Prototyping with breadboards_Internet of Things with Python-QQ阅读男生轻小说网

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Prototyping with breadboards

In the previous example, we interacted with the onboard LED, and therefore, we didn't wire any additional electronic component to the board. Now, it is time to move to more complex samples in which we will have to start working with additional components and tools.

We don't want to create a new printed circuit board (PCB) and solder electronic components to the board each time we want to wire some electronic components to the board. We will be prototyping many electronics projects throught the book and we will also continue prototyping after we learn each lesson towards our IoT adventure. Thus, we will use a solderless breadboard as our construction base for our electronic prototypes.

Tip

Solderless breadboards are also known as breadboards, solderless plug-in breadboards or prototype boards. We will call them with their shortests name: breadboards.

We will use an 830 tie points (holes for connections) with 2 power lanes breadboard for all our prototypes that require electronic components wired to the board. The following picture shows this kind of breadboard that consists of a chunk of plastic of approximately 6.5" x 2.1" with a bunch number of holes.

The next picture shows the internal connections for an 830 tie points with 2 power lanes breadboard. There are metal strips inside the breadboard that connect the holes as shown in this picture.

The breadboard provides two power lanes, bus strips or horizontal buses at the top and at the bottom of the board. These power lanes connect all the holes within the row. Each column has five row holes connected.

However, we must be careful because there are similar breadboards that break the power lanes or horizontal buses in the middle, and therefore, the power lanes don't connect all the holes within the row. The following picture shows the connections for these kinds of breadboards.

In case you decide to work with this kind of breadboard, you have to make the following connections to the buses. This way, you will mimic the wires shown for the first breadboard.

We can stick wire ends without insulation into the breadboard holes in order to wire elements. It is convenient to prepare jumper wires with different lengths and using cables with diverse colors. The following picture shows many cables of different lengths without their insulation that will work as jumper wires.

In case we don't want to spend time building our own jumper wires, we can buy prebuilt male to male solderless flexible breadboard jumper wires with tiny plugs attached to the wire ends.

Tip

You can use any of the previously explained options to make the necessary connections for each of the examples in which we will be working throught this book. In case you decide to use male to male breadboard jumper wires, make sure they are high quality ones.