{"id":52380,"date":"2026-11-01T10:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T10:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siratek.net\/index.php\/tutorials\/using-a-breadboard\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T10:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T10:51:05","slug":"using-a-breadboard","status":"publish","type":"siratek_tutorial","link":"https:\/\/siratek.net\/index.php\/tutorials\/using-a-breadboard\/","title":{"rendered":"Using a Breadboard"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p>\n<h2>What this covers<\/h2>\n<p>Which holes in a breadboard are joined to which, how to build on one without creating shorts, and the handful of mistakes that account for most \u201cit was working yesterday\u201d faults.<\/p>\n<h2>Before you begin<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A breadboard, full size or half size.<\/li>\n<li>A few jumper wires.<\/li>\n<li>Any components you want to try the layout with. Nothing needs to be powered for this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Build with the power disconnected. Every instruction in this library assumes that, and it is the habit that prevents the expensive mistakes.<\/p>\n<h2>What is connected to what<\/h2>\n<p>A breadboard is a grid of holes with metal clips hidden underneath, joining them in a fixed pattern. Nothing is soldered; the clips grip a wire or component leg pushed into a hole.<\/p>\n<p>There are two different regions, and they run in different directions.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Region<\/th>\n<th>Where<\/th>\n<th>Connected how<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Terminal strips<\/td>\n<td>The main body, either side of the central channel<\/td>\n<td>In short rows of five holes, across the board<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Power rails<\/td>\n<td>The long strips at the top and bottom edges, usually marked with a red and a blue line<\/td>\n<td>Along the whole length, lengthways<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>So in the main body, five holes in a row are one electrical point. Push two component legs into the same row of five and they are joined. Push them into different rows and they are not.<\/p>\n<p>The central channel is a real divide. The five holes on its left and the five on its right are separate, even though they look like one row of ten. That gap exists so a chip can straddle it with each row of legs landing on its own set of holes.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"siratek-tutorial-figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/siratek.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/using-a-breadboard-layout.svg\" alt=\"A breadboard seen from above, with one row of five holes ringed to show it is a single connection, a power rail ringed along its length, and the break in the middle of the rails marked\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption>The three things worth knowing before you plug anything in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>The rails are not always continuous<\/h2>\n<p>This one catches almost everyone. On many full-size breadboards each power rail is <strong>broken in the middle<\/strong>, so the left half and the right half are not joined. Some boards mark the break with a gap in the printed red and blue lines; some do not mark it at all.<\/p>\n<p>If half your circuit has power and half does not, this is usually why. The fix is a short jumper across the break, at each end of the board, joining the two halves of each rail.<\/p>\n<p>Before trusting a new breadboard, test it. Set a multimeter to continuity, put one probe at each end of a rail, and see whether it beeps.<\/p>\n<h2>Building a circuit<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Disconnect the USB cable.<\/li>\n<li>Run a wire from the Arduino <code>5V<\/code> pin to the red rail, and from a <code>GND<\/code> pin to the blue rail. Doing this first means every later component has power and ground within reach.<\/li>\n<li>Place components so that the legs you want joined share a row of five, and the legs you want separate do not.<\/li>\n<li>Use the rails for anything that needs 5 V or ground, rather than running long wires back to the board each time.<\/li>\n<li>Keep wires short and flat. A tangle hides exactly the mistake you will be looking for later.<\/li>\n<li>Check the layout against your diagram, following each connection from one end to the other.<\/li>\n<li>Reconnect the USB cable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Mistakes that look like faults<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Both legs in the same row.<\/strong> A resistor with both ends in the same five-hole row is not in the circuit at all. It is a short, and whatever it was supposed to protect is now unprotected. This is the most expensive mistake on this page.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Legs too close together.<\/strong> Component legs bent so they touch, or an LED with its legs splayed into adjacent rows that are also bridged elsewhere, makes a connection you did not intend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pushed into the channel.<\/strong> A leg that goes into the central gap instead of a hole makes no connection at all. It looks fitted and is not.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A tired hole.<\/strong> Holes that have had thick wires forced into them lose their grip. If one section of the board misbehaves whatever you plug in, move to a fresh part of the board.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Solid versus stranded wire.<\/strong> Stranded wire frays and the strands spread inside the hole, which is how two neighbouring rows end up joined. Use solid-core wire or proper jumper leads.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thick component legs.<\/strong> Anything heavier than a standard resistor leg can spread a clip permanently. Power components with thick leads belong on a terminal block, not a breadboard.<\/p>\n<h2>What a breadboard is not good for<\/h2>\n<p>Breadboards suit low-voltage, low-current, temporary circuits. They are poor at everything else, and it is worth knowing where the line is.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>High current heats the clips and the contact resistance becomes part of your circuit.<\/li>\n<li>Mains voltage must never go near one.<\/li>\n<li>Fast signals behave differently on a breadboard than on a proper board.<\/li>\n<li>Anything that has to keep working for months should be soldered. A breadboard circuit that is carried, knocked or warmed will eventually drop a connection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Check yourself<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Two resistor legs are in the same five-hole row. Are they connected?<\/li>\n<li>A leg is on the left of the central channel and another on the right, in line with each other. Connected?<\/li>\n<li>Your circuit works on the left of the board and not the right, with everything wired the same. What do you check first?<\/li>\n<li>Why connect <code>5V<\/code> and <code>GND<\/code> to the rails before placing anything else?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Troubleshooting<\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Symptom<\/th>\n<th>Likely cause<\/th>\n<th>Check or fix<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Half the board has no power<\/td>\n<td>The rail is broken in the middle<\/td>\n<td>Jumper across the break at both rails<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Circuit works when pressed, fails when released<\/td>\n<td>Loose or worn hole<\/td>\n<td>Move that part to a fresh row<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Component does nothing<\/td>\n<td>Both legs in one row, or a leg in the channel<\/td>\n<td>Follow each leg to its row and confirm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Intermittent faults after moving the board<\/td>\n<td>Wire part way out<\/td>\n<td>Reseat every connection with the power off<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Two signals interfering<\/td>\n<td>Stranded wire fraying across rows<\/td>\n<td>Replace with solid-core or jumper leads<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>Next steps<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Easier first:<\/strong> <em>Voltage, Current and Resistance<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Next:<\/strong> <em>Your First Circuit, an LED and a Resistor<\/em>, built on the breadboard.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Related product:<\/strong> a digital multimeter, for the continuity test that proves what is joined to what.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Sources and attribution<\/h2>\n<p>All text in this tutorial is original Siratek work, describing the standard breadboard layout common to the boards Siratek sells. No third-party tutorial text, diagrams, photographs or code has been reproduced here.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which holes in a breadboard are joined to which, how to build on one without creating shorts, and the handful of mistakes that account for most &quot;it was working yesterday&quot; faults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","siratek_tutorial_level":[],"class_list":["post-52380","siratek_tutorial","type-siratek_tutorial","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Using a Breadboard - siratek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/siratek.net\/index.php\/tutorials\/using-a-breadboard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using a Breadboard - siratek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Which holes in a breadboard are joined to which, how to build on one without creating shorts, and the handful of mistakes that account for most &quot;it was working yesterday&quot; 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