Thursday, April 1, 2021

1/4 Sized Breadboard

 


In the photo above there is Adafruit small breadboard. I found it to be a perfect match for projects utilizing Attiny85 microcontroller. 


While it is single side board, top side has copper circles around holes so components can be soldered on any side of the board. Board is not very thin and feels sturdy. Occasional soldering overheating will not damage conductor strips. Conveniently it has four strips for power and it is well suited for projects needed two voltage levels (like 5V and 12V).

So far I used such a board for two projects  made for last year Halloween  (published here). 


First project is to control two three colors LEDs. It is minimalistic: apart of controller board accommodates just three resistors. To make controller programmable in-board there is  6 pins ISP male header. I soldered pins, cut strips between two pin rows with the knife (cut is on the bottom side of the board) and wired them to corresponding pins of the the microchip.


Second project required two voltage levels (12V and 5V).  See 12V-5V stepdown power supply on the right side of the board soldered to it. There is no 6-pins ISP header on the board, Does that mean there is no way for in-board programming? Absolutely not. To make microchip in-board programable I mounted on each side of the chip female headers. Because of that board becomes suitable for AVR ISP to Attiny85 adapter  and  can  be   programmed the same as projects mounted on non-soldering breadboard.