Breadboard (Half Size)
The foundation of prototyping. A solderless board used to temporarily connect electronic components together.
Component Preview
A half-size breadboard provides 400 tie-points (holes). Underneath the plastic surface, metal clips connect specific holes together, allowing you to build complex circuits without soldering a single wire.
Logic ComponentsPrototypingPassive
Overview
Breadboards are the starting point for almost every hardware project. This half-size version is compact but still offers two full power rails on the top and bottom, and a 30-column center terminal strip divided by a central "ravine".
Pin Reference (Summarized)
A breadboard does not have "pins" in the traditional sense, but rather "tie-points" grouped into connected nodes.
| Area | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| VCC | power | Power Supply. |
| GND | power | Ground. |
| Top Power Rails (+ / -) | power | The top two rows run horizontally. All holes in the red (+) row are connected together. All holes in the blue (-) row are connected together. |
| Bottom Power Rails (+ / -) | power | The bottom two rows also run horizontally. They are identical to the top rails, but are NOT automatically connected to them. |
| Terminal Strips A-E | passive | The top half of the central grid. Columns 1 through 30 run vertically. For example, holes 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E are all electrically connected to each other. |
| Terminal Strips F-J | passive | The bottom half of the central grid. Note that hole 1F is NOT connected to hole 1E. The ravine in the center isolates the top half from the bottom half. |
Wiring Diagram

Configurable Attributes
| Attribute | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| color | string | "white" | Changes the visual color of the breadboard plastic in the simulator (e.g., "white", "black", "transparent"). |
Working Principle
Inside the breadboard are long metal spring clips.
- In the power rails, the clips run horizontally from the left side of the board to the right side.
- In the terminal strips, the clips run vertically, connecting groups of 5 holes at a time.
- The center gap (the ravine) is exactly the right size to straddle standard Dual In-Line Package (DIP) IC chips across it, allowing access to pins on both sides of the chip independently.
Wiring Guide
- Connect a 5V source (like from an Arduino) to the red
+rail, and Ground to the blue-rail. - It is best practice to run a wire from the top
+rail to the bottom+rail, and the top-to the bottom-, so you have power available on both sides of your circuit. - Insert components into the terminal strips.
- Use jumper wires to connect different vertical columns together to form your circuit.
Simulation Notes
- When you hover over a hole in the simulator, all other holes that are electrically connected to it will highlight in green, making it easy to understand the internal routing.
- You can snap ICs and breakout boards directly into the breadboard holes.
Example Code
cpp
void setup() {
// Setup code
}
void loop() {
// Loop code
}