Hey guys, this video is all about breadboards, what they are and how you can use them when designing electronic circuits. So what is a breadboard? Well, here's the one that I use the most.
A breadboard helps you build electronic circuits without actually soldering any components together. The breadboard is used to make the necessary connections between individual components. And if you make a mistake or if you want to change something, you can easily swap or move components around.
So how do you actually use a breadboard? First of all, it is important to know that there are connections inside the breadboard itself that act like conducting wires. The holes, also known as connection points, are connected in groups of five.
This is what connects individual components together. So for example, if I wanted to connect a light bulb to a battery, I could create a circuit like so. The electrical connections inside the breadboard act as a wire and complete the circuit. I can also add a light bulb to a battery. add a push button to the circuit like this.
We can even get fancier by adding a variable resistor or a potentiometer to control the brightness of the light bulb. Just to be clear, while the connection points on the breadboard are electrically connected in groups of a 5 like this, two adjacent groups are not connected. So if you hook up your components like this, you wouldn't have a complete circuit.
How do you provide power to the breadboard? Most breadboard types have power rails. They let you connect a voltage source, such as a battery pack or a wall adapter, at one end of your breadboard and have easy access to power from any point. Some breadboards have a gap in the middle of the power rail, as indicated by the colored bands. The top and the bottom power rails may not be connected either, but you can use short jumper wires to connect them all.
Speaking of wires, when working on a breadboard, do not use the kind of wires that have a dozen small conductors inside them. They just do not fit well inside the holes and make for a less reliable connection. Instead you should use solid core wire.
You can buy several spools of wires of different colors. and make your own jumper wires as long as you need them to be. Or you can get a set of jumper wires that have pins at the ends meant to go inside a breadboard. How do you place components on a breadboard? That's actually easy.
Just insert the metal leads of your parts firmly inside the connection points. Most electronic components will fit in just fine. But it is important to orient your components the right way.
Remember that the holes inside the breadboard are connected in groups, so if I place an LED like so, it will never light up. Right now, its metal legs are practically bridged together, and no electricity flows through the LED. Fortunately, since this is a breadboard, I can easily take out the LED and place it the right way.
Now the circuit is complete and the LED lights up. If you are working with integrated circuits or chips, place them in the middle of your breadboard. That's what the gap in the middle is designed for. If you place them like this, you are basically creating a short circuit between the pins, and your circuit isn't going to work. The connection points along the gap in the middle are not electrically connected, so you can use chips like this without blowing anything up.
Now let's put theory into practice and build a simple LED circuit on our breadboard. I'm going to place the LED first and then build the circuit around it. Next, to limit the current that goes through the LED, I will add a 470 ohm resistor in series. Now I will add a push button also in series. Next, I connect the power source to my circuit and that's it.
When I press the button, the LED lights up. And by now you already know enough about breadboards to start making cool circuits. Have fun and subscribe to my channel to never miss a video.