Electronic Projects for Beginners – Translating the Schematic onto a Breadboard (Part IV)

One of the biggest and most important obstacles beginners trying to learn about electronics will have to overcome is the breadboard. In Part I of this series, the basic features of the breadboard were discussed, but it is another thing entirely to practice with it. Part II and Part III gave you a peek at different components and their schematic representation. This entry is going to give a tutorial on how to translate a basic schematic into a breadboard circuit.

Example Schematics

Two Resistors in Series

In this example, there are two resistors, R1 and R2, with the values 100 Ω and 1k Ω (or 1,000 Ω) respectively. V1 is the power supply, which in this case is your battery. All of the projects in this series will be using nine volt batteries. This is how schematics denote where batteries should go. Toward the top of the symbol there is a plus sign, which corresponds to the plus terminal on the nine volt battery. The maroon lines in the schematic are just wires connecting the components.

The breadboard circuit representation is shown above. Note that one vertical bus is used for power and the other bus is used for ground. Also, components with leads can often connect to each other without need for extra wires (there is no wire in between R1 and R2 on the breadboard). The aqua lines denote connections within the board to each component. In addition, the orientation of the resistor in the board does not matter; it will still read the same value.

Resistor and Capacitor in Series

In the example to the right, there is a resistor (R3) and capacitor (C1) in series with the values 100 Ω and 10 μF, respectively. Below, you see the actual breadboard circuit representation. Dark blue lines symbolize connections in the board to each component. Since the breadboard representation uses an electrolytic capacitor, it makes the orientation of the capacitor important. If the capacitor is put in the wrong way, it could break the component.

The rule of thumb when using polarized capacitors is that the negative side lead goes to the most negative voltage. In this example, the red wire corresponds to the +9 Volt terminal and the black wire corresponds to ground (it can also be thought of as 0 Volts). The most negative voltage in this case would be ground because 0 is "more negative" than +9.

In some cases, the voltages being used can include -9 V and 0 V. In this scenario, the negative lead would go to -9 V because -9 is "more negative" than 0. In all of the schematics in this series, the "+" or "-" will be labeled on each capacitor in the event that the only capacitors in possession are polarized.

Resistors in Series and Parallel

In the example to the left, R2 and R3 are in parallel with R1 connected to them in series. You know that R2 and R3 are connected in parallel because they start on the same node and end on the same node. A node is just a fancy way of saying that it is a point in a circuit where two or more component leads meet. Since two resistors in parallel are easily simplified into one resistor (using parallel rules for resistors), the components that will be encountered in parallel in this blog series will be different (for example: a capacitor and a resistor).

Below is the circuit representation. The blue lines once again denote connections via the board. I've pointed out the node where all three resistors are connected.

The projects will have more complicated schematics than this. For those who understand this already, you will have no problem following the projects. For those who do not fully understand or who are lost, do not worry. My aim is to have everyone be able to make basic circuits by making a valuable step-by-step guide with pictures and descriptions so no one gets lost. And as always, I will be available to any questions or clarification you may need to be addressed. Part V of the series will discuss chips and how they fit into electronics and bread-boarding.

Previous Blogs in Series:

Electronic Projects for Beginners – Components (Part I)

Electronic Projects for Beginners – More Components (Part II)

Electronic Projects for Beginners – Reading Components (Part III)