I am about to transfer from breadboard mess to a more orderly PCB setup and one of the items I was going to transfer to the New World was a breadboard power supply -- the kind that feeds both rails on a breadboard with either 3.3v or 5v (jumper selectable). YwRobot makes them, there are other brands, I have a drawer full of 'em. They fit into any of the 2-rail breadboards on the market.
So I hauled out a handy Adafruit half-sized "perma proto board" to use as the P/S' new permanent home, only to find out that although it looks like a regular breadboard, the hole spacing is actually different -- so that the bb power supply doesn't fit on it! The error is not so small, over the nearly 2 inch span it is out by about 2 holes.
Smaller breakouts with 4 to 8 pins seem to plug into the Adafruit proto board OK; the hole spacing end-to-end (long axis) seems more standard than side-to-side (short axis).
So... argh. Minor roadblock. Complaining to Adarfruit probably won't help, certainly won't get me a usable PCB any time soon. Does anyone know of a fairly high quality perma-proto board that mimics a breadboard, like the Adafruit product but scaled exactly like a real breadboard? So that these 2-rail power supplies will fit into it?
Thanks GroundFungus, I just had a look at his range of PCBs and though they are really nifty (and inspiring) I don't see one that replicates exact layout of a conventional breadboard... maybe I've found a new market niche here?
This type (first one I saw) would be my preference. Easy to use with dual-in-line ICs (power rails go under the IC so you can add decoupling capitors close to the IC). Easy to solder extra wires as islands are connected (so no soldering to pins of components for connections).
I used to use them long ago for all kinds of prototyping.
Hi all, thanks for tips. I have ordered some of the Sparkfun red boards to try out. Also will try a similar black board by OSEPP (?) and compare.
I have used the Banggood boards and they are OK but ... copper one side only, no through plating, & copper is a little thin imho. Definitely not the same build quality as the adafruit offering (but oh boy the price is right).
I have been trying to prevent my electronics hobby from getting any further out of hand but have to confess I'm starting to wonder about making my own circuit boards. I made PCBs back in the very early 80's, one-offs in a lab setting, and it was a vile process. Godawful chemicals, stinks, tedious, labour intensive, ugly. I hope that the carbon tet I carelessly dabbled in back then will not catch up with me...
I was grimly creating a rail on my shield board by so-carefully soldering fine bare wire from pin to pin, and thinking, "gee, technology must have marched on by now, I wonder how hard it is to create a custom PCB today?" Something to research
[after a quick fit of googling]: well, no magic bullets yet. Looks like etching still yields the cleanest result even if you use a 3d printer to lay down the resist. Ferric chloride, no thanks The alternative (conductive goo) is homebrew but kind of crude:
The consensus seems to be: live with nasty etch chemicals, or send out your pcb design to a fab house. Even for a one-off.
Tazling:
The consensus seems to be: live with nasty etch chemicals, or send out your PCB design to a fab house. Even for a one-off.
Yet to do it, but I would definitely go with the latter. Bottle of ferric chloride has been sitting in the laundry (hopefully) untouched for 26 years now!
I hauled out a handy Adafruit half-sized "perma proto board" to use as the P/S' new permanent home, only to find out that although it looks like a regular breadboard, the hole spacing is actually different -- so that the bb power supply doesn't fit on it! The error is not so small, over the nearly 2 inch span it is out by about 2 holes.
It looks like most "real" protoboards have 0.3 inch between the vertical strip and the horizontal strip, to account for the volume of plastic in the mating pieces, while the Adafruit permaprotos have a more aesthetic and compact 0.2 inch gap (since they're all one-piece high-strength fiberglass anyway.)
Never noticed, and I hadn't thought about the pre-made power things not matching - you might mention it to them - I don't know that they'll change it, but it would be good to have it pointed out.
You could easily have 10 boards that match your requirement exactly (as long as they don't exceed 100mm length - about 38 positions) made for about $3/board... You can even download the Adafruit design files and modify them as needed...
Also, I have an EAGLE ULP where you "run protoboard", specify the number of rows and where you want power rails (inside, outside, both), and it'll plop down the design on a PCB... It currently uses the 0.3 inch separation for outside power rails...
westfw:
It looks like most "real" protoboards have 0.3 inch between the vertical strip and the horizontal strip, to account for the volume of plastic in the mating pieces, while the Adafruit permaprotos have a more aesthetic and compact 0.2 inch gap (since they're all one-piece high-strength fiberglass anyway.)
Never noticed, and I hadn't thought about the pre-made power things not matching - you might mention it to them - I don't know that they'll change it, but it would be good to have it pointed out.
You could easily have 10 boards that match your requirement exactly (as long as they don't exceed 100mm length - about 38 positions) made for about $3/board... You can even download the Adafruit design files and modify them as needed...
Also, I have an EAGLE ULP where you "run protoboard", specify the number of rows and where you want power rails (inside, outside, both), and it'll plop down the design on a PCB... It currently uses the 0.3 inch separation for outside power rails...
The Sparkfun permaprotos pictured above have the "correct" spacing between the circuit holes and the power holes, so a 'breadboard power supply' fits just fine.
ChrisTenone:
The Sparkfun permaprotos pictured above have the "correct" spacing between the circuit holes and the power holes, so a 'breadboard power supply' fits just fine.
Not that it is much use other than a way of connecting a USB lead to provide 5 V.
westfw:
I dunno. Some of those boards also have a barrel jack, both 5V and 3V regulators, and switches to select 3V/5V on each side. Pretty nice for < $1...
I rushed off an order for the red Sparkfun "perma breadboard" proto board, and also a black one from OSEPP. They arrived today. Turns out the black board is a shameless copy of the Sparkfun board so there is only one product to check out, not two. And according to my BB power supplies, the scale is ever so slightly oversize, so that I will have to bend p/s pins to get them to fit. The two power rails are just a tick further apart than the p/s assumes. A tiny error, but enough that it doesn't just slot in like it does on a real breadboard.
Also, to my dismay, the sparkfun-type proto board is actually larger overall than the same configuration of breadboard, which means (gasp) it will not fit into my project box in the same footprint as the breadboard now occupies. There is no extra room, so argh! I'm going to have to go to the bandsaw and slice the edges off the proto board.
So I'm mildly disappointed. Was hoping these other "solderable breadboards" would just work w/o modification or struggle.
I do think these cheapie p/s are handy though. I happened to need both 5v and 3.3 and higher amperage than the Arduino can put out, so the compact dual-voltage P/S was the perfect tool for the job. With the addition of a row of 470uF caps across 5vdc and gnd, it can actually handle a brief jolt of startup current (higher than its rating) to the touch screen. The Due, powered via its USB port, can manage the rest of the loads.
No idea about the quality. banggood and the likes did not exist 40-odd years ago 8)
