breadboard hints and tips?

[b_rogers]

i bought a breadboard and jumper kit today at RS and i was wondering if you guys have any hints or tips? it seems pretty simple to hook everything together and  use the jumpers and stuff. i figured this is a good way to try circuits with out ruining parts if i dont like it..any suggestions greatly appreciated


Brent

[Jason Stout]

The best tip I can think of is to keep the spaghetti mess of wire (that is bound to happen) to a minimum. Other than that breadboard everything that sparks your curiosity.

[Hal]

if you're lost, go for simple circuits first.  Try Hog's foot / screeming bird just to see how it all works...cheep parts, too :-D

Have fun :-D

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I'm too clumsy to use breadboards, but I know the commonest problem is pushing wires in that are too big, & wrecking holes. So if you have components that have 'fat' prongs or leads, solder appropriate wires onto them & your board will be useful longer.

[The Tone God]

Save yourself some headachs wire up the power rails and don't touch it ever. It sucks to wire up a project only to realize that the circuit wasn't working because of no power to the rails.

Get yourself a bunch of aligator clip/leads for making conections to pots, jacks, power, and whatever else. Saves yourself alot of time. Lots of jumpers too. Long ones as well as short ones.

Make sure you have a good power supply. Bi-polar is nice with multiple voltages. It will help elminate noise issues coming from the power supply.

If you want to hook up stuff like guitars or speakers make a few cables with a 1/4 plug on one end. Then you can use clips on the other end to attach it to the circuit.

For audio stuff a simple power amp with speaker is nice too.

Andrew

[b_rogers]

ok i got a buncha alligator clips and a few pots and input jacks etc and i am mounting them (the pots and jacks)on a bracket to a board and screwing the breadboard to that board..if that makes any sense.  i got my ibanez power supply hooked to the rails and everything is working. now i just need something to wire up...i have a few ics..a 741,lm386,tl082...maybe a dist +? the blackfire looks like a good one to try too, or a obsidian...what do you guys think?

[Brian Marshall]

tips

1  buy another one... I only have one, and always want to leave a project on it and come back later... also is helpful if you are working on something kind of big

2  dont use the jumper kits.  or at least dont use them for everything.  i have a few rolls of solid wire from radioshack, and it is the right size for the bread board holes.  Some times it is nice to have a long ass wire for one reason or another.

3  build a box with a few jacks, 9v battery, and whatever else you may find useful.  right now i have a bb box without the bottom on it with 4 jacks, and a battery in  it... it helps for a bunch of different reasons.

4  mount it to a block of wood for stability

5  dont eat it.

6  make some common circuits on a pcb or perf board.  

7  here's one i havent tried yet.... build a large box, or something with a bunch of different sized pots in it with leads already attached.  i need to do this soon, but always use up pots.

now i have a question.... what about trim pots..... are there any cheap ones out there? like a variety of them for for around $.25 each or so.  that would be really handy

[smoguzbenjamin]

Yay! Breadboard! My very best purchase! It took me a while though to be able to efficiently wire a ckt up though, so my advice would be: practice like hell!!! Get parts for some simple circuits and work your way up the complexity scale. My first breadboard project had two parts: a resistor and a LED, lol. Then came the LED flip-flopper. Anyway just try hard to not use the jumpers because that gets confusing.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

A cheap source of solid jumper wire is telephone cable, especially the 1/2 inch thick "fifty pair" stuff used in office building wiring. (this turns up at scrapyards sometimes).

[Paul Marossy]

If you want to get serious about breadboarding, build something like this:
http://home.att.net/~u2p0j0m3/GEPB.htm

That's the one I built and I'm going to be using it a lot in the near future. Since I built it, I put an extruded aluminum L-channel piece on the front, so now it looks a little more professional. I actually have about 5 or 6 breadboards. One of them has three on one 12"x12" piece of 1/4" plywood. Fortunately, these breadboards were all given to me, it would have cost a small fortune otherwise.

And the suggestion about leaving a power section permanently hooked up is a good one. I did that with my prototyping board.

Anyhow, I would suggest having at least two breadboards.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Paul,

how do you label your pedals so neatly? :? I'm starting to get to the stage that I have a few boards I want to box, but not in a shabby "aluminium box with knobs" way. How'd ya do it?

[Brian Marshall]

hey paul..
that looks sort of like what i am going for... next month it will be even closer.

[Paul Marossy]

smoguz,

Here is what I do for my boxes:

http://home.att.net/~u2p0j0m4/DIY-StompboxTips.htm

Unfortunately, it's not something everyone can use.  


Brian,

Cool. It's a handy thing to have.

[b_rogers]

well i tried the blackfire last night and i am getting some sound, but not the full signal..im thinking of pulling all that and doing a tonebender or something a little less complex.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Hmmm, the CAD software shouldn't be a problem, I can probably get my hands on that through school. But how do you apply the graphics to the pedal? I get as far as painting the basic colour on and then your site says:

Here is the enclosure after painting. The graphics are applied to the top. Then it gets a clear protective coat applied to the whole thing.

How do you apply these graphics? Maybe I asked the wrong question, but what I want to know is how you get the graphics off the computer screen, and onto a pedal.

[Paul Marossy]

smoguz,

Look up a few frames. You can print the graphics onto stickyback using a laserjet printer or a copier.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Aaaah I see. So you just put the stickyback over the whole front of the pedal? Clever.... What if it goes wrong, does it come off with a solvent or something?

[Paul Marossy]

Well, that's one of the disadvantages to using this stuff. You have to get it right the first time, or most of the time, you have to peel it off and get the adhesive that remains on the box off of the box. And then, usually, if you use a solvent to get the adhesive off, it ruins the paint, too.
But, I'm very used to working with the stuff, I've put it on hundreds of drawings before CAD was used exclusively. Fortunately, I've only had to redo one of my my boxes because it went on crooked...  :oops:
That means getting all of the adhesive off, sanding the paint down, a new coat of primer, and a new coat of paint. Usually, if you're careful, and the paint is cured enough, you have some latitude with moving it around a little before you really press it onto the box and make it permanent. The other thing to deal with is that it wants to curl up on you, and if it sticks to itself, it gets screwed up. I always make about 3 or 4 of them just in case I have problems. It's far from perfect, but it works for me.

Maybe someday I'll try moosapotamus' method, they turn out great.