Built loads of vero's, stripboads and pcb's, but I'm still a breadboard virgin!

[ACS]

...and I'm about to pop my cherry!

But the question is: where to start?

I know 'how' to use a breadboard in terms of making connections work, but converting a schematic in to a working proto is a different story - for small stuff I'm sure you just whack components in any old where until you've got something that works.  All well and good, and I'm sure I could muddle my way through, but what do you do for more complex designs?  My next build is an Echobase - how would I go about putting something like this on to the breadboard? so that a) it all fits! and b) I can actually figure out what's what to easily make changes as I need?

Cheers
Aidan

[andrew_k]

breadboarded echobase? You crazy 

Spread it out. Get another one or two small breadboards. Personally I'd have the LFO on its own small board, possibly multiple different LFOs (eg: the one from the Tremulus Lune, as used by the Magnus Modulus). Multiple boards will allow you to experiment with additions as well. For example, my echobase has a big muff tone stack with a gain recovery stage in the feedback loop, as well as an effects loop with jfet buffers on send/return. Trying out different things takes space, and segmenting them onto different boards will make things easier when you come back three days later and wonder wtf you were up to last time.

[ACS]

Good advice Andrew - hadn't thought of utilising other breadboards...  Have only got the one unfortunately - don't suppose DSE are clearing them out cheap at the moment?!!?

[Ripthorn]

If you do use multiple breadboards, remember to make sure they all have the same ground reference.

[andrew_k]

Good advice Andrew - hadn't thought of utilising other breadboards...  Have only got the one unfortunately - don't suppose DSE are clearing them out cheap at the moment?!!?

DSE? Discounts?! Hahaha, only once every 20 years 

Futurlec.com.au sells them for cheap if I remember correctly

[ACS]

Hahah, yeah they're not renowned for their sales...  But then, they have been pretty much running themselves out of most electrical stock these days.

Have literally just receved my last order to futurlec... Bugger!

[slacker]

  My next build is an Echobase - how would I go about putting something like this on to the breadboard?

Here's how I did it



PT2399 and CD4066 on the left hand side board and the opamp stuff on the right, I had a quad opamp on the breadboard at that stage rather than the 2 duals in the final build.

I'd start with the PT2399 and the regulator. Most of the stuff round the PT2399 is pretty straight forward. Then add the CD4066, and the switching transistor, again that's all pretty simple. Then add the opamps in the audio path and finally the LFO opamp and stuff.

[ACS]

 

Well, those two together are about the same size as my one, so at least I know it's feasbile...

Right.  The gauntlet has been thrown - that's this weekend taken care of

Cheers for that Ian

[liquids]

It's feasible...

I'd try dano's site to start for some breadboard into projects. http://www.beavisaudio.com/bboard/projects/

It's nice to 'paint by number' first, before you try 'designing' on the breadboard.  Designing becomes rather easy, but it requires 'thinking in breadboard' if you will, just like vero or perf might...

Breadboard jumper wire kits are good on some level, but the colors are coded by length.  It works.  But ideally, you'd use 3 colors of solid core wire for connections...4 at most.  It really helps with any debugging---a lot.  Visually, most peoples breadboarding looks a lot like the picture above, so any visual continuity is helpful.   

If you get into breadboarding (it's really worth it!) 100 ft of good breadboard wire in all colors, and some good, affordable breadboards can be had via circuit specialists. FYI I don't like PPP solid core wire for breadboarding--a little thing and flimsy, and they only offer 2 colors (green and white) anyway.  Stranded wire is a nightmare...circuit specialists is the only place with solid wire that I'd overtly recommend for bread boarding.

My self-mandated plug for breadboarding--last night I drilled up a layout of a Foxx Tone Machine with a fair number of mods/tweaks that I worked on, but it was about a month ago.  I saw I forgot what value pot I wanted to use for one control since I forgot to write it down after tinkering.

The circuit is not as simple as a fuzz face and not as complex as a filter sample and hold, but nevertheless, I grabbed a blank breadboard, and a few minutes later I was firing it up and demoing different value pots.  I'm still not a pro at it, but when you've done even a little successful breadboarding, and with a fairly simple setup for demoing breadboarded circuits, this is the kind of thing you can expect.  Want to just audition a circuit with no other commitments? ready in a few minutes.  And there's no better way to tweak, mod, learn by experimentation, and hone in on a sound than on a breadboard...

The tip I always tell people...take your DMM and continuity check the whole board before you ever work on it.  Incorrect assumptions about the breadboards 'internal' connections are, I'd guess, easily the #1 reason people don't get breadboard stuff to work and often give up. It's essential to know what is and isn't internally connected...the rails, the strips, everything.   

...and maybe start with something other than a echobase.   

[ACS]

Well, being a sucker for punishment, I decided that starting with an Echo Base was a good idea!!

Got nothing at first - quick check of voltages showed something screwy with the input opamp.  Found I'd missed a jumper here - fixed that, and started getting some sound.  Not good sound though.  Voltages on the PT looked off, so checked all that out and found a resistor in one column too far to the left.  After that - all good!

So a good first experience then - and even better, the far more 'visual' approach gave me a better understanding in to what makes the circuit tick, so to speak.  Reckon I've learnt more in this build than in the last ten combined...

So, have got a bunch of tweaks to try now - trick is finding the time.  Don't have much of that these days - a three month old baby will do that to ya

Here's the 'finished' product: