What would be the best wire size to get for general protoboard use?

 

Try to find the kits of prestripped and bent jumper wires intended for protoboards.

If you do it all yourself which is not that rough, make certain you remember that stranded wires are NOT what you want.

Solid 20-24 wire in various colours.

Have fun.

 

You can buy one of the kits that includes bent and pre-stripped wires in assorted colors and lengths. 3M calls them jumper wire. Its kit number is 923351. Radio Shack and others probably have cheaper kits available. If you want to cut your own, I recommend 22 AWG solid insulated.

John

 

I just use the Strands from CAT5 cable. Just untwist them and cut them to length! Also if you require more current then just use a twisted pair!

 

I use solid 24 gauge wire myself, bought it specially for the purpose in several colors. I also bought kit boxes to keep it in, they are very inexpensive, so I could reuse it. I added a small length gauge on a set of strippers to help cut and strip it exactly to size.

I want the protoboards to last as long as possible, they do wear out eventually, so I use wire that puts the least amount of strain on them over time (and still works).

 

Bill brings up a good point; jamming large components (such as TO-220 packaged IC's) into breadboards will lead to a very short life. If you want long breadboard service life, solder on smaller gauge wires to insert in the breadboard sockets.

 

How about for perfboard/stripboard?

 

Are they meant to be reusable?

 

I like the jumper wire kits myself, they come in common lengths that fit the breadboard perfectly. I do use Cat5 for stuff, just don't try to use Cat5E or Cat6 cabling, too many twists per inch annoying to get apart.

 

I use too many wires myself for that approach. I wonder how many people have 5+ protoboards? And use them. To my mind the wire kits are way overpriced. I can buy a spool of wire ($5) and the box ($2) and have an infinite supply. The gauge I showed (not all the hash marks are visible in the picture) works very well for sizing wires.

I have a better gauge now, thanks to a curious 4 year old.

 

jamming large components (such as TO-220 packaged IC's) into breadboards will lead to a very short life.

To amplify on this, I've seen students a plug T0-220 power components into breadboards and expect those tiny contacts to handle the current and heat these transistors/regulators deal with. You will know this by contact holes with brown rings...or completely melted plastic. Keep all high current components off the nylon breadboards.

Ken

 

Do you really need circuits that large on a breadboard? Once you can't fit an entire circuit on a single breadboard you should probably be putting it in a more permenant form on perfboard.

 

Most of the breadboards I've seen the contacts are only rated for 1amp.