Microcontroller Beginner Kit -
Using a Breadboard (Socket Board)
The bread board has
many strips of metal (copper usually) which run
underneath the board. The metal strips are laid out
as shown below.
These strips connect the
holes on the top of the board. This makes it easy
to connect components together to build circuits.
To use the bread board, the legs of components are
placed in the holes (the sockets). The holes are
made so that they will hold the component in place.
Each hole is connected to one of the metal strips
running underneath the board.
Each wire forms a
node. A node is a point in a
circuit where two components are connected.
Connections between different components are formed
by putting their legs in a common node. On the
bread board, a node is the row of holes that are
connected by the strip of metal underneath.
The long top and bottom row
of holes are usually used for power supply
connections.
The rest of the circuit is
built by placing components and connecting them
together with jumper wires. Then when a path is
formed by wires and components from the positive
supply node to the negative supply node, we can turn
on the power and current flows through the path and
the circuit comes alive.
For chips with many legs
(ICs), place them in the middle of the board so that
half of the legs are on one side of the middle line
and half are on the other side.
