The best brand of the breadboard

[Jasonbit]

Hello guys,

I am newbie on electronics but I've been learning electronics for a few years now. I always bought breadboards from ebay, but it always has a poor quality. I recently discovered this brand: http://busboard.com/. I have seen good reviews on this product. But since they are still expensive I would like to know your opinion about them.

Note: I'm a newbie, but I intend to invest in good material.

Thank you

[ledtester]

the "3M" boards are generally highly regarded. They can be obtained from Assembly Specialist.

Some recent discussion on breadboards:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/global-specialties-solderless-breadboards/msg3162886/#msg3162886

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/3m-breadboards-for-cheap/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/who-made-the-high-quality-breadboard/

And a youtube review:

https://youtu.be/XKQJhe9n_ug

The BB830 also has received good reviews - notably from Ben Eater who uses them in his discrete CPU kits. Be wary of fakes.

[Doctorandus_P]

Quality of breadboards from Ali / Ebay / China varies a lot,and there is no easy way to distinguish quality.

Once I bought a few transparent breadboards, Quality of them is very reasonable, but I still dislike them strongly because the transparent part, together with the relief for the holes makes it hard to distinguish details of wires and other small parts on them.

These days I do not use breadboards much anymore, but spending some extra money on a few decent quality breadboards is a good investment in my book.

[Peabody]

I have two of the Busboard breadboards, and they are quite good.  I think Amazon has the best price at the moment - $7.90 or so.  I know you can get breadboards at 1/3 that price from the Far East, but for me this is one of those times when it's important to get something that works.  A breadboard with marginal contacts will cause no end of trouble.  I bought my Busboards after seeing that review video, and after wasting a lot of time on flaky ones from Ebay.

[alank2]

My two favorites:

https://www.jameco.com/z/WBU-202-R-830-Point-Solderless-Breadboard-6-5-x-2-125-_20723.html
https://www.jameco.com/z/WBU-301-R-400-Point-Solderless-Breadboard-3-3-Lx2-1-W_20601.html

They are "wish" or "wisher" brand.  Components push in and pull out easily, but always have a great connection.

[rcjoy]

The 3M breadboard is likely one of the best.  My current one has worked flawlessly for over 30 years.

[tggzzz]

Consider https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2020/07/22/prototyping-circuits-easy-cheap-fast-reliable-techniques/

Not what you are looking for, but it will save you a lot of time and money in the medium term.

[drussell]

I have two of the Busboard breadboards, and they are quite good.  I think Amazon has the best price at the moment - $7.90 or so.  I know you can get breadboards at 1/3 that price from the Far East, but for me this is one of those times when it's important to get something that works.  A breadboard with marginal contacts will cause no end of trouble.  I bought my Busboards after seeing that review video, and after wasting a lot of time on flaky ones from Ebay.

I'm not sure what would be most easily available in Brazil, but from personal experience over many decades I can say that both Wish and Busboard are good for the price.  Most of mine are the Wish 3 and 4 row mounted on a metal plate with four binding posts at the upper right, purchased at various different times over the years, with various random branding in the upper left depending on the era, and also have a few made by Busboard.

As for price, you can usually get the multi-row ones in the style I'm talking about for basically the same price as the bare individual breadboards and you get a bonus backplate and binding posts.  They look similar to these examples ($27 and $36 respectively):

[Jasonbit]

Hello,

I like this article: https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2020/07/22/prototyping-circuits-easy-cheap-fast-reliable-techniques/

I became a fan of the technique Manhattan. Maybe in near future I can build a CNC to do plates (PCB) in copper. Because thus I will can made directly on plate without having to resort to hand tools. Something like this:

I was read about breadboards Jameco. But I didn't know the segment product in brand 3M.
I am tempted to buy from the brand BusBoard The models BB830 and BB1460.

To make assemblies in a learning phase the breadboard is better(I think). It allows quick assembly and use of components in other projects. But when you finished learning and tests a particular circuit and want to move on to the testing phase, the Manhattan technique will be a good option. Because I was always reluctant to move to a plate (PCB) like these before I have tottaly guaranty which all works good: (easyeda.com, PCBWay or jlcpcb.com).

Firstly because it's expensive, secondly if I need to fix some part of the circuit, during the phase debugging it is will very complicated.

I do very projects directly in breadboard. Sometimes I need to leave a circuit mounted on the breadboard for months (as it would take a lot of work to disassemble and reassemble). Is this healthy for breadboard contacts (they will not lose strength)?

Thanks you all for your advices

[drussell]

I do very projects directly in breadboard. Sometimes I need to leave a circuit mounted on the breadboard for months (as it would take a lot of work to disassemble and reassemble). Is this healthy for breadboard contacts (they will not lose strength)?

LOL... Only months, you say?

I have projects in use, inside cases even, that are still in breadboard form, and have been for decades awaiting that "someday, I'll solder up a permanent one" moment, but still work fine.

As for the breadboards themselves?  Yeah, if they are at least half decent quality, they don't really care if you leave something "normal" in them, like connecting wires or a DIP IC, although you do kind of wreck the holes a bit when you shove big things like TO-220 leads or big, fat, high wattage resistor leads into them.  With most, like the Wishboard ones though, you can even peel off the back foamy and pull out damaged contacts and squeeze them back together to increase clamping if you want to after horrible abuse. 

I've had to replace several of the individual row boards on the metal backplates after some brilliant stunts like doing mains-connected projects with un-optoisolated TRIACs shorting out, blowing up entire rows of 7400 series logic, usually taking out the parallel port I/O card in the attached PC or something also, leaving very crispy, melted Wishboards with evaporated springies and black sooty, scortchy skidmarks on top.   

Oh, yeah!...  Fun times!!   

[Jasonbit]

I have projects in use, inside cases even, that are still in breadboard form, and have been for decades awaiting that "someday, I'll solder up a permanent one" moment, but still work fine.

Okay, this really overflow my expectations

I found a new method to build pcb to debugging:

What kind tool he uses on this moment? https://youtu.be/blalAktxFoI?t=226

Thanks

[UPADTE]
On description I found the answer. But I don't want build my own tool. I want buy a. ()

[rdl]

I think you can use drill bits for cutting holes in glass. You would need the hollow saw type.

https://www.amazon.com/glass-drill-bits/s?k=glass+drill+bits

[Doctorandus_P]

In addition tho the breadboard itself...
How you handle them is also important.

A common mistake is to pull wired resistors from the paper tape and put them in the breadboard. Never do that. Part of the glue will stick to the end of the resistor leads and will be transfered into the breadboard.

Those long resistor wires are designed to be cut to size, and are too long for breadboards also. In my experience 15 to 20mm long works best.

[drussell]

A common mistake is to pull wired resistors from the paper tape and put them in the breadboard. Never do that. Part of the glue will stick to the end of the resistor leads and will be transfered into the breadboard.

Those long resistor wires are designed to be cut to size, and are too long for breadboards also. In my experience 15 to 20mm long works best.

Well, that depends on how far you're trying to "jump" with the resistor. 

Certainly if you want to keep the leads long, either cut off just the tiny bit that is in the tape instead of pulling them out, or at least thoroughly clean off the goo if you do actually need it to stay full length for some reason.

You definitely don't want to repeatedly put goo into your breadboard holes. 

[tggzzz]

You can cut arbitrary size and shape islands in copperclad board. There are many techniques from scratching to a dremel drill with a spherical dentists but.

Alternatively use tinsnips or a hacksaw to chop up copperclad into suitable islands, then superglue those onto the main pcb

There are examples in the reference I posted earlier in the thread.

[ledtester]

...  then superglue those onto the main pcb

You'll learn quickly if your choice of superglue is the right choice... the glue I used gave off a noxious odor when heated up by a soldering iron.

I think pretty much any adhesive will work. It doesn't have to be very strong. The next time I make a Manhattan style board I'll try a "school glue stick" to see how well that works.

[tggzzz]

...  then superglue those onto the main pcb

You'll learn quickly if your choice of superglue is the right choice... the glue I used gave off a noxious odor when heated up by a soldering iron.

I think pretty much any adhesive will work. It doesn't have to be very strong. The next time I make a Manhattan style board I'll try a "school glue stick" to see how well that works.

I wouldn't argue with that. Experiment, and use the technique that best suits yourself.

The key point is to avoid solderless breadboards wasting your time and dispiriting you. Let's fight the circuit, not a poor implementation

[Jwillis]

Its a lot about construction . The more expensive boards tend to use Nickel plated Phosphor Bronze which is more resistant to corrosion , deformation and high thermal capability . Its the same material use light switches and receptacles .
Cheap boards tend to use nickel plated steel which can deform with use. They work OK ,but don't expect them to last.
When to use a bread board and when not to use a bread board is dependant on circumstances . Low power they are fine but don't expect to use them for high power .  Cheaper boards can handle maybe up to 10 amps before they start to burn. And because of inherent capacitance between rails can lead to problems with high frequencies . So other techniques may be required .
I like to screw the bread boards down to a piece of plywood so I can keep everything stabilized that may be connected to it. Like power wires , heat sinks and other PCBs . I can mark on the plywood every function of every piece and can add extra power rails as required .  I can come back after months , power up know where I left off instantly .

[tggzzz]

Even if they get all that right, the basic physics of constructions on solderless breadboards screw you.

[drussell]

Low power they are fine but don't expect to use them for high power .  Cheaper boards can handle maybe up to 10 amps before they start to burn.

Huh...  So if a cheap one will handle 10A, what do you consider "high power" for a breadboard?!    

[ledtester]

I like to screw the bread boards down to a piece of plywood so I can keep everything stabilized that may be connected to it. Like power wires , heat sinks and other PCBs . I can mark on the plywood every function of every piece and can add extra power rails as required .  I can come back after months , power up know where I left off instantly .

Yes - a mother breadboard!

I've used small cafeteria trays made of ABS plastic -- like the ones airlines used when they included a meal on your flight -- for my mother breadboards. Used inverted so the raised lip keeps the main surface off the table. ABS is easy to drill, and most of the time I would just secure daughter boards  with wire twist ties. Makes it easy to accommodate whatever random modules you have in your application.

[tggzzz]

Low power they are fine but don't expect to use them for high power .  Cheaper boards can handle maybe up to 10 amps before they start to burn.

Huh...  So if a cheap one will handle 10A, what do you consider "high power" for a breadboard?!   

Quite!

You can also run into the road without looking

[RoGeorge]

I found a new method to build pcb

[drussell]

I just happened across this Ben Eater video snippet that compares el-cheap-o breadboard contacts to BusBoard brand contacts and thought I would link it here for future reference:

https://youtu.be/fCbAafKLqC8?t=75

He also has a short written explanation of the same thing at:

https://eater.net/breadboards

[RoGeorge]

In my experience, all breadboards worked reasonably OK, from the most expensive 3M I have, to the cheapest no name.  Sure, the 3M one feels better in quality and when inserting parts, and has some extra banana plugs for power, but also was way more expensive than the no name ones, so in the end it's up to the end user's pocket.

None so far were unusable.

Last two times I bought only no name, in packages of 5, because there is a tendency to leave a circuit stay on the breadboard forever, so the breadboards became consumables, as a PCB should be.