BREADBOARDS

A BREADBOARD is a solderless, reuseable construction base for an electronic circuit. It has a metal plate behind it that connects everything, be sure it's attached or it won't work properly. Breadboards are awesome for testing your own circuits without burning yourself with a soldering iron! Although you can still burn yourself on the parts if you aren't careful!

There are 2 types of strips on a breadboard:

TERMINAL STRIPS - main area for components, are connected in rows of 5, and are handily numbered.

BUS STRIPS - provide power to the components, and contain 2 separate columns, supply voltage is marked with a red line, ground is marked with blue or black line

The gap in the middle is called the COOLING AREA. Even in a small circuit, some of the parts get hot, and it's important that they have air flow underneath them.

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This illustrates how the breadboard is connected: