Page 171 - Making things move_ DIY mechanisms for inventors, hobbyists, and artists

150 Making Things Move

P roject 6-4: Breadboard a Circuit

A breadboard is a tool you can use to connect wires together a lot faster than you can
with soldering. Since the wires don’t get stuck to each other, it’s also easier to try
different configurations quickly without undoing and redoing the soldered joints.
Breadboards are made of plastic with metal links inside that connect the holes you see
in the plastic cover. (See www.tigoe.net/pcomp/code/circuits/breadboards for a more
complete description of breadboards.)

Figure 6-19 shows a breadboard and indicates which rows and columns are
connected underneath the plastic cover. Instead of soldering two wires together to
create a connection, you just stick
each wire into holes in the same row,
FIGURE 6-19 Breadboard indicating some of the
and the metal strips underneath that connected rows and columns
row automatically connect them.

In the following example, we’ll create
the same circuit as in Project 6-3, but
use the breadboard to hold the wires
instead of soldering them together.
You’ll need some jumper wires to
create circuits on your breadboard.
You can make your own jumper wires
by cutting short lengths off red and
black insulated solid wire spools (also
called hook-up wire, like SparkFun
PRT-08023 and PRT-08022). All you
need is a pair of wire strippers (like
SparkFun TOL-08696) to get started.
Wire comes in two flavors: solid and
stranded. Stranded wire is made up
of a bunch of tiny wires as thin as
your hair that are twisted together
and covered with plastic insulation.