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am i the only one who really hates breadboarding?
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do you enjoy breadboarding?
yes
40%
 40%  [ 2 ]
no
60%
 60%  [ 3 ]
Total Votes : 5

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NOISEBOB



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:03 am    Post subject: am i the only one who really hates breadboarding? Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

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I HATE BREADBOARDING

Evil or Very Mad
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blue hell
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Heh, not doing HW anymore .. but I never liked breadboards much .. would solder on perfboard instead using wirewrap wire to connect stuff up (soldered, not wrapped).

Also: welcome

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also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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JovianPyx



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I spent many years working with breadboard circuits.

Many years ago I bought 3 interlocking breadboard bricks, a metal chassis, transformer, etc. for PSU. Mine still works (35 years later).

What I did not do was to look for the lowest price possible. I did pay what I thought was "too much" at the time, but in those days, we didn't have China making stuff like that and we really had a rather small selection of American made bricks.

I had very little mechanical problems and of them, they were dirty or corroded pins. Cleaning fixed that whenever it happened. I never had "loose" connections, but I did pay attention not to use wire too slender. Same goes for wire that's too heavy - that can spread the clips and prevent future good connections (which tends to be permanent).

There are, however, intrinsic problems. The structure of each row is a piece of metal - right next to two others (usually). This makes an obvious capacitor. So I would never try to use breadboard to make high frequency circuits. Breadboards can work with low megahertz signals such as PIC and Arduino.

The plastic can melt if it gets too hot, so I never built PSU like circuits on breadboard, I always soldered those small bits together. For a PSU, it's vastly important to make all connections high current with resistance as close to zero as possible. That's just not going to happen with a breadboard, so buy or build a decent PSU and connect it with wires. My PSU is under the chassis and has 1 amp regulators for +5v +15v and -15v.

What I built was either logic circuits or audio circuits and honestly the problems I had were self caused. Things like absent mindedly following the schematic, or being off a row when making connections.

Would I say breadboards are perfect? No, because they aren't. What they provided for me was a "work bench" for audio circuit design and concept proof and I was satisfied. Was I able to produce audiophile sound quality from breadboard? No, however, it was in fact good enough to have done several recordings using breadboard circuits. Noteworthy might be that my breadboards were screwed down to a grounded metal chassis which may have provided a modicum of shielding.

So my advice would be:
arrow Don't buy cheap ones
arrow Use proper wire
arrow Make sure pins and wires are dirt/corrosion/grease free
arrow Don't build the PSU on the breadboard
arrow Don't put heat generating parts on the breadboard. (heat - as in too hot to touch for more than 5 seconds)
arrow Keep your little brother away from it.

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Grumble



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 9:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Blue Hell wrote:
...would solder on perfboard instead using wirewrap wire to connect stuff up (soldered, not wrapped).

Also: welcome

Same here Very Happy

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PHOBoS



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 9:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I don't hate it nor do I enjoy it. But it's pretty much unavoidable if you design circuits and don't want any surprises after soldering.
You can do things with simulations but it will still need a test with real hardware to be sure it works correctly.

And yes, quality of breadboards matters. I never had any expensive ones but I did get some cheap ones from ebay that are pretty
much useless. Also got some from ebay for the same price that work fine.

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AlanP



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I can get a single transistor guitar fuzz working on breadboard. Any more parts, and nothing EVER bloody works.

That reminds me, I need to buy more perf for testing and modding idea circuits.
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Grumble



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Used this in the old days Laughing


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NOISEBOB



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PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Grumble wrote:
Used this in the old days Laughing


that's beautiful!
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