links to create your circuit in a similar manner to breadboarding and a track cutter (essentially a 5mm drill bit with a a handle. I use my dremel) to cut the longitudinal tracks.
I dont have access to board etching facilities so I’ve always worked with it. Once you’ve got used to using it you can even build your final product on it. I’ve done hundreds from Power Amps to Single Board Computers.
I’m sure if you look at some images on the web there will be thousands of projects done this way.
The awkward thing about breadboard, from my experience, is that when you have built the circuit, you may need to connect it to your bot to final test it. With breadboard this can be an awkward process but with verobaord you have a robust, semi-permanent version of your circuit that you can fasten to the bot.
A lot of times, you dont see the problems with a circuit until you actually use it in anger. If you ave gone to the expense of etching a board then it can be a costly procedure to make changes. Vero makes a nice intermediate stage between concept and final product.
Its a matter of preference, some people love it some hate it but the same applies to breadboarding.
Linuxguy has a point about radioshack stuff, In the UK we have Maplins which on the whole is good but I had a breadboard from them an was trying to build a simple 555 timer circuit. It all seemed to work fine so I made a hard version of the circuit and it was all wrong. After lots aof testing I found out that the capacitance of the breadboard was actually affecting the timer circuit.
I can easily breadboard full microcontroller circuits with I/O, etc. I need that flexibility.
