Boe-Bot component leads shorting - what to do?

John Kauffman

About a third of my troubleshooting of student projects turns out to be component leads in the breadboard shorting to each other.

The components have have long, exposed leads, cross over each other and are easily pushed to the side or squashed as the Boe-Bot moves. The photoresistors and IR LEDs are particularly vulnerable as they hang over the front edge and are easily twisted when bumped.

Any suggestions for solving the problem?
My thoughts to date:
- Cut component leads so they fit lower to the breadboard. Perhaps have extra components with long legs to lend when needed.
- thread some kind of insulating jacket over the leads except for the bottom few millimeters.
- line up the components in a row, cover them with plastic except for the leads and spray them with some kind of dielectric material.
- Are components with insulated leads available for sale?
- Make up some sort of supporting plate or tube for the sensors exposed in the front.

Thanks.

Martin_H

Heat shrink tubing on the leads would work for your second bullet idea.

Shorting leads is really easy when bread boarding. I've done it and lost a few components in the process. I also find it annoying to bread board the same circuits over and over. So I soldered components commonly used together into re-usable modules. Modules have three pin SIP headers so I can plug them into the breadboard, or use a servo extension cable.

For example, I have a switch plug-in module with a three pin header, a 10K pull down, and a 100 ohm pin protection. I also have a CDS cell module. On my to do list is a 7 segment led with shift register module, and a relay module. I'm kind of taking the Lego mindset to electronics.

The idea is you could have them bread board a circuit to learn it, but later use a soldered module which has less chance for shorting.

Mike Green

Heat shrink tubing is readily available. You can buy small assortments at RadioShack and larger supplies at electronics suppliers. You don't have to shrink it, just use a size a bit larger than the leads you're using, cut off an appropriate length, and slide it over the component leads.

bee_man

I just strip a strand of solid telephone wire. The insulation comes off the copper wires easily and you have 4 colors to choose from. Most components have smaller gauge wire than the solid phone wire, so you can just slip the stripped jacket over the bare lead. I seem to have an endless supply of old 4 conductor phone line laying around so its readily available.

Jim