My "fancy" one also arrived. The color is dirt white, and despite being bubble-wrapped, the board itself is strongly scratched, like someone with turrent syndrome tried to install components in it
That's one of the SYB boards. Every one I've seen is a sort of grayish off-white color. They're not as shiny as most other boards, which I actually like. The ones I have are the SYB-130, 700 holes I think, and good quality. They're the two in the very front in my photo above.
Notice the jumpers in the upper and lower rails in the board on the left. The rails aren't continuous all the way across, but they don't break in the center like most other boards, they're split into three parts. That caused me some problems the first time I used the board. Took me a while to figure out why the circuit didn't work.
Yes, dirty white means grayish white, no speckles. Also, this one has no double sided scotch tape on back, it has just plain PVC insulating tape. Contacts appear to hold nicely, and plastic molding quality not bad. I especially liked the interconnection feature, so will buy more, when I will need more module-like breadboard construction.
Another interesting aspect - it arrived in standard USPS packet, with usual USPS logo, colors, etc. despite having chinese tracking number like LK**********CN.
Here's an example showing various colors of "white" plastic breadboards. Note that the two on the left are very translucent and you can see into the plastic to a certain extent. This affects their apparent color. The little board in the center is from Parallax, top right is a SYB-130, bottom right is from Jameco, and the bottom left board came from All Electronics. The top left boards (two parts snapped together) are PSP brand that I got from Mouser. I just checked and all the PSP boards they have now are listed as "end of life" or "not recommended for new designs", which is too bad. They made some nice little modular boards that could be snapped together in various ways.
erco, got mine today - thanks for sending them. Not bad, pretty good at first look. I haven't done a close comparison with our breadboards but I will do that next. Plastic molding and colors are pretty good - would like to see if the white one fades to yellow ugly in the sun.
Mine arrived a few days ago. 1 green, looks fine. I have a good quality largish breadboard I have had for years and use it for decent projects But for those odd occasions these cheapies are just the thing for quick testing. Shame they are only 17 long, otherwise would have been good for Prop 40pin DIPs. I would be interested to see if anyone can file the ends to fit 2 together to make a longer board - although maybe just buy the larger ones for a little extra $.
Also solderless, and not even a buck. Get the lead out!
Years ago, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, they had a display where you used a lead pencil to connect a couple of traces on a sheet of paper to complete an electrical circuit and light up something... a sign or lamp or something. Been, probably, 40 years since I was there, but your post reminded me of that. :-)
Does anybody remember some weird little breadboards from a long time ago that were just tiny holes in a slab of some kind of rubber? This was probably in the 80s or thereabouts. There were no conductive strips, no metal at all. You made connections just by poking component leads and connecting wires in the holes and friction did the rest. I think the holes were on the usual 0.1 inch spacing, but I'm not sure.
My "fancy" one also arrived. The color is dirt white, and despite being bubble-wrapped, the board itself is strongly scratched, like someone with turrent syndrome tried to install components in it
Mine arrived today. Beautiful bright white breadboard in pristine shape; no scratches, nice insertion force on wires & components. Blue vinyl tape on bottom, no double stick tape. Wrapped in bubble wrap & tape, no real package.
I used several like the one in post #96 shown at the bottom left. The good deal with this breadboard is they interlock together with the power bus bars. It's easy to make one of the largest with tens of thousands of holes that can hold hundreds and hundreds of chips, though you'll need to break it apart when moving across countries. I still have a lot of boards in their original packaging, just waiting to create an even larger breadboard only if someday I find a larger room. This image shows the beginning of a larger board. The small breadboard is easily taped to the Propeller Proto Board in this example.
Mine arrived today. Beautiful bright white breadboard in pristine shape; no scratches, nice insertion force on wires & components. Blue vinyl tape on bottom, no double stick tape. Wrapped in bubble wrap & tape, no real package.
Does anybody remember some weird little breadboards from a long time ago that were just tiny holes in a slab of some kind of rubber? This was probably in the 80s or thereabouts. There were no conductive strips, no metal at all. You made connections just by poking component leads and connecting wires in the holes and friction did the rest. I think the holes were on the usual 0.1 inch spacing, but I'm not sure.
Yeah, those things didn't work worth a darn. The metal spring receivers in these other breadboards exert a lot more force to make sure the connection stays reliable.
Does anybody remember some weird little breadboards from a long time ago that were just tiny holes in a slab of some kind of rubber? This was probably in the 80s or thereabouts. There were no conductive strips, no metal at all. You made connections just by poking component leads and connecting wires in the holes and friction did the rest. I think the holes were on the usual 0.1 inch spacing, but I'm not sure.
Yes, I remember those!
My physics teacher let me and another student put together a small electronics course for the other students during my senior year, back in 1984.
We had a tight budget so I bought a bunch of those and cut them in half to double the number of "boards",
We ordered those and a bunch of LED's, small NPN transistors, resistors, electrolytic capacitors, etc. from Digi-Key.
The most complex project was a two transistor multivibrator driving two LED's, everyone thought that was pretty fun to build.
For projects like that they worked out well, but I never tried using them for anything more complex.
Seems all you're lucky. My "fancy" one has very low quality, constantly looses grip, I may say, it is almost unusable. Contrary, I have a breadboard from WISHER - http://www.wishmaker.com.tw/cubecat/front/bin/home.phtml which has great quality and works flawlessly for last 3 years, but sure, it costed around $30.
Actually just tell the seller and he will send you another for free. If it's as bad as you say, there's no need to put up with junk. I've bought from half a dozen different sellers and all of mine are surprisingly high quality. Sorry to hear you got a bad one.
Ebay China sellers are eager to please. My local post office either lost or misdelivered a clear breadboard last month. I never got it, although the delivery tracking number said it was delivered on June 25. I waited a while, but it never showed up. Told the seller, and my replacement arrived yesterday. Pretty amazing.
Last year I ordered one of those SYB-120 breadboards (with free jump wires!) from a seller in China. When the box arrived, it was full of 40 position male header pin strips - no breadboard. I sent them an e-mail and all they asked for was a photo showing the box and its contents. Less than 2 weeks later the replacement breadboard and wires arrived. They told me to just keep the header pin strips, no need to return.
Maybe not the cheapest(I'll let Erco find that), but lots of different colours in different lengths, and bundles of 100/200/500/1000 each.
then it's possible to use different colours for different uses:
Black/White: Power
Green: Data
Red: Addressing
Blue: 'glue' (all the Read/write/whatever signals, weird stuff)
Brown: Analog
Or any other colour coding you want...
Slow day at work, so I'm spending money on eBay...
My wires arrived today...
(Don't ask how many bundles... )
Haven't gotten to try them out, yet, as my breadboards are still on their way...
Anyway...
They're made of soft multi-core wires that has been stripped and tinned. As they're so soft, I'll probably need to use needle-nosed pliers for a reliable insertion.
The length of stripping on each end may also be a problem. On some it's as short as 2.5mm (0.1" )
It all really depends on the quality of the breadboards.
Probably time to start ordering the chips I want to play with soon...
I prefer telecom cable(In fact I have a box full of wires from an ancient, relay-based phone central, that I have been using) but...
cutting and stripping all those wires is a pain in the ...
And the colour choices you end up with from Cat5 is a bit lacking.
Now I have lots of brightly coloured cable, already stripped and ready for use, in nice, even lengths.
I did consider the single-core wires that Spark-fun sells in nice plastic boxes, but the sizes are too impractical, and they're bent in 90degree angles at the ends. Also, those kits are too small...
Comments
Hoarder! Well, I guess you'd have to have ordered more than one, for that remark. I take it back...
dgately
That's one of the SYB boards. Every one I've seen is a sort of grayish off-white color. They're not as shiny as most other boards, which I actually like. The ones I have are the SYB-130, 700 holes I think, and good quality. They're the two in the very front in my photo above.
Notice the jumpers in the upper and lower rails in the board on the left. The rails aren't continuous all the way across, but they don't break in the center like most other boards, they're split into three parts. That caused me some problems the first time I used the board. Took me a while to figure out why the circuit didn't work.
Years ago, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, they had a display where you used a lead pencil to connect a couple of traces on a sheet of paper to complete an electrical circuit and light up something... a sign or lamp or something. Been, probably, 40 years since I was there, but your post reminded me of that. :-)
Mine arrived today. Beautiful bright white breadboard in pristine shape; no scratches, nice insertion force on wires & components. Blue vinyl tape on bottom, no double stick tape. Wrapped in bubble wrap & tape, no real package.
I received two more of these $1.72, 240-hole boards in good shape yesterday. I think in terms of standalone circuit usability, these units take the "most bang for the cheapest buck" prize. Second place (standalone bang for the buck) are the $2.69, 400 hole boards with power busses on each side: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Breadboard-400-Points-Contacts-Solderless-PCB-Bread-Board-Test-Arduino-Develop-/251306621153?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a830ab8e1
Of course, when you need 800 holes, $3.75 shipped is hard to beat: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Breadboard-800-Point-Position-Solderless-PCB-Bread-Board-MB-102-Test-Prototype-/150805528073?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item231cb5be09#ht_2797wt_891
IMO, the smaller 170 holes are more useful as partner boards for use with existing hardware, perfect for the PropBoe & HW boards.
Yeah, those things didn't work worth a darn. The metal spring receivers in these other breadboards exert a lot more force to make sure the connection stays reliable.
Yes, I remember those!
My physics teacher let me and another student put together a small electronics course for the other students during my senior year, back in 1984.
We had a tight budget so I bought a bunch of those and cut them in half to double the number of "boards",
We ordered those and a bunch of LED's, small NPN transistors, resistors, electrolytic capacitors, etc. from Digi-Key.
The most complex project was a two transistor multivibrator driving two LED's, everyone thought that was pretty fun to build.
For projects like that they worked out well, but I never tried using them for anything more complex.
C.W.
Actually just tell the seller and he will send you another for free. If it's as bad as you say, there's no need to put up with junk. I've bought from half a dozen different sellers and all of mine are surprisingly high quality. Sorry to hear you got a bad one.
Ebay China sellers are eager to please. My local post office either lost or misdelivered a clear breadboard last month. I never got it, although the delivery tracking number said it was delivered on June 25. I waited a while, but it never showed up. Told the seller, and my replacement arrived yesterday. Pretty amazing.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Nickel-Plating-Prototype-Breadboard-170-Tie-points-for-Arduino-Shield-hv2n-/300896121496?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460ece7298
This clear 400-hole bb is $4: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Transparent-Solderless-Breadboard-400-contacts-NEW-w-/180758250443?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a160803cb#ht_1894wt_758
The missing link is the 240-hole board molded in transparent plastic. Just plain white so far, but cheap at $1.72: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-240-Point-Solderless-PCB-Breadboard-Bread-Board-8-5mm-SYB-46-/290749427429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b2042ee5
Is there no one who can find a clear 240 to complete my collection?
http://stores.ebay.com/Asia-Engineer/_i.html?rt=nc&_nkw=breadboard%20wires
Maybe not the cheapest(I'll let Erco find that), but lots of different colours in different lengths, and bundles of 100/200/500/1000 each.
then it's possible to use different colours for different uses:
Black/White: Power
Green: Data
Red: Addressing
Blue: 'glue' (all the Read/write/whatever signals, weird stuff)
Brown: Analog
Or any other colour coding you want...
Slow day at work, so I'm spending money on eBay...
My wires arrived today...
(Don't ask how many bundles... )
Haven't gotten to try them out, yet, as my breadboards are still on their way...
Anyway...
They're made of soft multi-core wires that has been stripped and tinned. As they're so soft, I'll probably need to use needle-nosed pliers for a reliable insertion.
The length of stripping on each end may also be a problem. On some it's as short as 2.5mm (0.1" )
It all really depends on the quality of the breadboards.
Probably time to start ordering the chips I want to play with soon...
cutting and stripping all those wires is a pain in the ...
And the colour choices you end up with from Cat5 is a bit lacking.
Now I have lots of brightly coloured cable, already stripped and ready for use, in nice, even lengths.
I did consider the single-core wires that Spark-fun sells in nice plastic boxes, but the sizes are too impractical, and they're bent in 90degree angles at the ends. Also, those kits are too small...
You need to use a rubber mallet if you want to hook them together...
My cables seems to fit, except for the 'power strips' along the edges.
Oh well.
Has anyone seen a $1 DC power board that fits these boards?
(The ones mentioned earlier are for double bussed boards. )