Hello, I was browsing around and found statistics that stated breadboards are generally rated for 10khz and below. Does anyone have any real information for solderless breadboard specs??? My project produces somewhere around 10-50kHz.

 

It's as much a problem with the link wires as the breadboard itself.

If you keep all the ground wires in particular as short as possible and use decoupling capacitors near ICs, you should be OK at a few tens of kilohertz. I've used them of odd bits of logic & stuff far faster.

Keep all other link wires to a reasonable length. They don't have to be tight, but use lengths appropriate to the job, don't have loops three inches tall.

 

I've breadboarded microcontroller circuits with a 8Mhz clock. Granted, the crystal was close the MCU and decoupling caps used, as in the real circuit.

 

Breadboards are great for low speed analog stuff.

However, when you're working on digital circuits, you really need a lot of bandwidth. Realize that a square wave is made up from not only the fundamental frequency, but ALL of the odd harmonics of the fundamental.

In order to get a really decent 10kHz square wave, you really need around 200kHz of bandwidth. Breadboards have quite a bit of parasitic capacitance and inductance; and the interconnecting jumpers add inductance at a rate of 15nH per 10mm, or roughly 0.9uH per foot. It adds up very quickly, and can wreak havoc with your circuit.

 

All the long connecting wires on a breadboard pickup plenty of mains hum.
Did I mention all the intermittent connections on a breadboard?

I use stripboard with a layout planned for compactness. Strips are cut to length with a drill bit. All connections are soldered for reliability. It is easy to desolder and change a part.

 

oidium45,
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I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you! You have posted responses on a few of my threads and have been vary helpful! I appreciate your input!

You're welcome. I hope the information is helpful to you.
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