Breadboards
de:volt ships two solderless breadboards — the full-size Breadboard (830) and the half-size Breadboard (400). They are the substrate everything else sits on. This page is a short parts reference; the breadboard workflow — placing parts, wiring nets, and energising the rails — is documented in Breadboard Mode, which you’ll want open while you build.
How a breadboard is wired internally
A breadboard isn’t a blank grid — its holes are pre-connected in a fixed pattern, and knowing that pattern is what makes wiring fast:
- Tie-point columns. Inside each bank, holes are joined in vertical groups of five. Push two leads into the same 5-hole column and they’re electrically connected — no wire needed.
- The centre gap. A channel runs down the middle, splitting the board into a top bank and a bottom bank. A DIP IC straddles this gap so each row of its pins lands in its own bank, isolated from the row opposite. Nothing connects across the gap on its own.
- Power rails. Long horizontal buses run down each side, one for
+and one for ground. Every hole along a rail is tied together, so it’s the convenient way to distribute power across the whole board. The rails are passive until you wire them: a rail does nothing until you run a lead from a supply’s+into the positive rail and a lead from the supply’s−into the ground rail (see Power & Signal Sources).
Breadboard (830) — breadboard-830
The full-size board: 63 columns across, top and bottom banks, plus 4 power rails. Reach for it whenever a design spans more than a few ICs.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
points | 830 |
rails | 1 |
Breadboard (400) — breadboard-400
The half-size board — same geometry, fewer columns (room for roughly 30 columns of circuitry). Use it for compact designs that don’t need the extra real estate.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
points | 400 |
rails | 1 |
Notes
- Multiple breadboards are supported. Drop in several and tie their rails together with wires when one board runs out of room.
- The
pointsandrailsparams are editable in the Inspector, though the defaults match the real-world part counts. - For the full placement-and-wiring walkthrough, see Breadboard Mode.