I am taking a class on digital logic design, and a major portion of this course is lab based. Of course we learn all of the material on paper but when it comes to wiring these circuits it becomes a little more difficult.

When I build these circuits it seems like I am just plugging wires in with no type of organization and my class nor the internet has revealed that there are any types of best practices for these designs. This makes debugging a real pain sometimes.

Could anyone tell me if there was some type of standard practice for wiring these circuits so that it is not so confusing and jumbled to look at? Or perhaps could point me to some resource that I could use to learn to get my circuitry game up. Lol

 

Could anyone tell me if there was some type of standard practice for wiring these circuits so that it is not so confusing and jumbled to look at?

That why the call it a 'Bread Board'!

It pays to keep it as organized as possible and lay it out as near as possible to how it looks on paper (schematic) is one method.
Progress from left to right and the power rails are already top and bottom.
Max.

 

Here are my preferences.
I keep consistent wire colours. Red, orange, yellow or white for power. Black, brown or green for GND. I prefer to keep the wires short and go for 90° wire bends. I avoid laying wires over ICs. I go around ICs.

If I am in a hurry I ignore the above guidelines except the colours for PWR and GND.

I don't think there are any guidelines except the ones you make up yourself.
You have identified a problem. You don't like your layout. Do it your way.

You are your own boss.

 

Yeah, I remember some of the circuits from logic labs, some of them were "forests" of wire.

 

I have seen "bowl of spaghetti" wiring.

 

In our class the instructor was very militant about our breadboards. The wires all had to lay flat on the board, not overlap, and have perfect bends in them.

She would frequently run her fingers across a board and rip up parts. If the parts came off you lost marks.


I actually find it to be a good way of wiring the breadboards though because we had to carry them around a lot and people who didn't do this always had broken circuits.

We used solid wire to make our board jumpers.

 

Or perhaps could point me to some resource that I could use to learn to get my circuitry game up.

I hope this helps. The breadboard comparison table is outdated but the rest is still valid.

http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=66847&stc=1&d=1396718315

 

Thanks for the input everyone! Over the last few semesters my primary focus of my circuits was just to get it functioning regardless of how it looked. Obviously the less clutter the better though, I will keep some of these tips in mind. It seems like everyone has their own style of wiring but I have gained some useful knowledge.