Breadboard Carriers and Tips
Bread boarding for hobbyists is a great way to experiment with circuits and ideas before committing to the hassle and cost of producing PCBs or spending hours soldering up a sheet of strip board only to find your design doesn’t work as expected.
Plug-in breadboards these days are cheap and easy to obtain and whilst modern ones now have their sockets arranged in a standard 0.1" matrix, not all components, switches, plugs and sockets etc will fit.
It's also rather tedious to have to construct the same module over and over again. For example, when using a PIC you always need the same set of support components (ICSP socket, crystal, capacitors etc); it makes sense to have these modules pre-built so they can just be plugged in to the board, and you can get on with the more fun stuff.
This page will grow, as time allows, to list the carrier boards and modules that I’ve created. Please feel free to use and amend them as you wish.
Plug-in breadboards these days are cheap and easy to obtain and whilst modern ones now have their sockets arranged in a standard 0.1" matrix, not all components, switches, plugs and sockets etc will fit.
It's also rather tedious to have to construct the same module over and over again. For example, when using a PIC you always need the same set of support components (ICSP socket, crystal, capacitors etc); it makes sense to have these modules pre-built so they can just be plugged in to the board, and you can get on with the more fun stuff.
This page will grow, as time allows, to list the carrier boards and modules that I’ve created. Please feel free to use and amend them as you wish.
Creating a 28-pin PIC carrier board. (29-Sept-2013)
Completed 28-pin PIC Carrier
This article shows how to make the 28-pin PIC carrier pictured on the left. There's a little bit of surface mount work required, but there are a couple of videos that hopefully will help.
I've included some PCB foils if you want to make you're own boards. I use a slightly different ICSP connection (it's a legacy thing from the days before I had a PICKIT) but I've included a layout that works for those that do use the standard PICKIT layouts.
I've included some PCB foils if you want to make you're own boards. I use a slightly different ICSP connection (it's a legacy thing from the days before I had a PICKIT) but I've included a layout that works for those that do use the standard PICKIT layouts.
Carrier PCBs for breadboards - an introduction (Updated 18-Mar-2013)
I make a fair few PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) in the workshop and purchase my PCB laminate in standard sizes and cut it down to size as needed. Unfortunately the off-cuts are often too small to be of any real use in most projects but they do have at least one use, as bread-board carrier boards. Most connectors, switches, some IC’s (and all SMDs), etc were never designed to fit the standard 0.1” pitch matrix of a plug in bread-board, so carrier boards are usually required if you want to use these components
Breadboard Pluggable 5v regulated PSU board. (15-Jan-2012)
Here you will find complete construction details including circuit diagrams and PCB layout for a breadboard plug-in module that converts a standard mains plug-in transformer to a +5v regulated PSU suitable for powering TTL/CMOS, microprocessor and other projects.
Updated 25th Oct 2013 - I've updated the PCB design to save breadboard space.
Updated 25th Oct 2013 - I've updated the PCB design to save breadboard space.
Breadboard quick-tips (01-Oct-2011)
Quick and simple ideas to help you get the most out of your breadboards.
Breadboard the PIC 18F67K22 and family of QFN package PICs (03-Apr-2011)
The newer PIC's from Microchip have loads of cool features that are ideal for hobby projects, but they are only available in QFN/TQFP package types which mean they have to be soldered to the project board, and once soldered there's no good way to remove them intact and because of the lead pitch, they are impossible to breadboard.
This project shows you how to make a carrier board that allows you to uses these devices on a standard hobbyist breadboard and to make it much simpler to move the PIC device from one project to another.
Click for complete construction details.
This project shows you how to make a carrier board that allows you to uses these devices on a standard hobbyist breadboard and to make it much simpler to move the PIC device from one project to another.
Click for complete construction details.