I was wondering if anyone makes stiffer wire legs on resistors?
I find in building up my breadboards that the resistor wires are very thin and weak and trying to push them into the breadboard holes difficult.
I wish someone made them like LEDs which have nice stiff wire legs and make it easy to push them into the holes.
The wire leads on both resistors and LEDs are used to transfer heat from the component to the circuit board. Higher wattage resistors will had bigger wire leads. Use higher wattage resistors and you will have bigger wire.
I guess you could ream out the holes that are giving you problems.
Paul
rfresh737:
I was wondering if anyone makes stiffer wire legs on resistors?I find in building up my breadboards that the resistor wires are very thin and weak and trying to push them into the breadboard holes difficult.
I wish someone made them like LEDs which have nice stiff wire legs and make it easy to push them into the holes.
What size resistors are you using? 1/8 watt? They tend to have thin leads...
If so - try going up to 1/4 watt or 1/2 watt (just about anything larger might start to deform the springs in the breadboard).
The solution to your problem is to use a pair of long nose pliers and grip the wire about 1/4" from its end and use the pliers to insert the wire. Because you are now working with a much shorter wire you will find it inserts into the breadboard without bending.
Paul_KD7HB:
I guess you could ream out the holes that are giving you problems.
And totally ruin the breadboard spring contacts? No no no!!!
This is probably caused by cheap breadboard combined with flat ended leads. If you use side-cutters
to shorten the leads a bit you also give them more of a point which will help with breadboard insertion.
cr0sh:
What size resistors are you using? 1/8 watt? They tend to have thin leads...If so - try going up to 1/4 watt or 1/2 watt (just about anything larger might start to deform the springs in the breadboard).
I'm pretty new to this hobby...I don't know what wattage resistors I am using...I have purchased a couple of packs of them online but I don't really know...I just know the wires are pretty thin and easy to bend.
I thought (for breadboarding) how nice and handly it would be to have resistors build like the LEDs...those push in really easy because their wires are pretty stiff.
I will look at 1/4 watt and 1/2 watt resistors.
Thanks...
MarkT:
And totally ruin the breadboard spring contacts? No no no!!!This is probably caused by cheap breadboard combined with flat ended leads. If you use side-cutters
to shorten the leads a bit you also give them more of a point which will help with breadboard insertion.
Sorry, I was not considering the use of solderless breadboards.
Paul
In any case, they make resistors to use in thousands of
applications. Resistor leads are almost always made of
solder plated copper to assist in conduction heat.
LED leads are made of stiffer material.
I rather doubt you'd find resistor leads designed to work nice in
plastic bread boards.
Also, it is likely that you should get some 1/4W resistors.
I suspect you have 1/8W or 1/10W.
Dwight