bread boarding

[M0BSW]

This is a subject that bothered me for a while, with prototyping, today a day off work so I decided to have a go at this simple 555 ramp generator, so I set about it on a bread board, couldn't get it to work no matter what, so I had the time I soldered the same circuit on to a piece of vero board, my favourite method, apart from the islands or Manhatton  method of construction. Expecting the same result, except its working just great, so I'm curious is bread board construction like Marmite or vegemite you either love it or hate it, or am I on my own, .

[robrenz]

A decent quality breadboard should easily do a low frequency 555 circuit without any special care. Sounds like a bad fleabay breadboard or a  moment. Also can be bandolier tape residue on leaded components insulating the connection to the breadboard.

[nanofrog]

What breadboard are you using?

Quality really does matter (contacts wear out & make intermittent connections).

There's a few threads that cover this, but IIRC, look for Wisher on the budget side (sold under multiple brands, such as Elenco, Radio Shack, and others; not sure if they make them for RS or not). Past that, Global Specialties (preferably not the E <economy> line) or 3M. These are more expensive, but I've seen ~30y/o breadboards from them that still work as they're supposed to.

Maybe check eBay for NOS (there was a seller in the US that had misc. 3M NOS). BTW, get one with a metal back plate if you can.

[sacherjj]

As long as you keep the frequency down, bread boarding works fine.  It is much faster to try a few things, but I find myself building a few known good working blocks on solder board and then linking them together.

One of the big gotchas is to know your breadboard.  Assuming the contacts are good, I always seem to get bit by the break in the lines that I didn't expect.  Mostly in the power long rails.

[M0BSW]

This maybe the fault it came off E- bay,who makes a good one guys, I've probably bought a load of  ****

[jancumps]

This reminds me of the fact that we're still waiting for video #555...

[sacherjj]

This reminds me of the fact that we're still waiting for video #555...

Surely he won't solder a wire to the bottom of a bread board again...

[M0BSW]

I've just been looking at a bread board  from maplins, which I think is the UK version of Radio shack , anyway the one I'm looking at is the AD14/ . At a cost of £20.00p, is that about the right price to pay.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/ad-14-solderless-breadboard-bz17t

[nanofrog]

I've just been looking at a bread board  from maplins, which I think is the UK version of Radio shack , anyway the one I'm looking at is the AD14/ . At a cost of £20.00p, is that about the right price to pay.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/ad-14-solderless-breadboard-bz17t

Seems low for the number of tie points, even based on US pricing for a quality product. No information on materials or rated number of insertion cycles either (web page or .pdf link), which doesn't bode well IMHO.

RS carries Global Specialties and 3M.

eBay.co.uk does have a couple of Wisher boards (2390 tie points) that are better priced than either Global Specialties or 3M.

[abbotsmike]

I must admit that personally I have gone right off breadboard. I suspect mostly because of experience using the university boards that have been flogged to within an inch of their lives for years, they're just so unreliable! I find it just as quick to knock up a circuit on veroboard. This habit was doubly ingrained whilst I was on placement last year, as we didn't have any breadboard, but always had lumps of veroboard lying around!

[M0BSW]

I must admit that personally I have gone right off breadboard. I suspect mostly because of experience using the university boards that have been flogged to within an inch of their lives for years, they're just so unreliable! I find it just as quick to knock up a circuit on veroboard. This habit was doubly ingrained whilst I was on placement last year, as we didn't have any breadboard, but always had lumps of veroboard lying around!

  I've always done it this way to, and if it works OK, the job is done box it up and move on, I'm really on the fence with it.