Breadboarding for Dummies

The following is a guide on how to make a simple LED activated by a button in an attempt to introduce people to breadboarding.

Disclaimer: I would not recommend leaving this circuit ON while unattended.

1. Breadboard

2. 300 ohm resistor

3. LED

4. Wires

5. Pushbutton

Breadboards are designed with metal strips that go from point to point. These strips are shown on the picture above.

The strips go horizontal in the middle of the breadboard and vertical with the side strips that are a lot longer. The strips on the side are connected to power and ground generally so that there are more connection points to connect to power and ground.

LED’s have two “legs” which you will need to give power or ground to. The longer leg (the bent leg as pictured above) of the LED is the anode and the shorter side (the straight leg in the picture above) is the cathode. When wiring make sure that the longer leg has power running to it and the other side has ground running to it.

To start out you will need to connect the 9V battery to the breadboard. For this we will be connecting the wires to the middle of the breadboard on separate strips as shown in the picture. The reason for this is so that the power and ground connections are separated until the power runs through the LED.

The push button will be used to only activate the LED when it is pressed, which means it needs to run into the line of power first. This should be connected to the power wire as shown in the picture.

After the push button we will need to connect the resistor before connecting the LED so that the LED doesn’t get overloaded. Connecting the second metal strip of the push button to the resistor like shown in the picture above.

After connecting the resistor all that is left is to connect the LED to the resistor and the ground. After this you should be able to power your LED by pushing the pushbutton.

Now that your know how breadboards work and how electricity runs through it, try your hand at creating something on your own.