Choosing a Breadboard power supply
When you use a breadboard you’re going to need a power supply. The power supply you use will depend on the circuit or project you are building.
The power supply could be something as simple as a battery. There are many projects that use a simple 9-volt PP3 battery and clips to plug into the breadboard.
Information
Where would electronics be without soldering? Unbelievably, the modern soldering iron was patented way back in 1896 by Richard Schneider and August Tinnerhol and was known as an “Electric heating apparatus”.
Mb 102 power supply
This is specifically designed for the solderless breadboard.
As such it has pins in the bottom so it just plugs straight into the board. It provides 5 volts or 3.3 volts which you control either by switches or jumpers on the board.
There is one on each side so you can have 5 volts down one side and 3.3 volts on the other if you want. You get this voltage by plugging power into it through the 2.1 mm power socket.
The 5.5 x 2.1 mm is a standard size and lots of mains adapters use this size plug. Don’t just go plugging any old adapter into it though. It has to be a DC one and up to 12 volts. If you exceed that voltage you may end up frying the regulators on the power supply board.
It has a switch to turn the power on and off to save you from unplugging and an LED will show you it’s supplying power to the breadboard.
You need to check which board you get as on mine the USB seems to be an out socket to provide 5 volts to external equipment. I’ve read that some boards can use this as an input instead of the power socket. However, I can’t confirm this so check your particular board. You would have to use a USB type A to USB type A lead which isn’t that common to come by.
Information
The modern plastic breadboard in use today, with .1 inch spacing holes was patented in 1971 by Ronald Portugal.
Bench power supply
Although quick and convenient the MB 102 plug-in power supply isn’t that versatile.
It will only supply 5 volts or 3.3 volts. If that’s all you need then great but let’s face it there are lots of times when it won’t suffice. For lots of circuits, you’ll need more than 5 volts so a variable bench power supply might be a better option. You will be able to set the voltage you want. Most go up to 30 volts or more. I’ve never built any electronic circuit that needed as much as 30 volts by the way.
Probably the most useful option on a bench power supply if you have it, is the current limit. You can set this to literally limit the current that comes out of it. Why would you want to do that? I
f you know your circuit is only going to be using about 20 milliamps set the power supply and if you have a problem you might save burning out a component. This function may well save you a burnt-out IC if you plug it in the wrong way around!
Check out my guide on finding a bench power supply that suits you. This will help you decide exactly what features you need and what you can do without.
You can build your own power supply
As you may be a beginner and not experienced in building and soldering kits this may be out of your reach at this moment in time however if you’ve used the plug-in 5-volt one and built a few things you may now be ready for something more challenging.
Learning how to solder and build a power supply kit isn’t that difficult.
You could also buy a power supply module which comes as a metal chassis that supplies a voltage and a buck converter and connect the two together to make a bench power supply.
Dual rail power supply
Some electronic circuits and projects may require a dual rail power supply. Things like op-amps need a plus a minus voltage something like +12 and -12 is normal.
Op-amps are very popular devices in electronics and I’ve written a guide on how to use op-amps for information on this subject.
You can get supplies like this and if audio circuits are something that you will be building then you will more than likely need a power supply that can give you a positive and negative voltage at the same time.
Dual power rails are common in audio circuits and useful to have.
Final thoughts and summing up
A breadboard power supply is something you’ll need for your projects.
If you are just starting out with a breadboard to build beginners projects you may as well get the plug-in power supply as it’s only a few pounds. You can probably get by using a PP3 battery and clips for some other projects but sooner or later you’ll need something like a bench-top power supply.
The good news, is they don’t cost much these days and as you progress as an electronics hobbyist you’ll find that you use them more and more.
Also check out my post, Breadboards – the complete guide, for everything you need to know about breadboards.
“Hi, I’m Graham Moore and I’ve been building electronic projects since I was 12. I had a fascination for old radios and taking them to pieces but when my Nan bought me an electric soldering iron, I realised with a few components I could build stuff.
Learning to solder opened up many doors for me as electronics also became a career. I hope you get as much from it as i did”.
