A Better Way to Breadboard

Описание: Tools:
Solid Core Jumper Wire Kit
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...

Compared to:
DuPont Style Flexible Jumper Wires
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...

Flexible Breadboard Jumper Wires
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...

Transparent breadboard
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...

PCB Prototype Board (Large)
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...

PCB Prototype Board (Medium)
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...

Additional breadboard footage from FriendlyWire.
You can find some great breadboard project tutorials on his channel:
   / @friendlywire  

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Transcript:

Hey, I’m Donald Bell for Cool Tools, and in this video I’m going to show you the benefits of using solid core jumper wire for your breadboard projects, compared to the flexible jumper wires a lot of us start out with. You can find links to everything down in the show notes.

When I started out tinkering with electronics, at some point I bought a kit that included a breadboard and some components and a few dozen of these colorful, flexible jumper wires.

These wires are great, especially for beginners working on relatively simple projects. The nubby ends make them easy to grab and undo and redo connections -- which is exactly what you’re doing in the first stages of any prototype.

But what happens when you’re ready to turn this breadboard project into something more permanent?

There are a lot of different answers here depending on your skill level, but when you’re starting out, it typically means moving parts over to something like a perma-proto board or perf board, and turning each of these jumper wire connections -- one by one -- into a soldered wire connection.

In my experience, as my projects got more and more sophisticated, the flexible jumper wires became an impenetrable tangle. By the time I got a project working, it felt like an impossible task to go back through and trace each connection without screwing something up along the way.

My big breakthrough was making the switch to solid core wire. These come in a $10 kit, with different lengths of wire, all color coded.

The wire is stiff enough that the ends just push right into your breadboard. And part of what I love about it is that it lies down perfectly flat.

Have you ever seen one of those circuit diagrams where all the wires are perfectly routed around like a subway map? That’s the kind of type-a precision you can get with these wires. Your breadboards are tidy and easier to understand.

Now, sometimes the spacing of the endpoints is just right for the connection you’re making. Other times, you’ll need to trim and strip a longer wire to get where you want to go, or bend a wire around a few components. No big deal.

But the real payoff is that by avoiding the tangle, when you’re ready to move from breadboard to protoboard, you can just pop these out one by one and move them over.

For me, it’s removed the pain of getting to the end of the breadboard stage and weeping at the thought of reverse engineering a rat’s nest of wires.

Don’t get me wrong -- I still get lots of use out of flexible jumper wires and alligator clips. But once a breadboard design really starts taking shape, I now know instinctively to move over to solid core wires. It helps me see what I’m doing, and it just eases every step down the line.

So do yourself a favor and pick up a kit. You can find a link in the description, along with links to my favorite DuPont style flexible jumpers, and some inexpensive proto-boards that make it easy to solder up a breadboard design without having to redesign it for perfboard.

And remember, you can find thousands of reader recommended tools like these at Cool-Tools.org

#cooltool

You can find thousands of reader recommended tools like these at http://cool-tools.org