The University of Hong Kong

Medical Engineering Program

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MEDE 3010- supplementary notes

Breadboard tips…

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 Introduction

Breadboard implementation circuit diagram

•A breadboard contains a matrix of electrical contact points (holes or sockets).

•The wire ‘legs’ of the components (resistors, capacitors, switches, diodes, IC
chips) are inserted into the desired contact points on the board according to
the designed circuit diagram.
•Particularly useful for circuit testing, or building circuit prototypes because it
does not require soldering (Once soldered, no modification on the circuit can
be made) à just plug-n-play! 2
 Basic anatomy

notch

•Binding Posts: connect to an external power supply.

•Terminal Strips: Holds the components. Five (or sometimes six) contact sockets in a
row on each side of the notch are electrically connected.
•Bus Strips: Provides power to the electronic components. A bus strip usually
contains two columns, one for ground and one for a supply voltage.
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 Key connections

Ground bus
ground bus

Supply voltage bus

Voltage
supply bus

Backside of the breadboard - Open

showing the metal strips for tie circuit
points (along each row) underneath
here
•The entire row of 5 (or 6) contact sockets are electrically
connected (i.e. the row is short-circuit)
•Adjacent rows of contact sockets are not connected.
•The contact sockets along the voltage supply bus column are
connected.
•The contact sockets along the ground bus column are connected.
How to verify the connections?
(hint: use your digital multimeter kit)
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Some common components you will encounter
in your project…

resistors

Jumper
wires
LEDs

switches

IC chips

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 Making connections
This example shows
how to create a simple 1 2 3
circuit to drive the LED 4
on a breadboard.
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Close up of a jumper wire in a
8 7
breadboard socket (contact hole).

–
+

9V battery

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A good practice to set up power supply line

This picture should be well self-explanatory…. J

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Placing integrated circuit chips (e.g. Op-amp chips)

IC chip IC chip IC chip

IC chip inserted over center notch

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 Some tips…
• Although you could use the red and blue buses arbitrarily, it would make your life a
lot easier if you use the red (+) and blue (-) buses for positive and negative power
supply connections respectively. The blue bus is also generally circuit ground.
• Always use the same color jumper wires (preferably red for (+); blue for (-)) for
connections to or from the power supply buses.
• Always adopt a systematic way to choose the colors of the jumper wires in your
circuits. For example: use the same color jumper wires for similar signal types (e.g.
inputs = yellow; outputs = blue).
• Avoid crossing wires over IC’s! You may need to replace a bad IC (when you’re in
bad luck…)
• Spread out the circuit across the board so it is easier to build and troubleshoot.
• Make the wiring neat! This is the best practice to establish NOW!

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Always try to make your circuit wiring
neat and clean…

VS

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Now…see if you understand the wiring on breadboard
(right) based on the circuit diagram (left)
Go to +V Go to ground

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