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After fighting a program that seemed to have a bug I finally realized that the bread-board that I was prototyping the circuit on had developed several flaky connections. This leads me to a polling question for the forum. Who makes / sells quality bread-boards? Which brands have you had the best luck with? recommendations
Bread-board recommendations
- Thread starter bdrmachine
- Start date
My favorites are E&L Instruments and Continental Specialties. I've been using them for about 50 years and the boards I purchased in the 1970's are still doing the job.
I've had mixed feelings about the cheap boards from China, but in all fairness, the only issue I've had is springs that didn't line up with the holes in the plastic housings. I've never had problems with flaky connections when using #22 wire. I found that you can align the clips by using a strip (5) of male header pins and aligning the springs.
Note that there are several types of springs and the cheap boards are going to use stainless steel or plated steel flat sided contacts:
The better boards will use these:
If you're using #24 wire or anything larger than #20, you're asking for problems. Do you insert component leads that are too large (like TO-220)? I've taken to twisting TO-220 leads 90 degrees.
I've heard BS about not inserting 0.025" square male header pins. That's nonsense. The diameter of #22 wire is 0.0253, so male header pins are in the sweet spot. But take care of wire wrap sockets because they don't align the pins, so they could be up to .035" wide. The maximum lead diameter should be 0.032" (same diameter as #20 wire).
That being said, I've bought dozens of full size and half size boards from different sellers on AliExpress (I always go for the lowest price) and haven't come across any that didn't work.
The worst was actually from a US based company who fell victim of a disreputable Chinese manufacturer. The supplier started making shoddy product and the US company ended up buying back bad inventory and getting out of the breadboard market.
I've had mixed feelings about the cheap boards from China, but in all fairness, the only issue I've had is springs that didn't line up with the holes in the plastic housings. I've never had problems with flaky connections when using #22 wire. I found that you can align the clips by using a strip (5) of male header pins and aligning the springs.
Note that there are several types of springs and the cheap boards are going to use stainless steel or plated steel flat sided contacts:
The better boards will use these:
If you're using #24 wire or anything larger than #20, you're asking for problems. Do you insert component leads that are too large (like TO-220)? I've taken to twisting TO-220 leads 90 degrees.
I've heard BS about not inserting 0.025" square male header pins. That's nonsense. The diameter of #22 wire is 0.0253, so male header pins are in the sweet spot. But take care of wire wrap sockets because they don't align the pins, so they could be up to .035" wide. The maximum lead diameter should be 0.032" (same diameter as #20 wire).
That being said, I've bought dozens of full size and half size boards from different sellers on AliExpress (I always go for the lowest price) and haven't come across any that didn't work.
The worst was actually from a US based company who fell victim of a disreputable Chinese manufacturer. The supplier started making shoddy product and the US company ended up buying back bad inventory and getting out of the breadboard market.
Audioguru again
- Joined Oct 21, 2019
- 6,826
Many years ago when I used breadboards to make prototype circuits, most amplifier circuits oscillated or picked up mains hum.
Then I built prototype circuits soldered together on compact stripboard and they all worked perfectly. Some of the stripboard circuits looked so good that they were sold as the finished product.
Then I built prototype circuits soldered together on compact stripboard and they all worked perfectly. Some of the stripboard circuits looked so good that they were sold as the finished product.
I've noticed that some of the older protoboards work better than the newer ones I credit this to a Chinese stuff, in many ways Chinese stuff is where Japanese stuff was 60 years ago After World War II. I fully expect that in time it will get better but meanwhile buyer beware. I have standardized proto boards in my drawings because that's the only way I tend to build nowadays. Here is an example:
Hello,
For drawing breadboard layouts, you could have a look at pebble:
https://picaxe.com/software/third-party/pebble/
Bertus
For drawing breadboard layouts, you could have a look at pebble:
https://picaxe.com/software/third-party/pebble/
Bertus
