Prototyping a breadboard: Advantage and Limitation
- Feb 22, 2016
- 1 min read
Breadboards are one of the most easy pieces when trying to build circuits in a very short time. It is very fast to build and make changes which make them handy when you just try to proof a concept or just poking around with some things. It is very easy to work with using DIP components that you can shop around DIY stores.
However, there are some quite important limitations you need to know before you can decide whether you can prototype a circuit using breadboard:
1. Does the circuit require critical layout to work properly? Chance is that some particular analog circuits require properly defined and large ground plane to reject noise.
2. Is the Integrated Circuit in right package? Chance is that you have a SMD component and you are stranded there without a proper adaptor and know how to proper soldering one.
3. Is the circuit require high current? Breadboard works by clamping the stripped wire which work quick but at the same time give you a large contact resistnace and stray capacitance which is a hazard to layout dependent circuit especially for power switching.
4. In general, audio, video circuits is not advised to start on breadboard if you plan to transfer them to a properly layout board some time later. This is because the effect of stray capacitance is so great that the real PCB circuit will have to do all the re-adjustement again.
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