Breadboard - Giant

Description: This is one giant solderless breadboard! It has 7 power buses, 40 columns, and 63 rows - with a total of 3220 tie in points. All pins are spaced by a standard 0.1". The two sets of five columns are separated by about 0.3", perfect for straddling a DIP package over. The board accepts wire sizes in the range of 20-29AWG.

This board also has 4 binding posts, a black aluminum plate backing, and 4 rubber standoffs to keep your breadboard suspended safely on your workstation.

Dimensions: 9.25 x 8.0 x 1.25" (234.95 x 203.2 x 31.75mm)

Breadboard - Giant Product Help and Resources

How to Use a Breadboard

May 14, 2013

Welcome to the wonderful world of breadboards. Here we will learn what a breadboard is and how to use one to build your very first circuit.

Core Skill: DIY

Whether it's for assembling a kit, hacking an enclosure, or creating your own parts; the DIY skill is all about knowing how to use tools and the techniques associated with them.

1 DIY

Skill Level: Noob - Basic assembly is required. You may need to provide your own basic tools like a screwdriver, hammer or scissors. Power tools or custom parts are not required. Instructions will be included and easy to follow. Sewing may be required, but only with included patterns.
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Comments

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  • Member #317716 / about 10 years ago / 4

    It would be cool to have an ATX connector on this board wired up to the power rows.

  • Member #502375 / about 10 years ago / 3

    Just got mine. Looks like a good value, though I haven't used it yet. A minor defect: The row and columns labels are misprinted. Each row of 5 tie points, where components would be inserted, has contradictory labels. At the top of the board, the columns are labeled A-J from right to left, while at the bottom of the board they are labeled A-J from left to right. Similarly, the top row of tie points is labeled 0 on the right side, but 60 on the left side. You can faintly see this from the product description photos.

  • ElmoC / about 9 years ago / 2

    Nice size, however a few basic problems that really need to be address. First, the holes for the binding posts are keyed. Flat spot in hole for a flat spot in the binding post to keep the post from turning when tightening. Only problem with this, is the holes are too large for the binding posts so they spin freely in the hole. Second is the rubber feet. They don't stay stuck. I have had it only an hour and so far all of them have fallen off at least one. Will probably end up supergluing some new ones to the board so they stay in place. Or just take the binding posts off (not really going to use them) and put on shorter feet so they don't catch on stuff and get knocked off like these longer ones do.

    • Member #377364 / about 9 years ago / 1

      The binding posts do turn freely, but I cinched them down (tightly, but not TOO tightly) with a little wrench, and they're solid.

      I do concur with the comment about the rubber feet--they don't stay on. I'll probably replace them with square adhesive-backed feet which have a lower profile and larger surface area. You should also prep the surface with a little isopropyl alcohol to remove any surface oils, etc. before applying the feet.

  • JeffR / about 9 years ago / 1

    Decent product but there does seem to be a defect on mine. The upper left positive and negative rails are shorted together. Checked all the other rails and they seem fine. Be sure to check your boards for shorts before powering them up!

  • GraysonR / about 10 years ago / 1

    Question, I have an purchase on hold because this item is on backorder, the "We have a purchase for (so many) units..... etc. etc. etc. has been pushed back about three times since I made my order on 2014-02-18, just wondering if its because the items were all spoken for before they arrived or if the expected shipments for some reason didn't arrive?

  • GraysonR / about 10 years ago / 1

    When is this coming back into stock? It say March 10 but that's four days overdue!

  • While the size of this board is awesome, the foundation of it is simply inadequate. I found that if I press on the board I will get connections where there should be none, and no connection where there should be. I had a simple LED on the board being flashed by an Arduino as a test. I got no response from the LED unless I put pressure on the board, and then when I released the pressure, the LED stopped flashing.

    I like the size of this but will have to take it apart and fix it down to a better base or I simply cannot rely on it at all.

    • RobertGZZZT / about 10 years ago / 2

      I don't see how you could be having a connection jumping rows on you like that (i.e. getting a connection where there shouldn't be one). It's basically just four 600 tie-point boards connected together with 5 pwr rails. Do they not have the double sided tape on the back of them? There would have to be something broken for two rows to get cross connected on the inside Man, if that were to happen on a power bus you could fry your chip.

  • Parizival / about 10 years ago / 1

    Are the binding posts attached to anything?

  • TRYAN3131 / about 10 years ago / 1

    A nice, simple board. Some other breadboards are too tight, others too loose, but this one is just right. Do you think that you guys could possibly supply similar rubber standoffs? I think it needs just a little more support (like one in the middle). I will use something else for the time being.

Customer Reviews

3.9 out of 5

Based on 27 ratings:

Currently viewing all customer reviews.

2 of 2 found this helpful:

Great value for the money

The contacts are a little tight when poking leads in. Resistors & capacitors and even #22 solid wires may buckle unless you poke them in with needle nose pliers near the end. BUT, it's not all that bad.

Really, this is an excellent value for the money. I have two now and will probably get a couple more so I can set unfinished projects aside. I just pull the banana patch cables from the binding posts and swap the other board in. At this price, it's affordable to do that.

The size, orientation and number of tie points is just about perfect in my opinion.

One other minor caution; the rubber feet tend to discolor blue antistatic mats over time. They leave permanent brown spots. I suspect a slow chemical reaction. I pitched the feet and attached a few layers of non-slip, self-adhesive strips (from Home Depot or Lowe's) to the bottom along the edge with the binding posts. These don't react with the mat, the board stays put, the binding posts are kept away from the mat and the board tilts toward me just slightly. Life is good. :-)

4 of 5 found this helpful:

Pretty much unusable

I was super excited to finally have room to do larger prototypes. Unfortunately, the tie in points are very inconsistent in what diameter wire they accept. Don't expect to use this product with the resistors that are in the SparkFun resistor kit. If you turn the breadboard over, half of your resistors will fall out. This makes testing a nightmare and the board untrustable.

I have one of these on m desk that I just turn upside down and shook, and I can't get anything to fall out. Sounds like your's may be an anomaly. We'll take care of that for you.

Exactly what it claims to be

It's hard to get excited about a giant breadboard, but it is exactly what it says it is: a giant breadboard with screw terminals. I can't think of anything to say about it other than that, which I suppose is the best compliment I can give. :)

Love it

Fantastic price, worth getting more than one. The big distributors (Mouser, etc.) don't seem to give you breaks on prototyping stuff, so this is the best price around. Not even Amazon sellers have something comparable.

Just to share: I don't usually use the binding posts, so I've been using the empty space on the metal for mini-breadboards and euro-style terminal strips.

My design workflow is so much better with a couple of these sketchpads on my bench. Thank you, Sparkfun.

Just Perfect!

One Big Breadboard

This is a great product. It has a fantastic build quality. I will mention that I opted to use my own adhesive bumper feet, which had a larger adhesive base than the feet provided, after reading the issues people had with them. Feet aside, this is definitely going to help me with larger projects, or organizing multiple smaller projects on the same board.

Very nice. Needs better feet.

Love my giant breadboard. As someone already mentioned in a separate review, the rubber feet do not adhere very well to the bottom of the board. This could be a problem if you use the binding posts, because without the rubber feet, the binding posts will contact the bench, and you risk a short. Probably best to avoid the binding posts. Fortunately, they can be easily removed by unscrewing the nut fasteners. Alternatively, you could find better feet.

Great product

Excellent product, I'll recommend it.

GReat Board

It is big, well made and plenty of room to do whatever you would need plenty of connections for.

The price is great too.

I am well pleased with this item.

Excellent Price for a huge breadboard

So far so good. I just wish for the 2 cents more cost to manufacture they would throw in the molded plastic washers that go on the bottom of the binding post before the nut so they can't spin in the hole like on other breadborads I have.

It's awesome!

I love all of this real estate I can test bigger projects without having to resort to error prone jumpering between multiple small breadboards.

Defective

Got one months ago. Used it a couple times to test some simple circuits quickly, it seemed to work fine.

Now I’m actually using it for a larger circuit, and most of the tie points make poor contact - wasted a bit of time troubleshooting. Turns out over half the board is defective and you have to apply pressure and bend it slightly for ties to make contact. Very frustrating - would not recommend.

Alternative: I’ve had better luck connecting 4x of these breadboards together: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11317 Only problem.. not enough real estate (you'd need about 9 to get the same area)

Hello!

Sorry to hear about the connection issues with the breadboard! Have you contacted our technical support department @ techsupport@sparkfun.com ? They're usually very good about helping setup replacements for products that are not functioning as expected.

Plenty of room

Not too much to say. It's a breadboard. Good quality; was exactly as described. Sturdy. Affordable. There's plenty of room for everything, which is why I bought it in the first place. No problems at all. Would definitely recommend the product to someone who needed a large board for prototyping.

This breadboard works very well for my purposes

There is plenty of room to lay out all the components and wiring in a logical sequence when following a schematic.

Seems to be a good, quality product.. time is needed to be sure.

Because the colors and styles of most breadboards these days are almost identical, it appears that they are all manufactured with some common sources. That said, I have had good ones and bad ones -- mostly depending on the metallic conductor clips that are installed on the underside. The poor ones have problems. This one 'APPEARS' to be good quality in that regard but only time will tell. I will post another review once there is time to test this one out. I do like the mounting base. It gives a solid feel. The price is appropriate also. Thank you.

Very tight holes

Would not recommend. The holes are too tight on mine. Trying to get a teensy with standard pins made the board flex until it touched the table, and I had to pry it up with a screwdriver to get it out. The breadboard jumpers from spark fun often bend when trying to get them in. I will be getting a more expensive board from a reputable manufacturer like 3M. This one is more hassle than it’s worth.

Extremely handy for RaspberryPi and Arduino development.

Large, well laid out, and in spite of what some other reviews claimed, I have no troubles with the inserts. On large projects, the connections held and over several months maintained airtight connections. Well done!

Their might be a reason they don't have their name on it.

Pros: Great Price! Giant - lots of real-estate!

Cons: You get what you pay for. Paint comes off easily (day one). You have to use jumpers on the bottom 4 power rails between the top and bottom half. A bit annoying. Number zero starts on the second row. Row -1 (just before 0) is empty. It doesn't have a row of connectors under it. Numbers don't match up to the numbers on the other side. 0 matches up with 60? Letters don't match up to the letters on the other side. A matches up with J? Boards are not screwed down to the back plate, allows it to flex more. The feet don't come with a sticky back, will have to get some glue or double sided tape to connect it.

Charge more and make sure it is a good product. I had bought this to support local.
Bottom nut on the blue post was wrong size or stripped.

microcontroller won't fit

I bought this with 5 Raspberry Pi Pico's for some projects so I didn't have to unwire some others in the works. But the spacing of the pins makes it impossible to plug the Pico into. I'm very very disappointed.

Purchase of this breadboard is akin to burning your cash... at least with burning your cash... you warm yourself up... this is too big to even be a usable paperweight.

Not 0.1" pitch

I ordered this giant breadboard with teensy and 40-pin 0.1" pitch headers, and they don't line up. The pitch of this breadboard is probably 2.5mm, close but not the same.

Deffinately worth buying!

So far this thing is great... what isnt to love about a nice and roomy, 4 large breadboard wide breadboard :) Tons of room for mucking around with guitar distortion circuits. And the price is no more than 4 large breadboards sold individually! (I believe I got mine for a little less than buying 4 boards individually.)

A few issues...

Overall, it will be useful however:

• The back plate is NOT aluminum as described. It is a highly magnetic metal.

• The four (4) included rubber feet are 8 mm tall. The posts, when mounted, stick out 9.7 mm below the board. So the feet are, basically, useless. Not to mention they had no adhesive to attach them even if you could use them. (I used some extra rubber feet from a 3D printer to make it work)

• The level of black silk screen (A-J, 0-60) varies on each of the four boards. One is very light grey, two are medium gray, and only one is truly black.

Overall visual quality seems to be lacking. In hindsight, I just should have ordered four boards, a power bar, and the terminal posts and made my own. I just priced it out and the total parts cost would have been the same as this unit.

work as intended so far

But for the rubber legs that won't stay glued to the back of the board, but who would seriously expect those things to stick to the metal more than a day or two anyway?