Hi All,
Everyone seems to have a breadboard or several. Usually white with some black and red lines to indicate some connected tracks.... but no makers names. Are they all churned out of the same chinese factory?
I have had to chase down a number of errors while making up circuits on my breadboard, often it is just bad connections which make me wonder if there are good or bad ones or are they all the same?
Learn the art of 'Manhattan' style prototyping as quickly as possible. Not only is a sheet of copperclad cheaper, but the results are far more reliable.
Learn the art of 'Manhattan' style prototyping as quickly as possible. Not only is a sheet of copperclad cheaper, but the results are far more reliable.
... Unless one has extreme tunnel vision there is no one size fits all approach. If you still insist that breadboards don't work then you either haven't used a good one or haven't used it properly.
Learn the art of 'Manhattan' style prototyping as quickly as possible. Not only is a sheet of copperclad cheaper, but the results are far more reliable.
Learn the art of 'Manhattan' style prototyping as quickly as possible. Not only is a sheet of copperclad cheaper, but the results are far more reliable.
I do that frequently, but it's no substitute for a solderless breadboard. It would be stupid to break out the soldering iron if all I wanted to do was wire up a few components to a microcontroller or something. Unless one has extreme tunnel vision there is no one size fits all approach. If you still insist that breadboards don't work then you either haven't used a good one or haven't used it properly.
If you still insist that breadboards don't work then you either haven't used a good one or haven't used it properly.
Learn the art of 'Manhattan' style prototyping as quickly as possible. Not only is a sheet of copperclad cheaper, but the results are far more reliable.
I do that frequently, but it's no substitute for a solderless breadboard. It would be stupid to break out the soldering iron if all I wanted to do was wire up a few components to a microcontroller or something. Unless one has extreme tunnel vision there is no one size fits all approach. If you still insist that breadboards don't work then you either haven't used a good one or haven't used it properly.
Precisely!
Experimenting and building a one-off or a prototype are two different things! Soldering stuff to a copper board is not the same thing as being able to plug in and out random components to rows of sockets, especially if you're working with rows of ICs or something.
Breadboards absolutely have their place and using decent quality ones makes all the difference to the experience. The OP asked about the variable quality of solderless breadboards (of which there is a huge variation), not tangential methods to avoid using shoddy breadboards or advice regarding having bad connection problems or whatnot...
If you still insist that breadboards don't work then you either haven't used a good one or haven't used it properly.
Breadboards are primarily used by beginners. By definition, they don't really understand the circuit they are building and have neither the knowledge nor experience to use them "properly" (whatever that
means[1]). Hence when (not if) something doesn't work, they can't begin to debug their circuit. Frustration abounds and they become disheartened.
OTOH, those with sufficient knowledge and experience usually don't need to go through a "fiddle until it works" process on a breadboard.
[1] my definition of "properly" is "not at all".
If you still insist that breadboards don't work then you either haven't used a good one or haven't used it properly.
Breadboards are primarily used by beginners. By definition, they don't really understand the circuit they are building and have neither the knowledge nor experience to use them "properly" (whatever that
means[1]). Hence when (not if) something doesn't work, they can't begin to debug their circuit. Frustration abounds and they become disheartened.
OTOH, those with sufficient knowledge and experience usually don't need to go through a "fiddle until it works" process on a breadboard.
[1] my definition of "properly" is "not at all".
Well, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. You don't have a use for breadboards, good for you. I'm glad that your vastly superior knowledge allows you to design circuits that work without any fiddling. For the rest of us there are breadboards and they serve a purpose, they are yet another tool in the toolbox, and the fact that you see no value in them and don't think anyone else should either just sounds very elitist. There are times when I know exactly what I'm doing and jump straight to the prototype stage or even go directly to laying out a PCB but there are a lot of other times when I just want to try something quick, like connect some stuff to a microcontroller and whip up a proof of concept or test out some novel part to see if it will do what I want. There's no point in soldering together a prototype if I'm only going to use it briefly. Like I said, I'm well experienced with Manhattan construction and have used it for years, but that also is another tool in the toolbox, I have multiple tools and choose the one best suited to a particular job. I am not stuck on one specific technique and having used breadboards for over 30 years I've somehow never had any of the problems that apparently make them completely unsuitable in the eyes of some. I don't know why some people are apparently unable to make them work but since they work fine for me that kind of points at something they're doing wrong, not something that is wrong with the concept.
I have to agree with everybody else that has responded, quality varies widely and in some cases the product is useless. Unfortunately this is something I learned the hard way. I don't know of a quality Chinese made unit at this point, there might be one out there but I'm not willing to test any more.
By the way the 3M marketed boards have a good reputation. However it is rumored that they actually source their boards from: http://www.assemblyspecialist.com/ so if you want high quality they might be the best option.
Learn the art of 'Manhattan' style prototyping as quickly as possible. Not only is a sheet of copperclad cheaper, but the results are far more reliable.
Precisely. Spot on.
Solderless breadboards are the work of he devil; you will spend more time debugging the breadboard than debugging your circuit.
FFI, including alternatives to manhattan, see the references in https://bristol.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=resources:pcb#avoiding_solderless_breadboards
None of that addresses the points that beginners usually end up having with theirhammersolderless breadboards.
There are definitely differences in quality. Somebody on Youtube did a good comparison once, and I seem to recall that the Jameco Valuepro brand breadboards came out really well in the comparison.
There are definitely differences in quality. Somebody on Youtube did a good comparison once, and I seem to recall that the Jameco Valuepro brand breadboards came out really well in the comparison.
The Jameco Valuepro breadboards are Wisher re-brands, which are an excellent cheap alternative to 3M breadboards.
None of that addresses the points that beginners usually end up having with theirhammersolderless breadboards.Of which there is no widespread evidence. Your opinions and anecdotes do not data make. As we've discussed ad infinitum in other threads, there's also the fact that knowing the limitations of your tools is a critical part of learning electronics.