Tuesday, August 25

Breadboards Go to Pot

Solderless breadboards are great for ICs and discrete components like resistors, capacitors, and transistors (at least the through hole kind). They aren’t so good at holding big components like potentiometers. Sure, you can jam trimmers in maybe. You can also solder leads to a pot, but that’s not pretty and tend to pull out when handled. [PaulStoffregen] got tired of it, so he put together some good looking PC boards that mount a 6mm shaft pot securely to a breadboard.

[Paul] noticed that having delicate or knobless adjustments on a breadboard inhibited people from playing with demo circuits. The new set up invites people to make adjustments. The pictures and video show an early version with six pins, but [Paul] added two more pins on the recent batch to increase the grip of the breadboard.

This is one of those simple things that have tremendous utility. You could easily lay out a board like this yourself or even hand wire them, but [Paul] has also posted the boards on OSH Park so you can order them from there.

This has pros and cons compared to making up a panel of common components. This technique is quick and easy to reconfigure. The panel, on the other hand, can hold lots of items, not just pots.


Filed under: tool hacks

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