Breadboard - Translucent Self-Adhesive (Clear)

Description: Ever wonder what goes on inside these things? Well this clear bread board might enlighten.

Beyond the clear plastic, this is really just a regular, solderless breadboard. It has 2 power buses, 30 columns, and 10 rows - a total of 400 tie in points. All pins are spaced by a standard 0.1". The two sets of five rows are separated by about 0.3", perfect for straddling a DIP package over. The board accepts wire sizes in the range of 29-20AWG.

This board also has a self-adhesive on the back. The boards also have interlocking parts, so you can hook as many together as you'd like.

Dimensions: 3.29 x 2.15 x 0.33" (83.5 x 54.5 x 8.5mm)

Breadboard - Translucent Self-Adhesive (Clear) 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.

Comments

Looking for answers to technical questions?

We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.

  • SomeGuy123 / about 14 years ago * / 17

    I removed the adhesive foam tape on the back, replaced it with clear double-sided tape, stuck the board to a piece of acrylic, and added some LEDs.

    Now I have a lightup breadboard.

  • Shadyman / about 14 years ago / 8

    Now that's just sexy.

  • Conrthomas / about 14 years ago / 4

    A quick word of warning. It's kinda tough to see small jumpers (esp. white ones) on this baby. Also, it's a bad idea if you are planning on breadboarding any opticl sensor, because the clear nature of the breadboard will refract tons of light where you might not want it. It's still really cool though.

  • These are very handy, also fun to have a transparent one. Thanks!

  • Member #446058 / about 11 years ago / 2

    would be nice if it was white ..

  • Rob Purser / about 11 years ago / 1

    My older students comment that it's really hard to see small parts on both the clear and red breadboards. Tough to make sure component leads end up where you want them to go. Had at least one bad one in the batch of 20 that I bought, as well. Any chance for a traditional white one in this size?

  • Member #449588 / about 11 years ago / 1

    The holes in this breadboard are very tight, which can frequently cause your wires to bend and jam when forcing them into the holes.

  • I didn't look at the dimensions, so I expected a larger board. I love the board, and the fact the power bus separates allowing for more interlocking devices. I added 2 RGB leds like Paradoxial, and it fits my Teensy 3 better then I'd hoped!

  • xcplanet / about 12 years ago / 1

    In addition to the other negatives mentioned by many (really hard to see holes, etc.), these things smell terrible. They offgas some sort of awful and probably hazardous smell that's very chemically, solventy and it actually fills the area you're working in.

  • Member #284873 / about 12 years ago / 1

    Great breadboard just a minor flaws, but im sure it was from my order, 1- some of the holes where covered in plastic

    like i said, a minor flaw with mine, but other than that it was an east fix and its been great!

  • Sleepwalker3 / about 12 years ago * / 1

    For those trying to teach / learn with breadboarding, the free Pebble layout program might be handy. You can get it free from picaxe

    Note that it has no install program and no EXE, its all HTML in your browser. You just extract the files to a new directory, drag the shortcut to the desktop, edit the shortcut to point to your directory and then double click on the shorcut.

  • Yay, my clear bread board just came in. One issue the picture shows it having two power buses, even the description shows it having two. Mine unfortunately only has one. Another slight problem is the double sided sticky tape is what holds the contact clips in. This is my first bread board so I didn't know what to expect. I guess I expected a little more than what I got. Oh well. Thanks Sparkfun, for helping me get my electronic toes wet.

  • hamcake / about 13 years ago / 1

    I found it annoying that the power buses don't line up with the rest of the columns. Neat board though, and I like how they can snap together.

  • walstonbball / about 13 years ago / 1

    I love this bread board i use this every day!!!

  • S.F.E._Rocks!!! / about 13 years ago / 1

    worst quality breadboard i have ever used

  • mattgilbert / about 13 years ago * / 1

    As others have said, these make it very hard to see what's going on on top of the board, and they don't help much with what's going on inside. If you want to reveal how a breadboard works, just remove the paper or whatever that's covering the bottom, and replace it with see-through packing tape. Looking at the back of the board, this makes it plain as day how rows are connected, etc. (Of course, this takes away the option of self-adhesive backing.) I've used this when teaching my class and I think it gets the point across without making the board unusable from the front.

  • SD / about 13 years ago / 1

    One of these came with my Arduino starter kit and I find it difficult (for these ever growing older eyes) to see where the holes are because of all the visual noise underneath. The idea makes sense and is a good idea to show the layout of the metal strips inside but I much prefer to use one with opaque plastic especially the white variety in order to see the holes clearly.

  • Esquire / about 13 years ago / 1

    What's next...designer see-thru test equip? I think I will just keep using my old (now off white) board. Thanks anyway.

  • Would anyone recommend this for sticking to the Mega Arduino protoshield (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9346)?

  • dcormier / about 13 years ago / 1

    I really wish you guys carried an opaque board the same size as this one so that it still fits in the Arduino + breadboard holder. I find plain white boards much nicer to work with in less than ideal lighting conditions.

  • Eric27 / about 13 years ago / 1

    Meh. I got this to go with the "Arduino and Breadboard Holder". It works okay for that, but some of the connections are really tight.
    Also, the power rows are staggered from the regular rows, so you can't use this with a Bare Bones Board.

  • Member #166762 / about 13 years ago / 1

    My 10-year-old son is interested in electronics so I purchased this hoping that it would help him understand how a breadboard works. We worked on several simple projects using it and it was very helpful at first but the poor quality quickly became evident. I agree with most of the comments made in the other negative reviews -- especially annoying were the numerous loose connections when using standard 22 gauge jumper wires!<br />
    <br />
    In spite of the poor quality I still think it was worthwhile purchasing it for my son, but more as a teaching aid than as a functioning breadboard. It really did help him to understand how the connections are made, and once he understood that, he quickly began using it correctly. We still keep it around so he can explain things to his friends when they are experimenting but we no longer use it for breadboarding.

  • dattaway2 / about 13 years ago / 1

    Any chance of getting these in brightly tinted colors or a simple way to dye the plastic?

  • SomeGuy123 / about 14 years ago / 1

    The foam adhesive on the bottom covers the slots where you can connect these together, so I had to cut a little bit of the foam off. Also, the adhesive needs to by cut in order to remove the power buses.

  • narra / about 14 years ago / 1

    Sorry, gotta agree with the last poster. Thought this looked cool but it's pretty junky. The contacts are really inconsistent--tight in some places, loose in others. And I got the same warping. Don't know who made this but the interlocking parts on the power sides, make it so they lock bending upwards.
    Plus, since its clear, I can see how badly it was constructed. Got it with the plastic already pretty stressed and fractured on the inside. Don't see this one lasting very long.

    • N8B / about 14 years ago / 1

      Yeah, these are by far better quality:
      http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=112
      Except nine out of ten times (actual statistics may vary) the plastic legs fall off due to the adhesive on the rubber legs being lousy. I just put a dab of CA on each leg and it works fine now. Watch out for the split rail though. I cannot count how many times I've had a proto not work because of that thing.

  • lexxmac / about 14 years ago / 1

    My school bought 20 of these for use in a freshman electrical engineering class where I was the teaching assistant. We were hoping that these would help calm confusion as to how a breadboard works, and for the same price as the non-clear ones from Jameco, we thought they were a bargain.
    While certainly novel, they pretty well suck. They warp easily (permanently bow into a slight curve), the contacts become loose after far too little use and it didn't really help anyone understand how they work. They are self-adhesive, but they don't really function well without being stuck to something rigid. Without being stuck to something, the backing gets rather beat up and will come loose easily and the contact clips will pop loose.
    We just bought 50 more of the non-clear Jameco boards instead for the upcoming semester. They are a far more durable product and come with a metal bottom piece to use should you not want to stick it to something permanently.

    • N8B / about 14 years ago / 1

      yep......if you want quality you gotta pay the big bucks. I like those Jameco boards, that what I used as a freshman in college.
      Man, I dunno what college you're TAing at, we had to buy our breadboards.

  • KWC / about 14 years ago / 1

    Two Thumbs down. Although it looks really cool, it it much more difficult to see the holes than with a colored bread board. 220 grit sandpaper took the gloss off of mine an made it usable.

  • Now that's pretty cool. If only they sold them in larger sizes...

Customer Reviews

3.7 out of 5

Based on 15 ratings:

Currently viewing all customer reviews.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Connection Issues

This was a replacement for a breadboard I was borrowing. When I set my project up I wasn't getting consistent battery power to my Imp and was getting varied readings on my multi-meter. I went back to the other breadboard and things worked fine. They work even better on a perma-proto.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Great!

Little trouble getting wires in, but I am using 20 gauge instead of 22 gauge(means I'm using a thicker wire). Great for its value!! Highly recommended!!

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Works well!

TBH, a white board is a little easier to make out pin location, but the two clear boards I bought have worked perfectly, even out in the elements!

2 of 2 found this helpful:

still needs work

It was darker than I had imagined, but that's okay.My biggest problem was it's functionality issue.Its quite a challenge to get stuff onto it.I actually bought two , but now after using them in comparison with a regular breakboard,I feel I may return them for a regular one.It is very "tight" fitting especially for components, wires not so much a problem. The tight holes bent some mosfets i was trying to place into them,I was almost getting used to these boards when i noticed that my regular breadboard fit the same mosfets quite snug and with little effort.that when i realized that the holes on this were actually very small.

Hi, We have heard from people that these are a bit snugger than most breadboards. If you aren't satisfied with the breadboard, please contact us and we'll be happy to help you - https://www.sparkfun.com/returns

4 of 4 found this helpful:

Difficult to visualize connections

This is a pretty breadboard, but the translucency makes it difficult to distinguish where the components are inserted because they have the same shiny color as the contacts in the breadboard. Yes, I am old so that doesn't help me see closeup. That aside, it took me an hour and a half to set up a multi-array using 9 LEDs, 9 resistors and 9 color-coded jumper wires. Get the white breadboard on this website instead.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Hard to track connections

My board is functionally fine. No faulty connections, everything is well connected. Looks nice, too.

However, 'meh' review is because of how frustrating it is to keep track of connections. Been a pain all project.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

hole size varies

Had a heck of a time getting my headers from my Arduino Micro in two of these, but the third one worked fine.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Perfect!

Works flawlessly. I love that you can see through it(geek factor I guess). The best thing about it is that it snaps apart and can act as multiple smaller breadboards. If you don't need more than 30 independent connection points (a few more if you consider the power buses) then this is a no-brainer.

4 of 5 found this helpful:

Go with a white one

This works fine, but I find that wires and components are much harder to see against the clear background. Seeing the metal clips is cool, but I think a white breadboard is much better for everyday use.

Exactly what I expected!

Like the title says, I got exactly what I wanted and expected!

0 of 4 found this helpful:

What the hell

This thing is tiny! You need to buy 8 of them to make a decent size breadboard. I'm kinda pissed I bought this thing, I had to laugh when I pulled it out of the package. Have a project do and won't have time to order more in time. This thing is a joke.

0 of 3 found this helpful:

It's a breadboard...

...and it works. Why are you reading this?

It's a breadboard

I bought this because the shipping was the same whether I ordered 95 cents in parts or 20 dollars in parts, so I figured I'd make the order worth my while. It works well, you can see the contacts inside which would be helpful for some, but at the end of the day it just holds buttons for a project.