# First crack at breadboarding, any words of wisdom?



## Paradox916 (Jun 20, 2021)

So the wife got me some breadboards and a power supply for Father’s Day (it’s ok to be a little jelly.). I have done some reading and think I got the basics down, but do You fine gentlemen have any tricks, tips, wisdom, or last words befor I start roaching ICs and popping caps for the first time?🤪


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## mjh36 (Jun 20, 2021)

Spacing things out in sections like a schematic is helping me out. At first I was trying to put things too compactly.

I can't find the post, but someone put little white sticker tabs on resistor legs with their value written on it when they breadboard, which I'm going to start doing.


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## Feral Feline (Jun 20, 2021)

I find masking-tape is easier and cheaper than stickers.

Inspiration: http://breadboardguitarfx.blogspot.com/


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## fig (Jun 20, 2021)

Consider using something like this;
https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/powerio/
...Or an auditorium board.

I use .22 solid core for jumps and off-board. It stays in the holes better than those cheapo jumper wires.


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## Paradox916 (Jun 20, 2021)

Labeling component values I was definitely going to do. @Feral Feline that link looks like it’s pretty cool but my dumb ass took metal shop instead of French..... that’s French right?🤣 @fig  brilliant!


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## Feral Feline (Jun 20, 2021)

Bien sur! Mais, il n'y a pas necessaire pour parler Français, la langue du pedal-fabriquer c'est international.


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## Paradox916 (Jun 20, 2021)

You’re right, I just took a closer look and a schematic is a schematic... and if I really what to know what it says I’ll just use google translation like I did for your comment... ok so I’m not a dumbass just incredibly lazy. 😬


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## peccary (Jun 20, 2021)

I did this as my first BB project. It's actually still on the BB because I am a lazy butthead: http://diy.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/BreadboardSiFF/BreadboardSiFF.htm

I found it helpful to have a step-by-step guide to make sure I'd be able to find myself if i got lost.

I also took my breadboard and stuck it to a clipboard with the Auditorium (used some double sided tape). I use the Auditorium for the power and I/O which saved some time, space, and learning headache along the way.


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## Paradox916 (Jun 20, 2021)

That looks like a good one to try out!


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## SillyOctpuss (Jun 20, 2021)

Feral Feline said:


> I find masking-tape is easier and cheaper than stickers.
> 
> Inspiration: http://breadboardguitarfx.blogspot.com/


That site is excellent.  Thanks for posting the link


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## caiofilipini (Jun 21, 2021)

I don't have pictures at the moment, can try to post some tomorrow, but I used some long jumper wires from a breadboarding kit and hooked them up to DC and I/O jacks in a 1590B enclosure that in includes a footswitch. So it's essentially the same offboard wiring you have in a pedal, but I hooked up those additional wires and I use them as send, return, +9V and -9V which I then connect to the breadboard.


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## fig (Jun 21, 2021)

Here's my janky rig ....is that word still hip?






The 2 white wires at attention are in and out.
About to be filled with Tone Bender Mark II goodness!


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## BuddytheReow (Jun 21, 2021)

It’s funny. I read your first sentence with your avatars voice in my head and nearly died!


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## AgAuthority (Jun 21, 2021)

playing with this a couple of weeks back. Use some G10 board I use for amps, and 2x2 angled aluminum


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## caiofilipini (Jun 22, 2021)

caiofilipini said:


> I don't have pictures at the moment, can try to post some tomorrow, but I used some long jumper wires from a breadboarding kit and hooked them up to DC and I/O jacks in a 1590B enclosure that in includes a footswitch. So it's essentially the same offboard wiring you have in a pedal, but I hooked up those additional wires and I use them as send, return, +9V and -9V which I then connect to the breadboard.



This is it:


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## fig (Jun 26, 2021)

Good News Everyone! 

Now you can bread your boards like never before!

It's the "not so janky" rig.

       ProtoBoard Micro - PedalPCB.com


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## Paradox916 (Jun 26, 2021)

Now you are just sending me down a “not so janky” 🐇 🕳 ... I find myself looking at the “even less hooptie” https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/protoboard/
What’s a girl to do....🤔


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## fig (Jun 26, 2021)

That's the Caddy with the ragtop and AC. This one's the 66 VW splitty with safari windows.


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## Paradox916 (Jun 26, 2021)

I always love the VDub’s with the safari windows.! The 21 windows were awesome! It’s crazy what those thing go for now.


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## fig (Jun 26, 2021)

Paradox916 said:


> I always love the VDub’s with the safari windows.! The 21 windows were awesome! It’s crazy what those thing go for now.


I'll dig up some pics of mine. It was a righteous ride.


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## Feral Feline (Jun 26, 2021)

+1 for the splitty — I'm a big airhead...fan ... fan of aircooled jugs, pots ... flat-fours forever. 

Pritschenwagens, hi-roofs, Barndoors, cab-cabs... I love 'm all.


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## mdc (Jun 26, 2021)

Just a +1 to what everyone else said; break the schematic into sections, tap the output as you go to figure out where things are going wrong, if you're not quick with colour band codes (or the light in your room isn't great), tagging the resistors helps immensely. Solid core wire works great for jumpers, the bags with the little needle-y ends break immediately. Maybe the only thing I'd add is to use trim pots on the breadboard instead of trying to wire actual offboard pots. Alligator clips are fussy. 

Breadboarding can be super frustrating in my limited experience, but it's satisfying to make things work. Be prepared to do a lot of random tapping on/wiggling around of caps and resistors, and anything with more than a couple gain stages will probably turn into a very effective shortwave radio.


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## Paradox916 (Jun 27, 2021)

Love the trim pot idea!... unless you are dealing with a circuit that requires them for biasing... that might get confusing quick.


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## mdc (Jun 28, 2021)

Having a very "peak breadboard" moment this am.
Circuit sounded great last night.
Turned it on this morning, squealing uncontrollably.
Was something loose yesterday that's no longer loose?
Is something loose now that wasn't loose yesterday?
Is the fan blowing in the other room borking my electrical?
FUN


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## fig (Jun 28, 2021)

mdc said:


> Having a very "peak breadboard" moment this am.
> Circuit sounded great last night.
> Turned it on this morning, squealing uncontrollably.
> Was something loose yesterday that's no longer loose?
> ...


That's still better than;

Turning it on and nothing...
Turning it on and it goes POOF!
Turning it on and it goes POOF! (in case you missed it)
Turning it on and it the PSU goes POOF!
Turning it on and the overhead bulb explodes
Turning it on and it launches missiles in Siberia

Squeal? You got it made brah!


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## finebyfine (Jun 28, 2021)

My main breadboard setup is too large to be as useful as I want it to be in my space and I'm gonna be changing it around soon. That said there's two things I like about it that I don't see that often that I figure might be worth sharing:
- Different colored boards help mentally segment parts of the schematic for me. These would have been *much *more useful mounted differently, but I like using one color for power filtering (or the top brighter white one), another for i/o, another for switches, etc. These don't have power busses otherwise I would use them for all parts of it.
- Plexiglass mounted - I think this square foot was $10. Good enough to satisfy my desire for things to look a way I consider nice. I put some rubber pads on the bottom.

As I retool this I'm gonna pare it down to maybe 6"x6", get rid of the black and blue breadboards (really hard to see where the holes are, esp on black plexiglass), position a go to power filtering board either on top of the main bottom left boards, or at least make them parallel to the main ones. Might mount a small case or cable clips for jumpers if there's space.


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## Paradox916 (Jun 28, 2021)

Nice! I was thinking about using that as a strategy, delicate certain boards  for specific parts of circuit (power, gain staging, eq, pots and switches.) we will see how well that works out for me.


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## Feral Feline (Jun 28, 2021)

Finebyfine's colour-coding has given me the idea to take some felt-markers to the main breadboards, colour in sections. I've got a couple of the smaller coloured breadboards, but don't even remember which colours I have (shows you how often I use them — but now I see the light-colour...).


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## finebyfine (Jun 28, 2021)

Feral Feline said:


> Finebyfine's colour-coding has given me the idea to take some felt-markers to the main breadboards, colour in sections. I've got a couple of the smaller coloured breadboards, but don't even remember which colours I have (shows you how often I use them — but now I see the light-colour...).



Relatedly: I've toyed around with the idea of mounting breadboards on a whiteboard (or just a white piece of plexiglass, probably cheaper) to let me use whiteboard markers to annotate, but I couldn't really come up with a way that it wouldn't take up a ton of space. Going off even my smallest handwriting with a sharpie to test it they had to be spaced so far apart. 

Breadboarding is really difficult for how my brain works but I've probably spent as much time thinking about making it easier as I have actually used them. Probably should have just practiced more instead lmao


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## Feral Feline (Jun 28, 2021)

The whiteboard idea is cool, but yeah, it'd be real-estate intensive. 

By colouring in, I just meant it'd be just like working off of only your row of coloured breadboards (poorman's purchase of coloured breadboards) — I'd still have to use masking tape or painters tape to flag components. 

I definitely don't breadboard enough, and instead socket PCBs too much...


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## finebyfine (Jun 28, 2021)

Ah now this can actually fit on my desk


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