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What is a breakout board?
What are electrical components & breakout boards?
How are Breakout boards used in electronics projects?
What are Breakout boards / SMT breakout PCB?
Breakout boards, in a nutshell, make using a single electrical component, sensor, or chip simple and easy. A breakout board will take these pins and “break them out” onto a separate circuit board.
- Basic Concept of A Breakout Board
- Breakout Board vs Arduino Shield: What’s The difference?
- Breakout Boards Can Save You Space
- Breakout Boards Are Designed For Reuse
- The Dip Version on A Component May Not Be Available
- Pin Labeling on A Breakout Board
- Good Documentation
- Breakout Boards Are Not Necessarily Interchangeable
- Soldering and Header Pins May Be Required
- Using The Correct Supply Voltage
The basic concept of a breakout board is making a single electrical component or module easy to use. Usually the electrical component is an integrated circuit (IC). Integrated circuits, as you may know, have pins on them. The pins on an IC can do a multitude of things, but you usually have pins for supply power, pins for providing a ground, pins fo...
You might be wondering what the difference is between a breakout board and an Arduino shield, and that is a good question. Breakout boards usually have a smaller form factor – they don’t need the entire space of an Arduino shield to accomplish their mission. And while the market for most breakout boards is being driven because of their use with Ard...
We have already said that breakout boards use integrated circuits. Integrated circuits are kind of like t-shirts – you can get them in all different sizes. Usually breakout boards utilize a tiny version of an integrated circuit called an SMD (surface mounted device). The pins on SMD parts are really small – not something you can easily pop into a b...
Another thing about using DIP packages is that while the pins are bigger, they are not necessarily sturdy. If you plan to use a DIP component over and over, the usable life of the pins is only so long – the pins on a breakout board however, are heavy duty and designed for reuse.
One other issue you may find is that the DIP version of an integrated circuit is not available – as electronics get smaller over time, the demand for larger components is drying up and manufacturers are moving away from even bothering with the DIP package, which ultimately brings you back to a breakout board.
One great feature of breakout boards is that they usually have the pin names of the integrated circuit labeled on the PCB. This makes hooking up the breakout board to your Arduino a cinch, especially when there are a ton of pins. Otherwise, you are looking at the black box of an IC and referencing the data sheet of the integrated circuit to try to ...
I said this about Arduino Shields in the last lesson, but I will say it again – good documentation is like water in the desert. The more you can get your hands on, the better. Let’s face it – a lot of this electronics and programming stuff is not self evident – you need good instructions and reference material to make it work right. The test I usua...
As you search for particular breakout boards, you may find that there is a super cheap version available. If you plan on using pre-existing code for a breakout board that references the more expensive version of the breakout board – i.e. maybe in the sketch comments it says, “use XYZ breakout board”, one thing you will want to check is that the bre...
Many breakout boards are sold as kits. Usually, the only things you have to solder are the header pins that allow the breakout board PCB to plug into a breadboard – this is really easy to do. It may also be the case that a kit maker just sells the breakout board with the SMD components, and you have to buy the pin headers separately. So those are a...
Finally, once you actually have your breakout board, make sure that you know what voltage supply pin it needs hooked up to. The Arduino has two voltage out pins, one at 3.3 volts and one at 5 volts. Many breakout boards use a supply voltage around 3.3 volts. Sometimes the supply voltage will be printed right on the PCB by the associated pin, but ot...
- So why are people buying all these breakout boards? It essentially comes down to convenience. Let’s list the ways a breakout board can help you out, and then you make the call
- Breakout boards can save you space. We have already said that breakout boards use integrated circuits. Integrated circuits are kind of like shoes – they come in all different shapes and sizes.
- The DIP version of a component may not be available. You may find is that the DIP version of an integrated circuit is not available. As electronic systems get smaller over time, the demand for larger components is drying up and manufactures are moving away from even offering the DIP package as an option, which ultimately brings you back to a breakout board.
- Breakout Boards are designed for reuse. Another thing about using DIP packages is that while the pins are bigger, they are not necessarily sturdy. If you plan to use a DIP component over and over, the usable life of the pins may not be very long - the connection points on a breakout board however, are heavy duty and designed for reuse.
In this article, we will discuss the denefinition of breakout boards and explore its types, key Features, considerations and more.
Breakout boards are a common electrical components that take a bundled cable and breaks out each conductor to a terminal that can easily accept a hook-up wire for distribution to another device. They are a common item in electronic projects and enable easy, clean installation of electronic devices. The image at right shows a simple DB25 ...
Sep 1, 2023 · By "breaking out" the pins onto a separate circuit board, hence the name, breakout boards make the process effortless. These specialized boards are often compact and designed with perfectly spaced pins to fit on a solderless breadboard for seamless integration.
A breakout board (BOB) is a simple printed circuit board that allows access to the pins or leads on a surface-mount device (SMD or SMT) package. Breakout boards provide an easy way to prototype, test, or use an SMT component in a breadboard or through-hole application.
