Watch out for poor quality MB-102 830 tie point breadboards sold on eBay. Inserting components is difficult because the 5-way contact strips don't have adequate funneling.
I don't think "fake" is really the right word to describe these. More along the lines of very low quality/poorly implemented copies of a fairly common & simple design.
Malcolm Whinfield China's a great source for cheap 'modules' for tinkering n evaluating project ideas with. The only downside to this is the time you spend reverse engineering n probing these circuit boards because these no decent online support. Okay, there's the manufacturers data sheets for things like the IC's they use- but they have a habit of scrubbing or defacing the chips epoxy encasement to stop you doing this!
I agree if it has another companies logo or part number it could be classed as fake. These are just poorly constructed. The split rail is common on the larger board. I have some of the larger boards that also have the joiners on the short end for joining lengthwise.
i agree, its said there are generally 5 quality levels for nearly every product produced in china, the problem is though actually knowing what quality level your going to get, vs paying for.
I have zero idea why people are complaining about the split rails. The basis of the complaint appears to be that a board you are planning to add lots of jumper wires to, requires you to add some jumper wires. Hardly the biggest problem. The counter-example though, where you are mixing 3v and 5v circuits on a board, or 5v and audio +/- rails, is certainly a lot more awkward without the welcome convenience of split rails.
It's an extremely frustrating problem if you aren't expecting it. I spent several hours once trying to find the issue with an ESP8266 uart connection, uncertain if it was a power supply issue or a firmware issue, or a software problem on the host, all while trying to explain to a friend how awesome ESP8266 are! Eventually discovered the split rail causing a floating ground. Nasty nasty nasty.
I don't understand that one either. And it's not asif high-quality boards don't have split rails. I must admit I have scratched my head for way too long before I noticed the lines where interrupted. but it cost 4 seconds and two inches of wire to fix, so what*the*fart?
I'm totally new to electronics, so new that I’m proud to have made a binary counter though my wife won't let me stick on the fridge. She said something about me being 60 not 6. I only have two breadboards, one I got with a Freenove kit and one I got with a cheap kit I ordered by mistake not realising it was full of nothing (I said I was new). Watching this made me go and look at both my breadboards and the difference is like night and day, even the weight and feel is different. Thank you for this video, this sort of thing is invaluable to a newbie like myself.
The break in the power rails isn't a massive issue - I actually quite like it when working with multi-voltage projects. 5V logic on one side, and 12V for the LED strips or fans on the other. It's easy enough to join them together with a little jumper
Separated rails are essential. If an experimenter is working with a transistor or chip amplifier with more than two stages, for example, a resistor and capacitor decoupling is unavoidable to prevent "motorboating". Also, I had to use long nose pliers to enable wire insertion, and needed to alter resistor values on the soldered item, as consequence of tie point ESR. Very enlightening upload from JL. Thanks. 🙂
Until I watched this video, I had no idea that not all breadboards are as bad as the ones you bought - I've only ever bought and used cheap ones and thought that horrible insertion and dodgy contact with the terminals was par for the course. So, let's say I want to treat myself to some good quality (and, no doubt, expensive) breadboards - where do people reckon I should go and what should I buy?
Nicholas Barnes I had the same idea until I found out I was living under a cheap rock when I borrowed a high quality breadboard from my friend. I have so many of those cheap crap ones but I've kinda gotten used to them so it doesn't bother me that much. A good indication is the price although having said that stuff on Ebay are kind of a hit or miss thing. Stuff from reputed online shops such as sparkfun or adafruit are however of high quality. :v
Try CPC/Farnell if you are in the UK. That's where I got mine from: they are "Wish" brand, made in Taiwan, and inexpensive. I can't remember ever having had any rubbish products from CPC. Are you the same Nicholas Barnes I was at school with forty years ago? If so, hello!
Right. I need to do a CPC order (need another Raspberry Pi), so I'll drop a few in the basket and see what they're like. I was only 6 forty years ago, so I doubt I know you - but hello anyway!!
When you were 6 these breadboards were like 15 bucks each. Look it up. A 4000 point assembled breadboard was more than $149. Chinese components have thinner leads than US branded counterparts. Quarter watt resistor leads on chinese resistors are ridiculously thin compared to a Vishay or Dale.
3 breadboard for 3.50 dollars. Only rating *without a verified purchase*: 5 stars and "Excellent quality. Product fulfills the function for which it was made. Ideal for Arduino" Seems legit, right?
I have some of these poor-quality ones at home. I found that some of the strips has surprisingly high resistance, like 8 ohms, which caused serious problems with an INA219 current/power meter that I was building (a lot like yours). I'm currently trying to build an INA219-based milliohmmeter to do some better comparisons.
Your comment about the printing is spot on. You can often tell counterfeit Cuban cigars made in Mexico merely by looking at the resolution of the printing on the (counterfeit) label. Often there is poor registration between colors. Congrats on 100k subs. I think I subbed back when you had
I bought some of those smaller - 400 contacts - transparent breadboards the other day, that seem to have the same problem. But I wanted transparent breadboards so badly, because I think it's time to put indicator LEDs on the "underside" of PCBs, too.
Yep. I've got two of those. Actually the only ones I've got.. I kinda assumed that is the way it is so I got used to wiggling the parts in. I'm curious if I should get the small ones or maybe the ones without power rails. Those seem different construction altogether.
Thank you Julian. This is important. Building and experimenting is difficult enough but adding another headache in the mess that is avoidable if I follow your advise on this subject.
Hmm. I've got an 840-point breadboard with the same printing and doesn't seem to have this problem. Don't want to take it apart but from looking at the top it seems to have funneling as wide as the holes just like my smaller ones. Wonder what happened.
One more point regarding the photo swap of the seller. I worked at eBay and can tell you this is a violation of their seller agreement. You can get your money back and file a complaint against the seller. The listing is a binding legal contract and the seller is required to supply you with the exact product represented in the photo.
Thank you, Julian. I learned something here. I too like low-cost items, and I have a few breadboards that are difficult to insert into, and I just put up with it and never really thought about it too much - but seeing the funneling on the better boards makes me wonder how I can make sure I'm getting the right one next time.
@@ByteMeCompletely Actually, I've just counted, and I have six breadboards, all bought from Ebay. Five of them are easy to insert into, and one of them (which I unfortunately got for my gransdon) is not. At 5:45, he asks "Could I have avoided buying the rip-off breadboards? - Well, not really" The problem with Ebay is that it's an open marketplace, where quality manufacturers sell alongside cheap manufacturers who are selling 'covers' of the better stuff - but what marketplace is not like that? If not Ebay, who do you use? I have bought from Amazon and had rip-off products, and you can't just judge it on price either. I was looking for a Ruizu X06 MP3 player, and noticed that I could pay £32 or £65 for exactly the same device from the same manufacturer, where the price doesn't indicate any difference at all. You will get sellers who will chance it.
I have one of the shorter breadboards that has a split positive rail but a continuous negative rail (on both sides). At first it confused the hell out of me, I couldn't figure out why some of the components weren't getting power, but then I realised it's actually quite useful. You can get voltage regulator modules based on the AMS1117 on ebay that connect one rail to the other so for example you can have a split rail with +5V and +3.3v without needing to take up space on the board itself. Also when you want a continuous rail you can just use a short jumper wire to bridge the gap anyway.
Bought both 400 and 800 point breadboards recently, and because of this video I went to check. The 400 pin breadboards have consistent lettering and the row numbers aren't just lined up, all 30 rows are actually individually numbered! The 800 point ones are exactly the same as featured in this video. Bought them all in a single package that also came with jumper wires that work mostly OK, but the plastic endclips want to fall off on some of them.
I just received 3 of these from am ebay seller called tk-electronics2016 and they seem to be OK. The numbering and lettering is as in the picture (print quality is a bit faded but still readable). I tried to insert a few components in and they felt just fine. I haven't opened up any yet, can't bear the terrifying thought of destroying a 1$ component :D Here's a link if it works (item id 222184036094) www.ebay.com/itm/222184036094
I was wondering why some of my projects did not work. Sure enough when I bridged the gap with a wire and tested It that was the problem .You just got another subscriber thanks Buddy. I going to buy the transparent ones from now on like You said.
So what are your recommendations for a half decent breadboard? I've got one of the cheap crappy ones and it really is useless. I've just been making some very simple circuits but have spent more time making sure I've got a connection than I have doing anything else. It really is utter junk.
I got a transparent one with lower case lettering and pins do go in easier, but I find the grip not as strong as the fake ones. I found the cheap pined Dupont wires in Ard kits have a burr, so are hard to get in the BBs, and after filing a point on them they are ok. Either way I have problems with reliable contacts with either BB. There is a third all white BB with no writing and less row holes on the other power rails, that could be better than both.
Many breadboards have split in the middle power rails, sometimes you need more than 2 positive voltages, it's extra flexibility. You can put a jumper in between the rails of those boards to make them one power rail, but can't cut a breadboard power rail of board that have them connected all the way, so need extra breadboard or power rail.
I've got a few of those. I didn't really have too much of a problem inserting component leads, but more of a connection issue. I've often built up a circuit on one of these only to find it didn't work. The same circuit on my K & H breadboard would work fine. I've mostly given up using these, so I'll wait to see how the replacement boards work for you before I buy any others.
Well that explains why I was having trouble with BBs - I only started elec a year ago and didn't know better -. One has bad printing, but the other is pretty good except for half of 1 line, so I guess you have to check the entire length. There seams to be a few types on a image search, but you can probably say upper case and not starting on zero together are bad ones.
The printed numbering should *always* start in the lower left corner. That way you can line up the IC pin 1 with 1, 11, 21, 31, etc. to make it easy and fast to get the right pin.
I mean otherwise it is just useless crap printed on by a company that has zero experience with actually using the product they are manufacturing. They are just trying to follow what another company is selling but *thought* they knew better by starting in the top left. And even then they didn't start at pin 1.
Reminds me of the crap boards I got at Radio shack many years ago. I'm still using my old Continental Specialties boards now, and the power rails are split every five holes.
Interesting... I had noticed that some breadboards purchased "recently", were very difficult to insert wires/leads into. Now I will go have a look at them. It would be interesting to know where people have purchased good ones.
Some might like the split rail situation, as you can provide two completely separate power supplies with separate grounds for projects where your coupling with opto circuits. I've seen these split rail boards for years, so I'm surprised your just noticing them.
I remember my top quality one from Tandy was in a pretty dire state after I'd hammered a few TO-220 and open frame pots into the holes, and passed enough current through some parts to melt it. One nice thing they sold was a PCB protoboard with the same layout, so you could transfer your working circuits. If they'd have made those in transparent plastic, they'd look even better than leaving the circuit in the breadboard.
Hi! Where did you buy the good quality 400 point breadboard? Was it eBay, because it looks just like the others that are sold there . If yes would share the seller's name? I've bought several breadboards off eBay and pretty much all of them are crap:( Thanks!
I've unfortunately purchased some "good" quality breadboard locally sourced and had some of the same problems with the ones I spent 5× the price on them. I guess it's just hard to get some things in a good quality anymore.
Another Great and Informative video by Julian! Please give my thanks to your quality mini breadboard for taking one for the team and allowing you to operate on her. I hope you patched her up and she's feeling better. (Tell her I LOVE her Funnels). ;-)
Thanks for sharing. Very helpful before buying. Though I have a little correction for your video regarding the split in the side rails/buses. According to Ben Finio's 'How to Use a Breadboard' video here on RUclips (ScienceBuddiesTV channel), there are two types of full sized breadboards: one is with side buses that run the entire length of the breadboard, and the second with side buses that run only half the length which indicated by the break in the lines. However the break is actually by design and it's convenient if you have a circuit that needs to be powered by two different voltage levels.
I ran into the same thing. The 830 breadboard I got in the Arduino starter kit was crap. I ordered some good ones from Jameco and that solved the problem. Thanks for the video.
Hi Julian - I think this has been asked before but I can't find the answer to it; Why do you use ebay.com and not ebay.co.uk? The prices are in dollars instead of GBP and it makes it awkward to find the items. I'm assuming you can't get deals that cheap on the UK site?
Split power rails is a design choice that has existed in breadboards like this going back about 40 years. You could have sent the boards back as they didn't send you what was shown on the listing. What happened with the other breadboards you said you ordered at the end of this video? Were they any good?
I ordered the very same kind of breadboard from china and it arrived a week ago. I just double checked it and I am pleased to say it is actually one of the good quality ones. So I guess I got lucky ^.^
I have a translucent breadbord that came in an Arduino kit. It has the same reversed lettering quirk, but I hypothesize that has to do with the fact that the power rails split in the middle. I'd bet most split-rail boards are labeled the same way. Mine, however, does not have the funneling issue or the misnumbering issue.
Thank you for this video. I have been using breadboards much in the same way that you do. You brought up several points that i would have missed. I will be more careful in the future when buying more of them. I, too just keep getting more breadboards for the next projects. Are you aware of the "perma-proto" boards from Adafruit and (maybe)others? They exactly duplicate the appearance, connections and hole patterns of this type of breadboard, but are indeed, PC Boards. So you can directly transfer your "art" with permanent, soldered connections.
You can also see that none of these have copper or some copper alloy. On my 3M Ace 236 (1987) which I am rebuilding, all the contacts are the copper (alloy?). If they are using steel in these knockoffs, I'd be wondering if rust will happen. No sign of rust on the 3M board.
Recommend Mr Sharman's detailed review of solderless breadboards. There are particular brands of a consistently (repeatable) quality. Saved me a lot of time and money - I was going nuts using cheap boards with dicey contacts - debugging that issue takes longer than any other. Cheap breadboards will drive you insane, slowly but surely.
"Smaller not been ripped of yet" Nope not true! Bought a bunch of those 400 points from Bandgood last summer, really crappy quality, hard to insert at first! And once you've managed to insert components there is no springiness left in the contacts and you get intermittent contact which leads to all kinds of problems! Will be interesting to see if the once you get from Alice is any good.
Jon Sten I've bought a few different ones from Alice and they're hit and miss. None where exceeding bad like some others I've gotten. Finding good breadboards is getting really hard since even local sellers are stating to stock these extremely cheap and poor quality ones even when they're not selling then for cheap. Overall the best by average breadboards I've gotten have been the mini ones without the power bus bars.
I've seen the same thing, both in solderless breadboards, as well as with solder-style prototype boards. It's especially frustrating with the prototype boards, as the bend makes it difficult to insert large DIPs such as the Arduino Nano.
I bought ten really low quality breadboards off Amazon, and I almost can't insert a single IC. But I did however manage to get a few 555 timers in in places, but I used an old thick led leg that I cut to a taper to push into the holes prior to inserting the ICs, that helped a little. But the ones I got from maplin work like an absolute dream in comparison
I've found the long boards sold under the brand name ELEGOO on Amazon have continuous power lines. They're not perfect, though. The numbering and labeling is a bit off, but I never needed that anyway.
I have the fakes also from the little one, and also a couple of the SYB-120 type, what are completely useless. The connections are so tight, that real pain to put in-or out a pro mini.
I got a Radioshack breadbroad from a surplus store (for about $20 :/) as my first board and even with that I find that with some of the contacts, I can't insert anything into them unless it's perfectly straight. If it's bent even just a little bit, it won't go. Incidentally I bought a ~$1 board on Ali Express last night. Seeing this video doesn't bode very well for it though. I really like a lot of the smaller ones you work with, especially the modular ones that fit together. So I might look for something like that.
Jay Mendez I've gotten stuff in just over a week, and just got one today that took 3 months and both orders were placed on the save day with the same seller
I got one of these that came with a kit. No continuity on the rails from the mid point. The numbering makes no sense at all. I also have a 400 pin one that came with another kit and its big problem is that once you've plugged components into the inputs, they become loose and you can't get connectivity with some components. My parents got me a really nice one for Christmas that's 1300 inputs plus 8 power rails. It's mounted on a steel plate and has rubber feet on it. The name on it is "All Electronics Corp." I highly recommend that one.
I have the same, after a few month mine even started to bend... absolute lowest quality plastic. I am waiting delivery of a few more, lets cross fingers and hope they're the better version. Where did you source your other breadboards ? the blue ones ?
I have one of those.. Pushing an arduino nano into it was a terrible experience.. I had to sandpaper every single pin manualy before wiggling the board in the pins and widening those with a nail.. Ugh. Terrible purchase. The worse thing is I bought two more from a different seller and hope they won't be such crappy quality too..
tablatronix Its silly though.... they press them out in one long run, then snap them into strips of five contacts to fabricate the board with. They could easily therefore make continuous power rails, my thinking is they've only got injection moulding tooling for one type of board based around these little short contact strips.
Wanna bet? I've broken those long rails before. Not on purpose, they are sometimes difficult to extract without breaking them. Why take one out? Sometimes leads break off, and need to be removed. After 40 years of breadboarding things do happen.
Not really silly since if you're working in analog you're likely to need 2 or 3 power rails plus ground. If you're not, install a jumper between the rails as soon as you get the board and you're done. And I agree, every long breadboard I've ever owned had split power rails.
I guess the way to get the right one is to send a question to the seller to be sure he's selling the one you want, then send it back if he sends the wrong one.
If you are using components with only 2 legs or so, it's possible to still use, however if you want to try to shove in an IC with like 8 legs or something, it's incredibly hard. They are essentially useless for most cases, it's good that you exposed the actual contact points and the reason it's happening. I also bought one of these cheap breadboards once when I first got into electronics. As usual, when buying on ebay from China, it's a bit of a gamble if you are going to get something that is designed properly, or a total scam.
Thanks a lot. I just ordered several breadboards off of Amazon and now I'm worried. LOL. Although I did look for the ones that were 4-5 star ratings so maybe I shouldn't be too worried. Thanks for the info on what to look out for.
holy shit! I'm just getting into this hobby and ordered a breadboard kit with power supply and battery case/wire and I just thought all this type of stuff for this honour was shit like the one I got...I never knew that quality stuff actually exist! I'm contacting the seller tonight cuz I paid a premium to get what iv thought was better stuff!
I bought a mix of the two from the same Alice, weeks ago. 400 points, transparent, 10 pieces, i think it was 10-ish euros for the lot. Just checked right now, pins of a 5mm led get in easy, the printouts are correct and aligned...
Yeah, I knew it the second I saw them in your post bag vid and I have only ever had one. It sits under my bench where it is being punished. I think mine came with a kit of arduino bits though and it cost me a day of troubleshooting something that was hooked up right but the board was creating faults.
watching this video, I picked up one of the breadboards next to me, and it is one of those clear ones, 800 tie points, but it has the mismatched lettering and numbering. I have a few more small ones, and even a small clear one that came in the same set as the large one, and those are all fine. weird.
I have a bunch of Jameco and Archer boards from the 90’s that needed replaced. I’ve had to rework nearly every single new board I’ve bought. I’ll just spend the money on the 1600 Jameco boards now.
This explains the poor experience with the breadboards I've been buying lately -- the ones I've bought recently were the cheapest ones I could find, unlike in the earlier days of tinkering when I would get (in retrospect) moderately expensive ones, because I didn't know that cheaper ones existed. I think the "when they're this bad, it's not worth they money" comment really sums it up well.
Ive always struggled with breadboards, and always thought that's just what they were. Time to end my suffering and buy some good ones. I had no idea that the good ones were so much better.
Наука
This is why I only buy whole grain organic breadboards that are locally sourced.
XD
Tom5tom Entertainment but are they gluten-free?
Are those organic bread-boards, or organic-bread boards?
They have to be farm-to-table.
anal yes not sure about the Art bit
"Its very difficult when you got both holes resisting the insertion of your component". I've had that problem before, not fun! :P
Get out.
muh1h1 Haha, I should've known I wasn't the only one to be triggered by that remark. 😁
Sharklops Yeah, floppy jumper wires are a well known problem. All those soldering fumes, you know.
muh1h1 maybe your component is too thick for the holes. Try wriggling it couple of times before shoving it in.
Brainstorm4300 Or maybe, as the video demonstrated, the problem could be solved by exchanging the receiving end altogether.
I don't think "fake" is really the right word to describe these. More along the lines of very low quality/poorly implemented copies of a fairly common & simple design.
Malcolm Whinfield China's a great source for cheap 'modules' for tinkering n evaluating project ideas with. The only downside to this is the time you spend reverse engineering n probing these circuit boards because these no decent online support. Okay, there's the manufacturers data sheets for things like the IC's they use- but they have a habit of scrubbing or defacing the chips epoxy encasement to stop you doing this!
I agree if it has another companies logo or part number it could be classed as fake. These are just poorly constructed. The split rail is common on the larger board. I have some of the larger boards that also have the joiners on the short end for joining lengthwise.
Then the title would be "very low quality/poorly implemented copies of a fairly common & simple design Solderless breadboards" tl,dr.
i agree, its said there are generally 5 quality levels for nearly every product produced in china, the problem is though actually knowing what quality level your going to get, vs paying for.
The title should simply be "Why some bread boards are crap"
I have zero idea why people are complaining about the split rails. The basis of the complaint appears to be that a board you are planning to add lots of jumper wires to, requires you to add some jumper wires.
Hardly the biggest problem. The counter-example though, where you are mixing 3v and 5v circuits on a board, or 5v and audio +/- rails, is certainly a lot more awkward without the welcome convenience of split rails.
And more grounds, and shorter power rails is a plus!
It's an extremely frustrating problem if you aren't expecting it. I spent several hours once trying to find the issue with an ESP8266 uart connection, uncertain if it was a power supply issue or a firmware issue, or a software problem on the host, all while trying to explain to a friend how awesome ESP8266 are! Eventually discovered the split rail causing a floating ground. Nasty nasty nasty.
I don't understand that one either. And it's not asif high-quality boards don't have split rails.
I must admit I have scratched my head for way too long before I noticed the lines where interrupted. but it cost 4 seconds and two inches of wire to fix, so what*the*fart?
HEHEHE!
Yeah, this, having the split power rails on a board that big is a GOOD thing.
I'm totally new to electronics, so new that I’m proud to have made a binary counter though my wife won't let me stick on the fridge. She said something about me being 60 not 6. I only have two breadboards, one I got with a Freenove kit and one I got with a cheap kit I ordered by mistake not realising it was full of nothing (I said I was new). Watching this made me go and look at both my breadboards and the difference is like night and day, even the weight and feel is different. Thank you for this video, this sort of thing is invaluable to a newbie like myself.
The world is going to hell in a handbasket if a $1.86 breadboard isn't high quality.
It's not that big of a deal but this video really saved from buying a lot of poor quality breadboards
$1.86 ? you are being ripped of...I got them for 50cets :)
The break in the power rails isn't a massive issue - I actually quite like it when working with multi-voltage projects. 5V logic on one side, and 12V for the LED strips or fans on the other. It's easy enough to join them together with a little jumper
Cheap is good but useless is useless at any price!
'Saving money at any cost' as my good friend would say.
I like to say that I like something that is inexpensive, but not something which is cheap.
Separated rails are essential. If an experimenter is working with a transistor or chip amplifier with more than two stages, for example, a resistor and capacitor decoupling is unavoidable to prevent "motorboating". Also, I had to use long nose pliers to enable wire insertion, and needed to alter resistor values on the soldered item, as consequence of tie point ESR. Very enlightening upload from JL. Thanks. 🙂
Until I watched this video, I had no idea that not all breadboards are as bad as the ones you bought - I've only ever bought and used cheap ones and thought that horrible insertion and dodgy contact with the terminals was par for the course.
So, let's say I want to treat myself to some good quality (and, no doubt, expensive) breadboards - where do people reckon I should go and what should I buy?
Nicholas Barnes I had the same idea until I found out I was living under a cheap rock when I borrowed a high quality breadboard from my friend. I have so many of those cheap crap ones but I've kinda gotten used to them so it doesn't bother me that much.
A good indication is the price although having said that stuff on Ebay are kind of a hit or miss thing. Stuff from reputed online shops such as sparkfun or adafruit are however of high quality. :v
Try CPC/Farnell if you are in the UK. That's where I got mine from: they are "Wish" brand, made in Taiwan, and inexpensive. I can't remember ever having had any rubbish products from CPC. Are you the same Nicholas Barnes I was at school with forty years ago? If so, hello!
Right. I need to do a CPC order (need another Raspberry Pi), so I'll drop a few in the basket and see what they're like.
I was only 6 forty years ago, so I doubt I know you - but hello anyway!!
That's why Brexit happen...
When you were 6 these breadboards were like 15 bucks each. Look it up. A 4000 point assembled breadboard was more than $149.
Chinese components have thinner leads than US branded counterparts. Quarter watt resistor leads on chinese resistors are ridiculously thin compared to a Vishay or Dale.
3 breadboard for 3.50 dollars. Only rating *without a verified purchase*:
5 stars and "Excellent quality. Product fulfills the function for which it was made. Ideal for Arduino"
Seems legit, right?
I have some of these poor-quality ones at home. I found that some of the strips has surprisingly high resistance, like 8 ohms, which caused serious problems with an INA219 current/power meter that I was building (a lot like yours). I'm currently trying to build an INA219-based milliohmmeter to do some better comparisons.
Your comment about the printing is spot on. You can often tell counterfeit Cuban cigars made in Mexico merely by looking at the resolution of the printing on the (counterfeit) label. Often there is poor registration between colors. Congrats on 100k subs. I think I subbed back when you had
I bought some of those smaller - 400 contacts - transparent breadboards the other day, that seem to have the same problem. But I wanted transparent breadboards so badly, because I think it's time to put indicator LEDs on the "underside" of PCBs, too.
Yep. I've got two of those. Actually the only ones I've got.. I kinda assumed that is the way it is so I got used to wiggling the parts in. I'm curious if I should get the small ones or maybe the ones without power rails. Those seem different construction altogether.
Thank you Julian. This is important. Building and experimenting is difficult enough but adding another headache in the mess that is avoidable if I follow your advise on this subject.
Hmm. I've got an 840-point breadboard with the same printing and doesn't seem to have this problem. Don't want to take it apart but from looking at the top it seems to have funneling as wide as the holes just like my smaller ones. Wonder what happened.
One more point regarding the photo swap of the seller. I worked at eBay and can tell you this is a violation of their seller agreement. You can get your money back and file a complaint against the seller. The listing is a binding legal contract and the seller is required to supply you with the exact product represented in the photo.
Well I better get reporting then! It's not like they're just going to open a new store in 10 minutes.
Can you still buy the old blue type ? I have one and its super high quality .
Would love a follow up video, I've given up and started to straight up soldering components to prototype pcbs instead.
Thank you, Julian. I learned something here. I too like low-cost items, and I have a few breadboards that are difficult to insert into, and I just put up with it and never really thought about it too much - but seeing the funneling on the better boards makes me wonder how I can make sure I'm getting the right one next time.
Don't buy from E-bay.
@@ByteMeCompletely Actually, I've just counted, and I have six breadboards, all bought from Ebay. Five of them are easy to insert into, and one of them (which I unfortunately got for my gransdon) is not. At 5:45, he asks "Could I have avoided buying the rip-off breadboards? - Well, not really"
The problem with Ebay is that it's an open marketplace, where quality manufacturers sell alongside cheap manufacturers who are selling 'covers' of the better stuff - but what marketplace is not like that? If not Ebay, who do you use? I have bought from Amazon and had rip-off products, and you can't just judge it on price either. I was looking for a Ruizu X06 MP3 player, and noticed that I could pay £32 or £65 for exactly the same device from the same manufacturer, where the price doesn't indicate any difference at all. You will get sellers who will chance it.
This is a worthwhile video. Thanks for alerting us to this quality problem.
Can you do a video on breadboards that you like/recommend? last week I opened a few packages from good ol China and have 3 junk breadboards myself.
I have one of the shorter breadboards that has a split positive rail but a continuous negative rail (on both sides). At first it confused the hell out of me, I couldn't figure out why some of the components weren't getting power, but then I realised it's actually quite useful. You can get voltage regulator modules based on the AMS1117 on ebay that connect one rail to the other so for example you can have a split rail with +5V and +3.3v without needing to take up space on the board itself. Also when you want a continuous rail you can just use a short jumper wire to bridge the gap anyway.
Bought both 400 and 800 point breadboards recently, and because of this video I went to check.
The 400 pin breadboards have consistent lettering and the row numbers aren't just lined up, all 30 rows are actually individually numbered!
The 800 point ones are exactly the same as featured in this video.
Bought them all in a single package that also came with jumper wires that work mostly OK, but the plastic endclips want to fall off on some of them.
Please do a followup with the ones from alice so we know if ther good or as bad as the fakes.
I'll be sure to check these when they come in :)
alice saw this video. he wont dare sending a fake one.
Interesting observation bdkmont that shape might be easyer to pick out on some of the pictures of products.
I just received 3 of these from am ebay seller called tk-electronics2016 and they seem to be OK. The numbering and lettering is as in the picture (print quality is a bit faded but still readable). I tried to insert a few components in and they felt just fine. I haven't opened up any yet, can't bear the terrifying thought of destroying a 1$ component :D
Here's a link if it works (item id 222184036094)
www.ebay.com/itm/222184036094
I was wondering why some of my projects did not work. Sure enough when I bridged the gap with a wire and tested It that was the problem .You just got another subscriber thanks Buddy. I going to buy the transparent ones from now on like You said.
What aobout beadboards from alice?
Looking forward to your follow up video on you new breadboards. Keep up the good work.
Can anyone recommend a good supplier for quality MB102 boards in the UK? Thanks
To answer my own question, I managed to find excellent quality MB102's from Rapid Electronics. All the ones I bought on ebay have been terrible.
Oh crud, I have some of the fake ones too. Thanks for the heads up! I have been wondering why I keep having problems with them..
Julian on your small breadboard have you got the top negative rail shorted to the bottom positive rail with the long jumper ?
Rob Bennett I noticed the same thing.
That's because the op amp needs a split power supply +12v 0v -12v
So what are your recommendations for a half decent breadboard? I've got one of the cheap crappy ones and it really is useless. I've just been making some very simple circuits but have spent more time making sure I've got a connection than I have doing anything else. It really is utter junk.
Do you have a recommended supplier?
I got a transparent one with lower case lettering and pins do go in easier, but I find the grip not as strong as the fake ones. I found the cheap pined Dupont wires in Ard kits have a burr, so are hard to get in the BBs, and after filing a point on them they are ok. Either way I have problems with reliable contacts with either BB. There is a third all white BB with no writing and less row holes on the other power rails, that could be better than both.
Many breadboards have split in the middle power rails, sometimes you need more than 2 positive voltages, it's extra flexibility. You can put a jumper in between the rails of those boards to make them one power rail, but can't cut a breadboard power rail of board that have them connected all the way, so need extra breadboard or power rail.
I am interested to know where I could find the kind of (blue) breadbords briefly shown at 8:20. I assume they are good quality.
Maplin, about 20 years ago
Julian Ilett Tah!
Yup. I've run into the same issue. I'll probably buy them in store for now on where I can look at and test them out first.
show us what breadboards you buy? please
I've got a few of those. I didn't really have too much of a problem inserting component leads, but more of a connection issue.
I've often built up a circuit on one of these only to find it didn't work. The same circuit on my K & H breadboard would work fine.
I've mostly given up using these, so I'll wait to see how the replacement boards work for you before I buy any others.
Split side rails is STANDARD. I have never owned a breadboard without them, going back to the 1980s and maybe 70s I don't recall
Well that explains why I was having trouble with BBs - I only started elec a year ago and didn't know better -. One has bad printing, but the other is pretty good except for half of 1 line, so I guess you have to check the entire length. There seams to be a few types on a image search, but you can probably say upper case and not starting on zero together are bad ones.
The printed numbering should *always* start in the lower left corner. That way you can line up the IC pin 1 with 1, 11, 21, 31, etc. to make it easy and fast to get the right pin.
I mean otherwise it is just useless crap printed on by a company that has zero experience with actually using the product they are manufacturing. They are just trying to follow what another company is selling but *thought* they knew better by starting in the top left. And even then they didn't start at pin 1.
Reminds me of the crap boards I got at Radio shack many years ago. I'm still using my old Continental Specialties boards now, and the power rails are split every five holes.
Interesting... I had noticed that some breadboards purchased "recently", were very difficult to insert wires/leads into. Now I will go have a look at them. It would be interesting to know where people have purchased good ones.
Glad you posted this, very informative 👍
Some might like the split rail situation, as you can provide two completely separate power supplies with separate grounds for projects where your coupling with opto circuits. I've seen these split rail boards for years, so I'm surprised your just noticing them.
I remember my top quality one from Tandy was in a pretty dire state after I'd hammered a few TO-220 and open frame pots into the holes, and passed enough current through some parts to melt it. One nice thing they sold was a PCB protoboard with the same layout, so you could transfer your working circuits. If they'd have made those in transparent plastic, they'd look even better than leaving the circuit in the breadboard.
Hi!
Where did you buy the good quality 400 point breadboard?
Was it eBay, because it looks just like the others that are sold there .
If yes would share the seller's name?
I've bought several breadboards off eBay and pretty much all of them are crap:(
Thanks!
2:15 "It's very difficult when you got both holes resisting the insertion of your component", *if you know what i mean*
An excellent video once again! Now I have an new theory on why my project isn't working.
I also bought two of those like a year ago, 99p a piece. Components are almost impossible to insert in the holes. Used them maybe once.
Was this video used as feedback for a Banggood purchase ?
I've unfortunately purchased some "good" quality breadboard locally sourced and had some of the same problems with the ones I spent 5× the price on them. I guess it's just hard to get some things in a good quality anymore.
I purchased the Arduino MKR1000 kit from Arduino.cc .Yet I am having the problem in inserting the board on breadboard.
Another Great and Informative video by Julian! Please give my thanks to your quality mini breadboard for taking one for the team and allowing you to operate on her. I hope you patched her up and she's feeling better. (Tell her I LOVE her Funnels). ;-)
Thanks for sharing. Very helpful before buying. Though I have a little correction for your video regarding the split in the side rails/buses. According to Ben Finio's 'How to Use a Breadboard' video here on RUclips (ScienceBuddiesTV channel), there are two types of full sized breadboards: one is with side buses that run the entire length of the breadboard, and the second with side buses that run only half the length which indicated by the break in the lines. However the break is actually by design and it's convenient if you have a circuit that needs to be powered by two different voltage levels.
I ran into the same thing. The 830 breadboard I got in the Arduino starter kit was crap. I ordered some good ones from Jameco and that solved the problem. Thanks for the video.
Hi Julian - I think this has been asked before but I can't find the answer to it; Why do you use ebay.com and not ebay.co.uk? The prices are in dollars instead of GBP and it makes it awkward to find the items. I'm assuming you can't get deals that cheap on the UK site?
Split power rails is a design choice that has existed in breadboards like this going back about 40 years. You could have sent the boards back as they didn't send you what was shown on the listing. What happened with the other breadboards you said you ordered at the end of this video? Were they any good?
I ordered the very same kind of breadboard from china and it arrived a week ago.
I just double checked it and I am pleased to say it is actually one of the good quality ones.
So I guess I got lucky ^.^
Please tell us the seller's name?
Too many people expect ZIF from these. Easy in = easy out. Good ones last way longer. The printing tip is useful.
I have a translucent breadbord that came in an Arduino kit. It has the same reversed lettering quirk, but I hypothesize that has to do with the fact that the power rails split in the middle. I'd bet most split-rail boards are labeled the same way. Mine, however, does not have the funneling issue or the misnumbering issue.
ha, I just looked at my ebay orders page and I've ordered two of these, if the pictures in the listing are correct.
What do you do when you get bad bread boards,text thee seller or send them to the trash,
I use tweezers to insert component on it and also to enlarge the holes and be easier next time! Where are the GOOD ones?
Thank you for this video. I have been using breadboards much in the same way that you do. You brought up several points that i would have missed. I will be more careful in the future when buying more of them.
I, too just keep getting more breadboards for the next projects.
Are you aware of the "perma-proto" boards from Adafruit and (maybe)others? They exactly duplicate the appearance, connections and hole patterns of this type of breadboard, but are indeed, PC Boards. So you can directly transfer your "art" with permanent, soldered connections.
You can also see that none of these have copper or some copper alloy. On my 3M Ace 236 (1987) which I am rebuilding, all the contacts are the copper (alloy?). If they are using steel in these knockoffs, I'd be wondering if rust will happen.
No sign of rust on the 3M board.
I have lived off of poor quality bread boards for years! And I was happy to get them!
Recommend Mr Sharman's detailed review of solderless breadboards. There are particular brands of a consistently (repeatable) quality. Saved me a lot of time and money - I was going nuts using cheap boards with dicey contacts - debugging that issue takes longer than any other. Cheap breadboards will drive you insane, slowly but surely.
"Smaller not been ripped of yet" Nope not true! Bought a bunch of those 400 points from Bandgood last summer, really crappy quality, hard to insert at first! And once you've managed to insert components there is no springiness left in the contacts and you get intermittent contact which leads to all kinds of problems! Will be interesting to see if the once you get from Alice is any good.
Jon Sten I've bought a few different ones from Alice and they're hit and miss. None where exceeding bad like some others I've gotten.
Finding good breadboards is getting really hard since even local sellers are stating to stock these extremely cheap and poor quality ones even when they're not selling then for cheap.
Overall the best by average breadboards I've gotten have been the mini ones without the power bus bars.
I've got a breadboard that has a bow to it, it doesn't lie flat, lol.
I've seen the same thing, both in solderless breadboards, as well as with solder-style prototype boards.
It's especially frustrating with the prototype boards, as the bend makes it difficult to insert large DIPs such as the Arduino Nano.
mine too and virtually impossible to correct
Can breadboards be improved to make more compact and understandablle circuits with less wires? Might be an interesting discussion to start.
I bought ten really low quality breadboards off Amazon, and I almost can't insert a single IC. But I did however manage to get a few 555 timers in in places, but I used an old thick led leg that I cut to a taper to push into the holes prior to inserting the ICs, that helped a little. But the ones I got from maplin work like an absolute dream in comparison
I've found the long boards sold under the brand name ELEGOO on Amazon have continuous power lines. They're not perfect, though. The numbering and labeling is a bit off, but I never needed that anyway.
I hope that you get it back in.
I have the fakes also from the little one, and also a couple of the SYB-120 type, what are completely useless. The connections are so tight, that real pain to put in-or out a pro mini.
I got a Radioshack breadbroad from a surplus store (for about $20 :/) as my first board and even with that I find that with some of the contacts, I can't insert anything into them unless it's perfectly straight. If it's bent even just a little bit, it won't go. Incidentally I bought a ~$1 board on Ali Express last night. Seeing this video doesn't bode very well for it though. I really like a lot of the smaller ones you work with, especially the modular ones that fit together. So I might look for something like that.
How long would the ordered items would come at your house?
Probably about 3 weeks.
Jay Mendez Depends on several factors. I would assume a minimum of two weeks.
Jay Mendez I've gotten stuff in just over a week, and just got one today that took 3 months and both orders were placed on the save day with the same seller
I got one of these that came with a kit. No continuity on the rails from the mid point. The numbering makes no sense at all. I also have a 400 pin one that came with another kit and its big problem is that once you've plugged components into the inputs, they become loose and you can't get connectivity with some components.
My parents got me a really nice one for Christmas that's 1300 inputs plus 8 power rails. It's mounted on a steel plate and has rubber feet on it. The name on it is "All Electronics Corp." I highly recommend that one.
I have the same, after a few month mine even started to bend... absolute lowest quality plastic.
I am waiting delivery of a few more, lets cross fingers and hope they're the better version.
Where did you source your other breadboards ? the blue ones ?
The blue ones came from Maplin, probably 20 or 30 years ago :)
Well, ok. Thanks ;)
The bad ones are not reliable when the circuit speed goes up and when using wire wrap wires with tinned ends.
wait, are any breadboards reliable with high speed circuits?
The cheapies I just received have the side bus rails separating from the board. They just don't work.
Can you give your good quality 400 pin breadboard? Thanks!
thank you julian ilett i had no idea about this
I have one of those.. Pushing an arduino nano into it was a terrible experience.. I had to sandpaper every single pin manualy before wiggling the board in the pins and widening those with a nail.. Ugh. Terrible purchase. The worse thing is I bought two more from a different seller and hope they won't be such crappy quality too..
every breadboard I have ever seen have half length power rails...
tablatronix Its silly though.... they press them out in one long run, then snap them into strips of five contacts to fabricate the board with. They could easily therefore make continuous power rails, my thinking is they've only got injection moulding tooling for one type of board based around these little short contact strips.
2010craggy some times split power rails are desired. You can connect the split rails but you can't break a continuous rail.
Wanna bet? I've broken those long rails before. Not on purpose, they are sometimes difficult to extract without breaking them. Why take one out? Sometimes leads break off, and need to be removed. After 40 years of breadboarding things do happen.
Not really silly since if you're working in analog you're likely to need 2 or 3 power rails plus ground. If you're not, install a jumper between the rails as soon as you get the board and you're done.
And I agree, every long breadboard I've ever owned had split power rails.
none of mine are split
Hi, do you know if alice101983 ships from U.K?
I think not.
I guess the way to get the right one is to send a question to the seller to be sure he's selling the one you want, then send it back if he sends the wrong one.
Ahhh, having both holes resisting insertion, something I used to get a lot as a teenager.
If you are using components with only 2 legs or so, it's possible to still use, however if you want to try to shove in an IC with like 8 legs or something, it's incredibly hard.
They are essentially useless for most cases, it's good that you exposed the actual contact points and the reason it's happening. I also bought one of these cheap breadboards once when I first got into electronics. As usual, when buying on ebay from China, it's a bit of a gamble if you are going to get something that is designed properly, or a total scam.
Thanks a lot. I just ordered several breadboards off of Amazon and now I'm worried. LOL. Although I did look for the ones that were 4-5 star ratings so maybe I shouldn't be too worried. Thanks for the info on what to look out for.
holy shit! I'm just getting into this hobby and ordered a breadboard kit with power supply and battery case/wire and I just thought all this type of stuff for this honour was shit like the one I got...I never knew that quality stuff actually exist! I'm contacting the seller tonight cuz I paid a premium to get what iv thought was better stuff!
Maybe the funneling holes just loosen up with repeated use, as holes tend to do?
I bought a mix of the two from the same Alice, weeks ago. 400 points, transparent, 10 pieces, i think it was 10-ish euros for the lot. Just checked right now, pins of a 5mm led get in easy, the printouts are correct and aligned...
I've been stung by fake 'Chinese' breadboards too. thanks for the explanation of what to look out for between a good and bad board.
Yeah, I knew it the second I saw them in your post bag vid and I have only ever had one. It sits under my bench where it is being punished. I think mine came with a kit of arduino bits though and it cost me a day of troubleshooting something that was hooked up right but the board was creating faults.
so who's selling the better ones
watching this video, I picked up one of the breadboards next to me, and it is one of those clear ones, 800 tie points, but it has the mismatched lettering and numbering. I have a few more small ones, and even a small clear one that came in the same set as the large one, and those are all fine. weird.
I have a bunch of Jameco and Archer boards from the 90’s that needed replaced. I’ve had to rework nearly every single new board I’ve bought. I’ll just spend the money on the 1600 Jameco boards now.
This explains the poor experience with the breadboards I've been buying lately -- the ones I've bought recently were the cheapest ones I could find, unlike in the earlier days of tinkering when I would get (in retrospect) moderately expensive ones, because I didn't know that cheaper ones existed.
I think the "when they're this bad, it's not worth they money" comment really sums it up well.
Ive always struggled with breadboards, and always thought that's just what they were.
Time to end my suffering and buy some good ones. I had no idea that the good ones were so much better.