How The Breadboard is Layed Out

The main part of the bread board is a bunch of holes that you are supposed to stick the legs of components such as resistors, capacitors and transistors into. The holes are in vertical groups of 5. All 5 holes in a vertical group are electrically connected to each other. Here is a drawing of what the electrical connections inside a solderless breadboard typically look like.

If you plan on purchasing a breadboard, you should also consider picking up a jumper wire kit. Jumper wire kits are a collection of a few hundred wires that are perfect for using with solderless breadboards. They are precut, stripped and bent to fit the hole patterns in these boards. Again, Electronix Express has a good one for about $5. Last time we checked you could get it here.

Simple Example

Lets look at a simple example of how to use a solderless breadboard to build a circuit.

A Simple Example 1	A Simple Example 2

The above two examples are electrically identical.

Here we have a 220 ohm resistor, a +9V power source and an LED. First we'll wire it up on the drawing.

The red and black wires are from a 9V battery clip. You can purchase these at most electronics stores, or clip one off of an old device. The blue wire you will need to come up with as well. If the LED does not light, try turning it around so that it is wired the other way. Remember that LED's are polarized. Here is what this circuit looks like in real life.

In case it is hard to see the connections, here is a close up of the important area.

Now go get yourself a solderless breadboard and some components and start building.