Which bread board to buy

[harkkam]

Im looking at a couple breadboards on ebay and Im not sure which one I should get.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-860-Tiepoint-Solderless-Breadboard-Includes-Jumpwires_W0QQitemZ150391049895QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2304014ea7#ht_613wt_939

http://cgi.ebay.com/760-Point-Solderless-Breadboard-Include-Jumpwires-5pcs_W0QQitemZ170421215923QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27ade562b3#ht_2156wt_1202

[ianmgull]

Wow. That first one looks nice. Comes with jumpers, power terminals, and a power bus strip. #1 has my vote.

[liquids]

I've tried neither, but I say neither.  Twin industries breadboards are worth it, to me....depends on how fancy you want them, you can get them, but they can all be chained together, so you need not buy a 'set,'  you can start with one simple one on up, and can always connect them to whatever others you buy in the future, if you continue to buy twin industries type.  You can get them from most of the big suppliers like mouser, digikey.

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E40-1020.jpg

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E41-1020.jpg

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E41-102B.jpg

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E41-1060.jpg


Of course Circuit Specialists also sells the whole array, plus lots of stuff we all use for stompbox building, and way more.   Some prices and shipping are a bit high, but if you spend $50 on stuff (not that hard to do!) you can get this great DMM, which I love, which evens everything out:

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/8883

While you're at it, get at least 3 if not 4 different colors of 100 ft' of this solid wire - get black and red, then two other colors, say one for a Vref and one for signal connections, and may additional for pots, etc.  Or as many as you can afford, so you are always well color coded for debug, or coming back the next day, etc, easy tracing on the breadboard.  You can strip the wires to appropriate length yourself...and you'll have a lifetime supply.  By now I've got like 8 breadboards, usually all full, and a slew of wires of consistent colors I reuse over and over...one of my favorite investments.

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/7944

Cheers!

[puretube]

I can`t recommend "Wanjie" Bread boards: cheap, but miserable contacts (even for "one project only"-purposes).... [sorry] 

[Paul Marossy]

www.parts-express.com also sells some decent ones for very reasonable prices.

[JKowalski]

I've tried neither, but I say neither.  Twin industries breadboards are worth it, to me....depends on how fancy you want them, you can get them, but they can all be chained together, so you need not buy a 'set,'  you can start with one simple one on up, and can always connect them to whatever others you buy in the future, if you continue to buy twin industries type.  You can get them from most of the big suppliers like mouser, digikey.

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E40-1020.jpg

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E41-1020.jpg

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E41-102B.jpg

I have a couple different B-board I have collected over time and this kind is definitely my favorite in terms of contact quality. You can abuse em quite a bit and they'll still stay decent, they don't have splits halfway along the power/ground terminals, and the component insertion is easy (some others I have are way too stiff, everything just bends going in)

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Twin%20Industries%20Photos/TW-E41-1060.jpg


Of course Circuit Specialists also sells the whole array, plus lots of stuff we all use for stompbox building, and way more.   Some prices and shipping are a bit high, but if you spend $50 on stuff (not that hard to do!) you can get this great DMM, which I love, which evens everything out:

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/8883

While you're at it, get at least 3 if not 4 different colors of 100 ft' of this solid wire - get black and red, then two other colors, say one for a Vref and one for signal connections, and may additional for pots, etc.  Or as many as you can afford, so you are always well color coded for debug, or coming back the next day, etc, easy tracing on the breadboard.  You can strip the wires to appropriate length yourself...and you'll have a lifetime supply.  By now I've got like 8 breadboards, usually all full, and a slew of wires of consistent colors I reuse over and over...one of my favorite investments.

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/7944

Cheers!

[WGTP]

I just bought the small ones at Radio Shack and use the leads from the caps/resistors/diodes etc.  Cut short pieces of wire when it needs to be longer.  Just the right size for most distortions.  One has dual op amps, one has discrete mosfets/jfets and one has cmos chips like 4049.

For larger stuff you could put them together. It's great to be able to whoop up the latest distortions from the forum and tweak them to taste...

[oliphaunt]

I own the one in the first link and it's pretty decent.  It does have splits in the power rails so I added permanent jumpers made from component leads along them to solve that problem.  Otherwise it's been pretty good and the set of jumper wires is nice to have as well.  I also have the others mentioned from Digikey, at least they look similar.  I bought mine from Small bear and they are very nicely made if a little pricey comparatively. 

[liquids]

I can't speak for some of the boards mentioned here, but note that you should probably 'ring out' or continuity check your boards with a DMM when you first buy them (and regularly, for that matter) especially if you don't pick the 'Twin Industries' type.  Dano has some good info on his site, of note, for the breadboard beginner and understanding what is connected  how to breadboard.  

I'm emphatic about this because I've read from quite a few people here, in the past, who build prolifically but have had trouble doing basic breadboarding -- a skill and tool I consider invaluable -- and have given up altogether on the breadboard.  Often it can be traced to incorrect assumptions about the breadboard in general or the specific board they have, or even straight up misinformation from the seller about how things are connected.

In the twin industries type, there are four rails, not two. and they are sort of color coded.  Two are blue and two are red.  However, the two blue are not connected together internally, and the two red rails are not connected to each other internally either. You need to connect them from one side to the other should, you want them to act as one rail.  This also means you can legitimately have 3 different rails--pick one for V++ one for ground, one for V-, etc.   I think the two color scheme is misleading...though I'd rather some color coding than none.

On breadboards like the similar if not identical boards you can get from Smallbear and Futurlec (I mention those, because I have ordered at least one from each supplier), the rails are not color coded.  It's not as trivial as you might think, when you put that 20th resistor into a power rail, and wonder...wait, which rail was I using for V++ again? Or, if you come back the next day you're bound to wonder the same unless you marked them clearly from the go.  It's advisable to do so.

To boot, on those breadboards, a quick continuity check with the DMM will reveal that what appear to be 'two rails rails per side'  running parallel are actually 4 rails per side.  What would be two long oppositely colored rails from one end to the other on the aforementioned breadboards are actually four short rails.  Each rail connection stops dead in the middle, from long end to end.  So they're not the same.   If you want a continuous rail you also need jumpers at the mid point along the rails.    It can be useful to keep them separate if you are doing such a project where you need a few extra and have multiple voltages going on.    I apologize if my descriptions are confusing, but with a simple DMM check, it should be clear.

I don't know what the original EBAY listed breadboards are  However, a logical DMM continuity check would resolve all confusion no matter what you get.

Though I'm far from a good builder or a veteran, I'm passionate about bread boarding.  It's my favorite hobby!  I like it more than building, actually.      

[oliphaunt]

Liquid, my two boards from Small Bear (Wish Board no 204-3) are color coded and have continous power rails.

[liquids]

Liquid, my two boards from Small Bear (Wish Board no 204-3) are color coded and have continous power rails.

I apologize....I forgot that steve started carrying this one too:
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=374

Though I see no color coding on the rails....maybe you have another one that steve isn't currently carrying or I'm missing something big?   

Previously, this was the only one I saw available, and is the one I mean to speak of as the Smallbear/Futurlec...
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=714

Which in the way he sells it, it only has one rail, though at least from futurlec, another separately purchased rail or strip can be added, etc...
http://futurlec.com/Breadboards.shtml

[frank_p]

I can`t recommend "Wanjie" Bread boards: cheap, but miserable contacts (even for "one project only"-purposes).... [sorry] 

How can you recognise the ones that will make bad contacts after a short while ?  Is the Wanjie brand the only brand to avoid ?

[puretube]

I can`t recommend "Wanjie" Bread boards: cheap, but miserable contacts (even for "one project only"-purposes).... [sorry]  

How can you recognise the ones that will make bad contacts after a short while ?  Is the Wanjie brand the only brand to avoid ?

You can recognise it when the circuit won`t work, although it should... *
(especially if it doesn`t work NOT just after a short while, but right at the first time you insert a few components
for a simple circuit into a virgin board...)      

*not talking BS here, coz those non-functioning circuits did start working after additional stuffing in some needles, paperclips
or wire-ends into the holes to ensure "contacting" ; (making it look like a voodoo-victim...)

[edit]: dunno about  other brands. The ones I got from "Conrad"  (branded:"KitCraft"), although ridicously expensive,
however survived several (re-)designs of more complex circuits like a Flanger-Hoax and the like...
(without having to "beep" each and every connection for continuity between each IC-pin and its adjacent hole...  )

[frank_p]

Thanks Puretube, I wondered if "Wanjie" between ""s  was standing for other Chinese plugboards.  Since I have a breadboard with a  W  molded in it I toughed it was a Wanjie, but it seems to be a Wishboard.

For those who don't want Wanjie Boards:
http://www.himfr.com/buy-breadboard/

You can recognise it when the circuit won`t work, although it should... *
(especially if it doesn`t work NOT just after a short while, but right at the first time you insert a few components
for a simple circuit into a virgin board...)     

I meant before buying it, of course...