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LAN_403

quicksilver

Fri Apr 09 2010, 07:46PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

Does anyone know a manufacturer of a truly QUALITY bread-board? I have been working with RadioShack stuff and similar and they don't appear to hold well to wire after a few projects, their design is simplistic but not well thought-out (IMO) so that the user needs to adjust to them as other manufacturers have connectivity between the power strips, RS boards do not.
I was just wondering if some who used them was particularly satisfied with some brand or style other than the Radio Shack offering.... OR had some tips about customizing them or others to be much more utilitarian & less cumbersome....? Do you "get what you pay for" with that & are there some high-end project boards that are quite well made? Or is this really a dead-end?

ragnar

Fri Apr 09 2010, 08:39PM

Registered Member #63 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425

Each to their own, but I quickly got tired of breadboards when I started laying out circuit boards. However, any time I spent with a breadboard was made less painful with two hints:

1) I made a plug-in diode feed for the top of the breadboard that only allows you to connect the correct polarity. It connected the left/right power rails together, had an LED to show power was applied on each, and 10n, 100n and 1u ceramic capacitors.

2) I connected little jumpers in the top/bottom power rails halves and left them there permanently.

quicksilver

Fri Apr 09 2010, 10:19PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

'DATS what I'm lookin' for! The ideas of "those who went before me" are valuable to the extreme!

Thanx.....

Bjørn

Sat Apr 10 2010, 01:31AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

I got a Proto-Board 203A that I got used 10 years ago, I never had any problems with that except the transformer seems to saturate slightly, I suspect it is designed for 220 V.

I converted the -15 V rail to 3.3 V which is much more useful for digital circuits.

Sulaiman

Sat Apr 10 2010, 07:14AM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

I do not like proto-boards for many reasons, I use boards like;

You can prototype circuits up to 10's of MHz, or high current, mount transformers, heatsinks, drill for switches, potentiometers, connectors etc. and the cost is low enough to keep prototyped circuits for possible future use/modification.
You can even directly follow prototype layouts intended for proto-boards if you want.

Steve Conner

Sat Apr 10 2010, 08:05AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

+1 on that. I sometimes use those breadboards for testing simple circuits, but they're mostly more trouble than they're worth. In "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits", Bob Pease devotes a few pages to persuading you not to use the things.

The ones I have used are a bunch of little tiles that you can snap together in whatever shape takes your fancy. I've got about a dozen and can't remember where I got them. I've hardly ever used the units that combine a breadboard with a power supply, I find it more convenient to just run a bundle of wires over to the "Tower of Power".

For prototyping, I mostly use stripboard, or dead bug construction on a sheet of blank copperclad PCB, or those matrix board things that Sulaiman showed. I have a hi-fi amp that I built out of those matrix boards, and it's still working fine years later.

Or these days, sometimes I'll send out for a one-off PCB from PCB Train. It's expensive, so I mostly only do it at work, where it would save more time/money than it costs.

Since Blackplasma told me about it, I've used the "Manhattan" technique a few times and found it very handy.

ragnar

Sat Apr 10 2010, 09:50AM

Registered Member #63 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425

Now Steve mentions it, a picture tells a thousand words.

Here is the very good PDF summarizing most of the Manhattan-style details. That's another great way to get out of breadboards without going all the way PCB.

Proud Mary

Sat Apr 10 2010, 11:18AM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

I bought a snazzy looking 'breadboard' last year, and soon discovered I had bought a method of creating 1024 potential dry joints in a single project, the aspiration of the inhabitants of some other planet.

In a word, I found it worse than useless. It wasn't possible to tell whether a circuit's failure to perform as hoped was due to an error of theory, or was an artefact introduced by the use of the plastic board.

This aside, I am a fan of real 'breadboards' - a cheap & cheerful piece of wood into which I can drive brass-plated tacks wherever I please.

I had not heard of the Manhattan method before, but it seems to me to be much the same as using the ceramic stand-offs, lugs, tag boards, sockets, and feedthroughs of the Thermionic Age.

Sulaiman

Sat Apr 10 2010, 12:46PM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

I too use 'manhattan' prototyping for my amateur radio type projects,
usually the prototype is also the finished item.

For 'manhattan' , anyone know of a better glue than cyanoacrilate 'superglue' ?
I don't like the smell and once in a while (too often) I glue fingers together.

quicksilver

Sat Apr 10 2010, 01:18PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

Proud Mary's comment on - not knowing if the issue exists in the circuit design or the breadboard construction is a haunting one. I wonder if that had recently happened to me..(?) I appreciate the perspectives illustrated here; it's opening my thinking.
The common ground concept appears very much the easier & more reliable one. And Breadboards are NOT cheap (for a quality one).

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