How are breadboards connected?

Breadboards vary in type so how they are connected depends on the type of breadboard.

Breadboards can be further divided into two main types and that’s soldered breadboards and solderless breadboards

How are breadboards connected the project

Solderless breadboards

A solderless breadboard enables you to build circuits without soldering. Soldering is one of the best ways to construct electronic circuits and experiments. So to be solderless a breadboard has to have another way of connecting up electronic components and connections.

The main way this is done is by using metal connecting strips. These run under the surface of the solderless breadboard to act as sockets for components and connections.

Information

The modern plastic breadboard in use today, with .1 inch spacing holes was patented in 1971 by Ronald Portugal.

Breadboard internal connections

These breadboard internal connections run in both directions on a standard full-size MB 102 solderless breadboard. If you look at the breadboard there is a plastic groove that runs top to bottom down the middle of the board. This is designed to mount dual in line integrated circuits (known as ICs.)

How are breadboards connected the strips

On each side of this groove, there is a horizontal row of 5 holes. Under this row of holes is a metal strip. These metal strips are made in such a way as to act like a sprung socket for a wire or component leg. That’s how a solderless breadboard works instead of soldering. So you have a metal strip of length 5 holes on each side of the line and going from top to bottom of the solderless breadboard.

This is to provide connections to the legs of the IC. When an IC is plugged into the breadboard you then have 4 holes on either side to plug connecting wires or component leads into.

At the edges of the board, there are two columns of holes. One is marked in blue and the other in red. Under these columns are further metal strips but this time each strip runs from top to bottom vertically. The red and the blue markings give away what these are designed for. The idea is that you connect your positive and negative power rails to these metal strips.

Connect two breadboards together

The SM 102 breadboard can easily be joined together. If you put two of them side by side you’ll see they have been made to clip together and you’ll notice that you can add as many as you want because of the design. They also have a self-adhesive backing which can be used to firmly stick them down to a base.

This is how I’ve used mine. I’ve got a large base which is made from a piece of MDF with three MB102 breadboards clipped together and stuck to the MDF.

You can link the power lines of the three breadboards together.

Connections on a breadboard

The connections on a breadboard that you make determine the electronic circuit. The metal strips provide the basic internal connections of the solderless breadboard while you provide the connections on the top by plugging in components and connecting leads. Where you plug these wires depends on the circuit you are building.

The wires you use are best if they are of a solid core and a certain size. The reasons for this are explained in my article Wires for breadboards and contains more detail on this subject.

How and where you plug connections in, is also covered in another article Transferring a circuit diagram to breadboard. This gives you more details and tips on how to do this best.

How are mini breadboards connected?

You may also see some small solderless breadboards referred to as mini breadboards. Compared to the MB 102 they are mini. The main electrical difference though is that they only have the horizontal rows connected. There are no vertical ones for power lines.

They still have a break in the middle so you can still use them to plug in ICs.

The internal breadboard connections made with metal strips are usually fairly obvious but if you are unsure of what is connected where, you can always plug bare copper wire into the holes and use a multimeter to verify the connections.

Breadboard internal connections for soldered breadboards.

In this case, soldered breadboards the internal connections are the back of the PCB. It’s just a case of flipping it over and having a look at the back.

There are lots of different kinds of soldered breadboards. Some people call these solderable breadboards what I call stripboard or veroboard. Often they have strips of copper that run horizontally right across the board and you have to cut tracks to stop the connections that you don’t want.

Some stripboards and Veroboards have copper track layouts that are more like traditional solderless breadboards with shorter rows of four or five holes and power rails running vertically.

I’ve covered veroboard and stripboard in a lot more detail in my article Veroboard, advantages and disadvantages

It depends on the type of circuit you’re building as to which soldered breadboard is more suitable.

There are also soldered breadboards that are laid out exactly the same as the MB 102 solderless breadboards. These are so you can transfer your breadboard design onto a PCB to make your circuit permanent. If this is something you are going to do read my article on Solderless breadboard to PCB, for more information and tips.

Perfboard – How is it connected?

You can also get a soldered breadboard that has no electrical connections on the back. It is just a collection of unconnected pads. Some manufacturers call this perfboard. So you can solder components where you want them but you have to make the circuit complete by connecting the components with wires on the back.

All of these types of breadboards of course mean you have to solder them. If you haven’t learned that particular skill yet it is tremendously useful and not difficult with a bit of practice.

Check out my Learn how to solder – A beginners guide, for information, what you will need and some helpful tips.

Final thoughts on how are breadboards connected?

Breadboards are a very useful tool for the construction of electronic circuits. Both for beginners and for more experienced electronic constructors for making prototypes. Once you know how breadboards are connected internally you will be able to transfer circuits to them and get building.

Also, If you are looking for a breadboard project have a look at my article “Breadboard synthesizer”. This gives you full instructions and diagrams to build a complete synthesizer not a million miles from a Sequential Circuits Pro 1.

Finally, If you require any other information about breadboards, check out my post, breadboards – the complete guide. I think I’ve covered just about everything there.

Tip – Learn how to solder

Breadboards are great for trying out circuits quickly or for building projects when you can’t solder but don’t be afraid of soldering.

You can do so much more if you can solder.

“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”.