What is a Breadboard?

A breadboard is a rectangular plastic board with numerous tiny holes in it. This solderless construction base is used for developing prototypes and testing circuit designs before building the final, permanent design on a PCB. Most electronic components (battery, switch, resistor, LED, transistors, chips, etc.) in electronic circuits can be interconnected by inserting their leads or terminals into the holes and then making connections through wires where appropriate.

The connections are not permanent, so it is easy to remove component if you make a mistake, or just start over and do a new project. These breadboards come in handy for those who are new to electronics. Many fun electronics projects can be developed using these breadboards - from robots of different kinds to electronic drum set to electronic rain detector and many more.

Breadboards come in different sizes.

Breadboard Structure:

The internal structure of the Breadboard, can easily show you how and where to connect.

Front of a breadboard

Invariably breadboards have a similar layout, where rows are labelled 1-N and columns are labelled a-N. The number of rows and columns in a breadboard depends on the specific boards. The numbers and letters on a breadboard help to identify the holes. A typical breadboard has two bus strips and two terminal strips.

Bus strips: They help to connect the breadboard to a power supply so that the other electronic components on the breadboard can be powered. Bus strips are also called rails, power rails, power buses, or just buses.

Power rails are rows of connections running vertically along the breadboard, to connect to the power supply. There are of two types rails - "Power Rail" and "Component Rail". The strip marked '+' or ' - ' is referred to as the "Power Rail". They are used to supply electrical power to the circuit when it is connected to a battery pack or other external power supply.

Terminal strips: They are made up of small holes, or perforations, where your electronic components can be plugged in. Each hole is electrically connected to the other holes in the row. These strips are alternatively called barrier strips or terminal blocks. They comprise of a length of nonconducting material with several small bars of metal embedded within.

Back of a breadboard

Inside a breadboard, we can see a number of small clips of metal. These metal clips help to easily insert electronic components. There are four vertical metal clips at both ends. And in the middle, there are horizontal clips, which are used to place different components. At any point when the +ve terminal of the battery is connected to the bus/rails, the entire line becomes positive.

Simple circuit on breadboard:

Series and Parallel Circuit on Breadboard:

Series Circuit

A series circuit is a circuit in which the components are connected end to end so that the circuit has only one path through which the electric current flows.

In a series circuit, the voltage gets divided.

Parallel Circuit

Components are said to be connected in parallel when the end of each of the components have a common point or junction and the other ends are also connected to a common point or junction.

In a parallel circuit, the current gets divided.

Printed Circuit Board (PCB):

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the foundational building block of most modern electronic devices. A very basic printed circuit board is a flat, rigid, insulating material that has thin conductive structures adhering to one side. The earliest PCBs were made from materials like Bakelite, Masonite, layered cardboard and even thin wooden planks. Today, a PCB is a board that has lines and pads that connect various points together. It allows signals and power to be routed between physical devices. Solder is the metal that makes the electrical connections between the surface of the PCB and the electronic components. PCB contains the final and permanent designs of an electronic circuit. PCB is what you see when you take the cover off many electronic devices, like a computer or cell phone.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the boards that are used as the base in most electronics. It can be as a physical support piece and as the wiring area for the surface-mounted and socketed components.

PCBs have a conductive track on one side of it, on which we can solder our component and fix it permanently. (a track is a conductive path that is used to connect 2 points in the PCB.)

DID YOU KNOW?

Why it is called Breadboard?

The term breadboard comes from the early days of electronics when people literally drove nails or screws into wooden boards on which they cut bread in order to connect their circuits. Sometimes a paper schematic diagram was first glued to the board as a guide to place terminals, then components and wires were installed over their symbols on the schematic. However, modern-day breadboards are made of plastic and come in all shapes, sizes and colours.

Space Travel Would Not Have Happened Without PCBs

Printed circuit boards were an integral part of the space program. PCBs' lightweight and small electricity requirements permit more complicated electronics in the confined area of a spacecraft.

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Breadboard and PCB