Stop Trusting Breadboards! Here’s Why!
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Date: 2026-07-10
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Comments and reviews: 20
agranero6
Old breadboards were incredibly expensive and good. New breadboards are very bad, You can find good ones by a hefty price yet buried under a huge pile of Chinese junk. If you search for them thy will be better. Don't, off course, try to do a high frequency project on a breadboard.
But spiderassemblies like yours also have nasty parasitic capacitance and inductance issues. In breadboards and assemblies like that cutting resistors, capacitors and wires to a minimal size helps a lot in terms of contacts (for breadboards) and inductance and capacitance.
With short leads your circuit would behave better: 1 because the moment of the force is smaller (for you engineers the torque) 2. The friction with the board of the component touching it will dampen movement even in bad breadboards.
Cutting wire wrap wires (solid wires) in the correct size is way better than using those jump wires.
If you need high frequency a better prototype is a Manhattan style PCB easy to do.
Thanks for the thick resistor tip.
reply
Old breadboards were incredibly expensive and good. New breadboards are very bad, You can find good ones by a hefty price yet buried under a huge pile of Chinese junk. If you search for them thy will be better. Don't, off course, try to do a high frequency project on a breadboard.
But spiderassemblies like yours also have nasty parasitic capacitance and inductance issues. In breadboards and assemblies like that cutting resistors, capacitors and wires to a minimal size helps a lot in terms of contacts (for breadboards) and inductance and capacitance.
With short leads your circuit would behave better: 1 because the moment of the force is smaller (for you engineers the torque) 2. The friction with the board of the component touching it will dampen movement even in bad breadboards.
Cutting wire wrap wires (solid wires) in the correct size is way better than using those jump wires.
If you need high frequency a better prototype is a Manhattan style PCB easy to do.
Thanks for the thick resistor tip.
reply
paulnieuwkamp8067
I have two decent bread boards (from Conrad, at least a decade ago, and several bargain bin AliExpress ones. Luckily I haven't been bitten by this, but then again, my projects are all very simple. Parasitic capacitance isn't an issue when adding buttons and LEDs to an Arduino: P I did build AtMega-to-serial stuff (pre-Arduino) using a MAX232 and an external crystal on the decent one, and it worked fine even at higher clock speeds and baud rates; the fastest thing I built on the cheap ones was Arduino-to-MIDI at 31. 250 bits per second.
Mostly though nowadays, I prototype audio buffers, guitar pedals, and things like that. Excess capacitance obviously influences the sound a bit, but for me, it's good enough for a proof of concept.
That said, thank you for the informative video and the clear and thorough testing process, I'l certainly keep it in mind if I run into problems: )
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I have two decent bread boards (from Conrad, at least a decade ago, and several bargain bin AliExpress ones. Luckily I haven't been bitten by this, but then again, my projects are all very simple. Parasitic capacitance isn't an issue when adding buttons and LEDs to an Arduino: P I did build AtMega-to-serial stuff (pre-Arduino) using a MAX232 and an external crystal on the decent one, and it worked fine even at higher clock speeds and baud rates; the fastest thing I built on the cheap ones was Arduino-to-MIDI at 31. 250 bits per second.
Mostly though nowadays, I prototype audio buffers, guitar pedals, and things like that. Excess capacitance obviously influences the sound a bit, but for me, it's good enough for a proof of concept.
That said, thank you for the informative video and the clear and thorough testing process, I'l certainly keep it in mind if I run into problems: )
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onurjp
For analog circuits don't use breadboards. It is harder to debug. I agree to GreatScott!
If your circuit draws more than 1 or 2 amps(at design) then use protoboard or prefboards.
For digital circuits use breadboards first.
About GreatScott! way of soldering components together,
Once you solder the components together and if you are not good at soldering (like GreatScott) don’t use this method.
And you will probably use same parts after testing it. You will over heat the elements and it will reduce the components lifespan.
Also if you are student, you probably can't afford to buying 2 sets of parts.
if you really want to use GreatScott! way of soldering components together, then better use protoboard or prefboards.
Once you done it, it is easy to change components. Also for expensive ICs use sockets.
reply
For analog circuits don't use breadboards. It is harder to debug. I agree to GreatScott!
If your circuit draws more than 1 or 2 amps(at design) then use protoboard or prefboards.
For digital circuits use breadboards first.
About GreatScott! way of soldering components together,
Once you solder the components together and if you are not good at soldering (like GreatScott) don’t use this method.
And you will probably use same parts after testing it. You will over heat the elements and it will reduce the components lifespan.
Also if you are student, you probably can't afford to buying 2 sets of parts.
if you really want to use GreatScott! way of soldering components together, then better use protoboard or prefboards.
Once you done it, it is easy to change components. Also for expensive ICs use sockets.
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johanntiu4162
Oh yeah talk about it! But I have no fast version. I'm already used to it. I build my circuit in a simulator first, check with a breadboard. Then build on perfboard. I'm used to swapping components left and right. BTW my favorite diagnostic tool is an empty pen for tap tests. And I scuff up the pin with my needle nose pliers to ensure better contact.
Ps. I'm a student. And I have chores, so I'll take any dead time to work. And don't want to be lectured by my dad about wasting power switching on the soldering iron for 5 ish minutes (it take around 5 minutes to warm up) then use for 30 secs.
For jumper wires I use solid copper clad steel Ethernet wire. Those can handle repeated flexing.
I'm. Probably going to buy a better breadboard, cause mine normally lasts for a few months of use, then it gets so bad after that.
reply
Oh yeah talk about it! But I have no fast version. I'm already used to it. I build my circuit in a simulator first, check with a breadboard. Then build on perfboard. I'm used to swapping components left and right. BTW my favorite diagnostic tool is an empty pen for tap tests. And I scuff up the pin with my needle nose pliers to ensure better contact.
Ps. I'm a student. And I have chores, so I'll take any dead time to work. And don't want to be lectured by my dad about wasting power switching on the soldering iron for 5 ish minutes (it take around 5 minutes to warm up) then use for 30 secs.
For jumper wires I use solid copper clad steel Ethernet wire. Those can handle repeated flexing.
I'm. Probably going to buy a better breadboard, cause mine normally lasts for a few months of use, then it gets so bad after that.
reply
Aim54Delta
We used the 3M solder less breadboards in my electronics class - well, technically they were called proto boards and were pretty big. We had to build all of our own circuits for labs and I am extremely grateful for the experience. Other programs used trainers and we later did in my avionics courses in the Navy, as well - few things teach you more about circuits than building and troubleshooting your build just to get to the point where you can do the lab work outlined.
I saw them as useful for proof of concept stuff, where you are still trying to figure out whether or not what you are doing will work how you think it will and have yet to solidify all of the values or work up to a fully performant variety.
Or for things that you expect to be somewhat temporary.
reply
We used the 3M solder less breadboards in my electronics class - well, technically they were called proto boards and were pretty big. We had to build all of our own circuits for labs and I am extremely grateful for the experience. Other programs used trainers and we later did in my avionics courses in the Navy, as well - few things teach you more about circuits than building and troubleshooting your build just to get to the point where you can do the lab work outlined.
I saw them as useful for proof of concept stuff, where you are still trying to figure out whether or not what you are doing will work how you think it will and have yet to solidify all of the values or work up to a fully performant variety.
Or for things that you expect to be somewhat temporary.
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joop2295
In my 40 years as electronic designer (retired now) I NEVER used breadboards.
After running simulations (if necessary, it is time for the prototype design.
For first prototypes I had three options:
1. For small circuits or partial circuits I often built 3D-circuits in the air, like you showed in the video.
2. I sometimes used perf board, but that gets cluttered easily and the overview gets lost.
Also wiring errors are made easily and are hard to find.
3. My preferred method is to make a PCB design for the first prototypes, of which I ordered only 3 - 5 PCBs.
This saves time, keeps the oversight much easier and often saves a PCB design round later in the project.
reply
In my 40 years as electronic designer (retired now) I NEVER used breadboards.
After running simulations (if necessary, it is time for the prototype design.
For first prototypes I had three options:
1. For small circuits or partial circuits I often built 3D-circuits in the air, like you showed in the video.
2. I sometimes used perf board, but that gets cluttered easily and the overview gets lost.
Also wiring errors are made easily and are hard to find.
3. My preferred method is to make a PCB design for the first prototypes, of which I ordered only 3 - 5 PCBs.
This saves time, keeps the oversight much easier and often saves a PCB design round later in the project.
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zk_6312
I have been using breadboards for over 20 years. I have never really had any problem. Yes, if you use too large of a jumper wire it can make it so smaller diameter does not fit tightly anymore, but overall I like breadboards though some of the cheaper breadboards you get now are not as good as they used to make. My biggest peeve against breadboards is they dont come in wider styles to fit the wider esp32 boards. I have started looking at the esp32 nano style so maybe that will help. Then there is the resister problem. Some 1/4 and 1/8th watt resistors come with really thin legs that do not work well in breadboards. If it really bothers you though you can always use the solderable breadboards.
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I have been using breadboards for over 20 years. I have never really had any problem. Yes, if you use too large of a jumper wire it can make it so smaller diameter does not fit tightly anymore, but overall I like breadboards though some of the cheaper breadboards you get now are not as good as they used to make. My biggest peeve against breadboards is they dont come in wider styles to fit the wider esp32 boards. I have started looking at the esp32 nano style so maybe that will help. Then there is the resister problem. Some 1/4 and 1/8th watt resistors come with really thin legs that do not work well in breadboards. If it really bothers you though you can always use the solderable breadboards.
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rickhunt3183
There’s nothing wrong with breadboarding provided you stay within the operational parameters of the board. Time is money. It costs a lot of money to have an engineer spend 1 or 2 days building something that should take a few hours at most. A breadboard is not designed to be used to build something working in the GHz and sub GHz range. Stay within its capabilities and you will be fine. Another tip. Build on a stable surface. If you’re being subjected to vibration. You might want to consider waiting until you’re done vibrating. You can do whatever you want. It’s your time and your money. On the job. It’s going to be a different story.
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There’s nothing wrong with breadboarding provided you stay within the operational parameters of the board. Time is money. It costs a lot of money to have an engineer spend 1 or 2 days building something that should take a few hours at most. A breadboard is not designed to be used to build something working in the GHz and sub GHz range. Stay within its capabilities and you will be fine. Another tip. Build on a stable surface. If you’re being subjected to vibration. You might want to consider waiting until you’re done vibrating. You can do whatever you want. It’s your time and your money. On the job. It’s going to be a different story.
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NovaPoseidon03
Honestly, for loose connections, you can just insert small resistor/led lead inside the same holes of your components/wires. Alternatively you can also insert small single core stripped wire. It may take some time but honestly it's much better that spending 20 times more on a breadboard. My general rule is that always insert some broken off resistor leads or a small piece of single core wire inside the holes of resistors, leds, jumper wires, basically components with thin weak pins.
If you can solder then soldering on a general purpose board is the best. But as many don't know soldering, the above hack works
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Honestly, for loose connections, you can just insert small resistor/led lead inside the same holes of your components/wires. Alternatively you can also insert small single core stripped wire. It may take some time but honestly it's much better that spending 20 times more on a breadboard. My general rule is that always insert some broken off resistor leads or a small piece of single core wire inside the holes of resistors, leds, jumper wires, basically components with thin weak pins.
If you can solder then soldering on a general purpose board is the best. But as many don't know soldering, the above hack works
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WagonLoads
I have breadboards that are more than 30 years old and they are still good.
The problem with the cheap ones is the size of the plastic gap compared to how far
the metal clip needs to spread.
Thicker leads want to make the metal spread wider than the space allotted for it to spread.
That means, the metal stops spreading and starts doing unrecoverable bending.
The problem is the top of the metal clip is too wide and hits the wall before the lead goes in.
If you want to make devices with DuPont headers fit safely. Get round pin headers.
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I have breadboards that are more than 30 years old and they are still good.
The problem with the cheap ones is the size of the plastic gap compared to how far
the metal clip needs to spread.
Thicker leads want to make the metal spread wider than the space allotted for it to spread.
That means, the metal stops spreading and starts doing unrecoverable bending.
The problem is the top of the metal clip is too wide and hits the wall before the lead goes in.
If you want to make devices with DuPont headers fit safely. Get round pin headers.
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avancadopedro8154
Found that out recently, after trying to build a relaxation oscillator in one of those, about 2 MHz. Had some really weird oscillations in the supply with the same period as my mains, figured it was my power supply. Tried filtering, didn't work. Finally, I tried building the circuit in a perfboard, and it worked alright, same power supply and everything. I suspect the large area of conductor inside the breadboard was picking up 60Hz noise because of the capacitance, but I'm not sure. If anyone can confirm this is the case please tell me.
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Found that out recently, after trying to build a relaxation oscillator in one of those, about 2 MHz. Had some really weird oscillations in the supply with the same period as my mains, figured it was my power supply. Tried filtering, didn't work. Finally, I tried building the circuit in a perfboard, and it worked alright, same power supply and everything. I suspect the large area of conductor inside the breadboard was picking up 60Hz noise because of the capacitance, but I'm not sure. If anyone can confirm this is the case please tell me.
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AttilaAsztalos
The giant issue with wired circuits is that once you're done with them you might as well throw all the parts away as they are all trimmed to random lead lengths, whereas breadboarded parts remain usually reusable. Same with modifying a circuit - now you have to bodge in some kind of extension because your part lead was trimmed to reach 'here', not 'there'; and if you need to move the part, with a little luck you completely screw up the joint for the remaining parts that relied on the part that needs to be moved to tie them together.
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The giant issue with wired circuits is that once you're done with them you might as well throw all the parts away as they are all trimmed to random lead lengths, whereas breadboarded parts remain usually reusable. Same with modifying a circuit - now you have to bodge in some kind of extension because your part lead was trimmed to reach 'here', not 'there'; and if you need to move the part, with a little luck you completely screw up the joint for the remaining parts that relied on the part that needs to be moved to tie them together.
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pietpaaltjes7419
Yes, I do agree, breadboards do have limitations like not suited for HF, high pin counts, smd (unless using adapter boards, high current or big designs. But if you avoid these constraints then it really is a very, verry quick way of setting up a little project and make changes fast. And like others mention, it can work for a long time. I once build an audio pre amplier that worked quit reliable for a couple of years. Let's say it was not annoying enough to feel the need to etch the pcd's and do the real build
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Yes, I do agree, breadboards do have limitations like not suited for HF, high pin counts, smd (unless using adapter boards, high current or big designs. But if you avoid these constraints then it really is a very, verry quick way of setting up a little project and make changes fast. And like others mention, it can work for a long time. I once build an audio pre amplier that worked quit reliable for a couple of years. Let's say it was not annoying enough to feel the need to etch the pcd's and do the real build
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lidarman2
A story: 25 years ago, we built a Pound-Drever-Hall laser locking circuit on a proto-board for a Doppler Lidar. It worked great and we laughed that we had this cheap proto-board circuit a million-dollar system. Thus, we decided to make it into a breadboard. There was something magical about the proto-board because it took us over a year to get a breadboard that worked like the proto-board version. We never did figure out exactly what the magic was but the task changed hands so many times, who in the heck knows.
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A story: 25 years ago, we built a Pound-Drever-Hall laser locking circuit on a proto-board for a Doppler Lidar. It worked great and we laughed that we had this cheap proto-board circuit a million-dollar system. Thus, we decided to make it into a breadboard. There was something magical about the proto-board because it took us over a year to get a breadboard that worked like the proto-board version. We never did figure out exactly what the magic was but the task changed hands so many times, who in the heck knows.
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crashburn-s3b
Back in 1975-77, I used breadboards from my school for transistors and ICs.
When I was employed after school, we used Augat boards for prototyping the
digital circuits, but then I learned about the proto-boards, and I have been using
them for quite a while now, for everything analog and digital.
I even bought the premade jumper kits that proto offered.
For actual construction, I have always made my own PC boards, either by etching,
or carving out the copper to make pads to solder to.
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Back in 1975-77, I used breadboards from my school for transistors and ICs.
When I was employed after school, we used Augat boards for prototyping the
digital circuits, but then I learned about the proto-boards, and I have been using
them for quite a while now, for everything analog and digital.
I even bought the premade jumper kits that proto offered.
For actual construction, I have always made my own PC boards, either by etching,
or carving out the copper to make pads to solder to.
reply
greatscott
Really enjoyed and learned a bunch about breadboard characteristics. Other than price, how can you tell if the breadboard you want to buy is low quality, medium quality, or top quality I'm guessing someone could sell a low quality bb at a medium quality price but how could I tell the difference I've likely been using lower quality breadboards except one I bought for school projects years ago. Any tips or recommendations on how to tell if a bb is low, medium, or high quality are appreciated. Thanks
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Really enjoyed and learned a bunch about breadboard characteristics. Other than price, how can you tell if the breadboard you want to buy is low quality, medium quality, or top quality I'm guessing someone could sell a low quality bb at a medium quality price but how could I tell the difference I've likely been using lower quality breadboards except one I bought for school projects years ago. Any tips or recommendations on how to tell if a bb is low, medium, or high quality are appreciated. Thanks
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simonilett998
I have to agree, Scott.
I only own one small, cheap breadboard.
I've only had a need to use it once for prototyping a two tone generator circuit, around the 1kHz regions.
It was complete junk, I had all sorts of issues, with connections as well as capacitive coupling issues, none of which were possible to pinpoint accurately.
I gave up on the breadboard and just went straight to building the circuit on a piece of perf board, it worked perfectly first time around.
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I have to agree, Scott.
I only own one small, cheap breadboard.
I've only had a need to use it once for prototyping a two tone generator circuit, around the 1kHz regions.
It was complete junk, I had all sorts of issues, with connections as well as capacitive coupling issues, none of which were possible to pinpoint accurately.
I gave up on the breadboard and just went straight to building the circuit on a piece of perf board, it worked perfectly first time around.
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evyats9127
Bro, what do you have against breadboards. They allow the flexibility of testing stuff and changing on the fly, nothing beats that (maybe a simulatir. Your circuits on the breadboard are sooo dense, ofcourse you will have issues with these. Instead of using these huge jumper wires for everything - you should use single core wires cut in different lengthes to allow spacing stuff on your breadboard. This is what I do and for me personally there was never an issue of bad connections.
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Bro, what do you have against breadboards. They allow the flexibility of testing stuff and changing on the fly, nothing beats that (maybe a simulatir. Your circuits on the breadboard are sooo dense, ofcourse you will have issues with these. Instead of using these huge jumper wires for everything - you should use single core wires cut in different lengthes to allow spacing stuff on your breadboard. This is what I do and for me personally there was never an issue of bad connections.
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greatscott
In all the years I have been electronics. I have replaced maybe thirty breadboards. Not exaggerating either! I am also a 'dead bug' builder as well. However in the last say 'few years. I have become a prototype to production pcb maker. I still do use the breadboard for parts testing and even prototypes of some simple circuits. I cut my teeth on the breadboard so to speak. I will take my nifty little bug bords and test the way you did. Will post the findings. When done.
Peace
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In all the years I have been electronics. I have replaced maybe thirty breadboards. Not exaggerating either! I am also a 'dead bug' builder as well. However in the last say 'few years. I have become a prototype to production pcb maker. I still do use the breadboard for parts testing and even prototypes of some simple circuits. I cut my teeth on the breadboard so to speak. I will take my nifty little bug bords and test the way you did. Will post the findings. When done.
Peace
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mrblc882
Breadboard is prototyping tool which meet requirements your method doesn't - it primarily allows easy swapping and reusing components. Soldering mid air get pretty messy to work on it really soon and changing one resistor in the middle of nest became impossible. For cheap and dirty (semi)permanent solutions, perfboard is superior to both methods. Of course, custom PCB is golden standard, but when you need somewhat complex circuit to work at least some time for cheap, perfboard.
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Breadboard is prototyping tool which meet requirements your method doesn't - it primarily allows easy swapping and reusing components. Soldering mid air get pretty messy to work on it really soon and changing one resistor in the middle of nest became impossible. For cheap and dirty (semi)permanent solutions, perfboard is superior to both methods. Of course, custom PCB is golden standard, but when you need somewhat complex circuit to work at least some time for cheap, perfboard.
reply
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