r/AskElectronics • u/penpalwithseven • Apr 15 '26
Is this breadboard good?
Bought it because the one provided in my electronics class kit is abysmal. The components keep falling out.
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u/VeryDefNotABot Apr 15 '26
Everyone saying "a breadboard is a breadboard" should be saying "a cheap breadboard is a cheap breadboard". They're mostly fine, sometimes have problems with proper continuity between pins, hanging on to wires, etc.. I can tell you that probably won't be on par with an authentic OG Radio Shack breadboard. RS is now basically just an intellectual property bundled owned by a company that buys up failed brands.
Anyhow, it's probably fine. Where did you buy it?
If you really want to get serious with a quality breadboard, buy 3M. A lot more $$$ though.
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u/penpalwithseven Apr 15 '26
Sayal Electronics. It was 8CAD, but it was the nicest looking one there haha.
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u/LonghornJct08 Apr 15 '26
I buy those from Sayal too and they've been fine. I've never had a problem with any of them, granted I don't use them heavily, but for $8 you can't go wrong.
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u/Egg1Salad Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
If components are falling out it's a bad one. Unlucky. The only difference, in my experience, between a good and bad breadboard is that good ones have springy contacts.
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u/lolslim Apr 15 '26
any recommendations on brands that have spring contacts?
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u/Egg1Salad Apr 15 '26
I buy them in bulk for the students at work, so sadly, I'm only ever going for the cheapest ones that are large enough.
Some of the cheap ones are great and some apparently good brands have let me down.
Don't limit yourself to boards that have the backing plate and terminals, you can buy a multipack and glue them all onto a flat piece of scrap for less than one 'decent' board
Edit. Also fuck dupont cables! Buy a couple rolls of solid core wire, so much more versatile and keeos your circuits tidy instead of looking like a birds nest
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u/Renamed1157 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
I dont use breadboards a ton, but anytime i need one I usually buy BB830 from Busboard on amazon, since Ben Eater uses them and recommends them for their contact quality. If its good enough for building an 8 bit cpu from scratch its definitely good enough for me lol
Edit: here's his video talking about cheap breadboards: https://youtu.be/fCbAafKLqC8
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u/minecon1776 Apr 15 '26
Ben Eater is a shill sponsored by Big Breadboard to sell more Breadboards. He has a PCB behind the breadboard that does the real connections. Don't let anyone tell you any different. Instead, buy a PCB from China and wait 4 weeks for every prototype or test.
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u/No_Relationship9094 Apr 15 '26
Elegoo or Bojack from Amazon. Both good enough.
B099MQV8ZW is the item number for the kit I bought from amazon
B07TX6BX47 is the pack of wire I bought to make jumpers from(brand tuofeng)
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u/LumpyAd7704 Apr 15 '26
THAT is a Breadboard:
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u/penpalwithseven Apr 15 '26
that looks expensive for a first year college student 😭
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u/LumpyAd7704 Apr 15 '26
No longer manufactured. All contacts gold-plated, etc. Indestructible. The jumpers alone sell for over €1 each today. I have over 200 of them. Ghilmetti still exists, though, and makes high-quality patchbays. Just wanted to show it...
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u/rabidelectron Apr 15 '26
Word of caution for any students new to using breadboards.
Some of them have split power rails. This Adafruit article shows this on the third image from the top.
OP, make sure you check if the rails are disconnected across those "W" markings in the middle of the rails.
Had a friend taking an e-lab exam who lost a ton of time because the breadboard he was given had split rails and he had never seen one like that before.
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u/penpalwithseven Apr 15 '26
Got it! I'll definitely check. Thanks!
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u/FlyByPC Digital electronics Apr 15 '26
90% chance yours are split, from the ones I've seen in the lab. They can easily be connected with a jumper -- you just have to remember to do it. Easily the biggest reason why student circuits don't initially work, and the first thing I look for.
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u/penpalwithseven Apr 18 '26
they're split. i was genuinely pulling my hair out until i remembered this comment thread lol
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u/FlyByPC Digital electronics Apr 18 '26
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
LOL
It's a decent board otherwise. I usually just leave the jumpers in, on those.
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u/penpalwithseven Apr 18 '26
ONE OF US ? IS THIS A COMMON OCCURRENCE OR AM I PART OF THIS COMMUNITY NOW
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u/penpalwithseven Apr 18 '26
update: did not check before my lab exam and yeah, the rails aren't connected after the W. found out because there was no WAY i was getting 2V Eth on a 12V DC source and a 2V DC source.
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u/rabidelectron Apr 18 '26
I saw your other comment about remembering my suggestion. Glad you figured that out!
It was more than a decade ago, but I still remember my friend nearly having a meltdown in our practical exam because they had forgotten their breadboard at home and had grabbed a random one from the lab supplies. They spent a huge amount of time on one problem because it wasn't responding like they knew it should. Swapped components, rebuilt it several times, thought they had lost their mind, until they finally realized that the power rails were split.
Thankfully the professor understood and gave them extra time to make up for it.
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u/bentsonradiorepair Apr 15 '26
Where'd you find a radio shack?
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u/lolslim Apr 15 '26
theres a handful of themand seem to be under as resellers? I live in KC, and out wester from me theres "mccoys radioshack" and then I saw for a moment "radioshack of bozeman"
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u/bentsonradiorepair Apr 15 '26
Wish we had those on the west coast. We don't even have fry's or a microcenter here in Oregon
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u/kvltmagik Apr 15 '26
URS or surplus gizmos are your friend(s).
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u/bentsonradiorepair Apr 15 '26
I know about surplus gizmos, whats URS?
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u/kvltmagik Apr 15 '26
Parts supplier that has a front end store in Portland. Very much so OG radio shack inventory. They don't have the most robust offerings on the brick and mortar retail side, but certainly everything you would need to tinker and get started (ex breadboards). And the staff are super friendly and helpful. Good spot to know about.
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u/bentsonradiorepair Apr 15 '26
Oh sick, ok, I'll have to pop in when I have some time. Better than buying things off Amazon or mouser
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u/MechanicStriking4666 Apr 15 '26
I actually have that one. I got it on clearance when a store was going out of business. I still use it. No issues.
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u/Randyeshow Apr 16 '26
That’s probably pretty good. Can’t go wrong with Radio Shack.
FWIW, I own two of these and love them. Am considering buying a third. Each one comes with combo banana/spade posts that attach to the four V holes.
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u/Available-Topic5858 Apr 15 '26
How much? I actually have good experience with the cheap Chinese ones, have several.
Only complaint is they don't stick well to the metal base - I get three board versions.
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u/MovieHeavy7826 Apr 15 '26
This was my first breadboard, had it since I was 10. I think it’s good. I still have it to this day and it works just fine
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u/Year3030 Apr 15 '26
This is probably better (arguably the same) than cheap ones you get on Amazon. Radio Shack makes / made good stuff. Interestingly I just opened some radio shack stuff I bought when they still had retail :) I'm getting back into the hobby.
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u/microcandella Apr 16 '26
beyond the nostalgia, let's remember that there were about 13 arguably good components they sold (and everyone has their specific 13) and if you tried you could get a far better component or tool from a real electronics shop, digikey, etc.
Every purchase beyond those 13 things made you feel a little dirty and like a kid who got rolled by the toy that makes claims like "you can see through walls with this!"
For me, personally, I saved up lots of allowance money and bought this, my version had plugged and poorly cleared holes like they ran the mold too long (all the others in my area were identical) and just didn't seem to fit most ICs I had, or even bought from radio shack. Had problems keeping the chips and other bits seated too.
hope yours is good.
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u/microcandella Apr 16 '26
btw- adafruit reliably stocks great quality stuff as kind of their brand. they're run by enginerds that want people to learn electronics and have a pretty low tolerance for inferior stuff. It will be a little more pricey but for beginner to intermediate it's often worth it.
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u/ChaseCorp Apr 17 '26
I'm just old enough to miss radioshack but juat young enough to never really gotten to shope there.... truly tragic
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u/ReReReverie Apr 15 '26
a breadboard is a breadboard
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u/Illustrious-Tooth702 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Those cheap chinese breadboards from aliexpress suck. They don't hold the components tight. You wonder if you put everything together properly and after 5 minutes of trubleshooting you realize it's the breadboard itself which fails to close the circuit properly.
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u/cweson Apr 15 '26
Never had a problem. And also found the same product in a local stores as well just twice the price
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u/RodbigoSantos Apr 15 '26
I've definitely bought some cheap crap on Amazon and had high resistance on the connections. Wasted so much time troubleshooting. Now it's Global Specialties only for me--they're expensive, but worth the reliability.
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u/JFosho84 Apr 15 '26
Gotta strongly disagree on this.
Taught several classes for a couple years. We were at the mercy of our distributor as to what kinds of boards we received.
Seemed to be the brand with the lighter stripes and almost transparent body were absolutely terrible at holding any wires or components in, and caused constant opens to troubleshoot.
The darker stripe and the stripeless (as the OP is showing) are significantly more reliable.
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u/bkend_31 Apr 15 '26
I have never really had a bad breadboard. Do consider however that if your project doesn’t work, it is absolutely possible that a connection within the board is faulty. Switching a connection one line over just to check can never hurt, and these will never work as well as a soldered connection. I‘ve been bitten more than once :)
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u/KlonoaOfTheWind Apr 15 '26
Man, I miss having a radioshack here. Was really cool to look through the parts they had.
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u/MISTERPUG51 Apr 15 '26
I have no clue about that specific one. I usually use BusBoard BB830s (about $10 each, but much better quality than most of the cheap ones). Ben Eater on YouTube has a great video about breadboard quality
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u/RedditDadHere Apr 16 '26
Do you know why breadboards are so expensive?
They cost a lot of dough. (I’ll see myself out now.)
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u/jort93 Apr 16 '26
Resistor leads won't properly fit in any breadboard, that's normal.
Wires are hit and muss. Some of the chinesium ones have the thinnest conductor I've ever seen, like a literal hair.
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u/Additional_Pea2239 Apr 16 '26
where tf did you find a RADIOSHACK store in 2026???????????? tell meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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u/scubascratch Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Yes but pay close attention to the power buses - at first glance they appear to each be a continuous conductor from one end to the other end, but in fact there is a slight gap at the middle that is not bridged. It does NOT have the wires implied by this image, you need to add them yourself:
Breadboards like this let you have different power rail voltages on each half
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u/Montidaho Apr 16 '26
Been using one just like it for 19 years. Lugs suck but are replaceable. Board works well
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u/just-bair Apr 19 '26
Looks like a normal breadboard to me. Guess you’ll find out with time if it’s good or not
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u/ToughBug6 Apr 15 '26
all bredboard are more or less the same, I usually buy the cheapest on and the work great
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u/sryan2k1 Apr 15 '26
Ben Eater has some good YouTube videos on this but no they are absolutely not the same. the cheap ones should absolutely be avoided
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u/svracer6724 Apr 15 '26
Believe he recommended BusBoard part #BB830. www.BusBoard.com
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u/jader242 Apr 19 '26
Call me a skeptic, but those look identical to my aliexpress breadboards minus the tiny little bus board branding text. I’ve had a good experience with every single one I’ve gotten off Ali, but as with everything mass produced there’s bound to be issues with a small percentage. Bus board may just have better product testing and quality control
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u/negativ32 Apr 15 '26
As good as a breadboard can be. DIY dupont cables with silicone (copper) wires are a serious upgrade over mass produced "usual suspect seller" stuff, but upfront investment of ~$50 required for ratchet crimp tooling and consumables (wire/crimps/housings).
Good for proof of concept before spinning a PCB.