We’ve seen people try to make MCU development boards as breadboard-friendly as possible by leaving plenty of space to connect wires and components. lhm0 tackled the issue from the opposite direction and designed 3D printed breadboards optimized for Raspberry Pi Pico and ESP32 development boards.
The Pico typically only leaves two rows of each side of a typical breadboard, and some ESP32 boards are wide enough to take all rows and, as a result, are unusable. The trick here was to design the breadboard for each board with an opening in the middle, so that they only take two rows (one on each side) on the 3D printed breadboard, and the user still has four rows on each side to play with, plus the top and bottom rows.
We only have photos for two variants of the breadboard (highlighted in bold below), but a total of five breadboard designs are provided:
- Pico version 1: 7 x 2.54 mm pin spacing (17.78 mm)
- Pico version 2: pin spacing split: 24x rows with 17.78 mm spacing (for RPi pico), 39x rows with 7.62 mm spacing for DIL ICs
- ESP32 version 1: 10×2.54 mm pin spacing (25.40 mm)
- ESP32 version 2: pin spacing split: 2x columns with 25.40 mm spacing, 3x columns with 7.62 mm spacing
- ESP32 version 3: pin spacing split: 2x columns with 25.40 mm spacing, 2x columns with 7.62 mm spacing
You’ll find the original Autodesk Fusion source files, STL models, and 3MF print files for direct use with Bambu Studio on the GitHub repository.
The following parameters are recommended for 3D printing:
- Material: PLA or ABS/ASA for heat resistance)
- Layer height: 0.2 mm recommended
- nozzle diameter: 0.4 mm recommended
- Infill: 50%
- Supports: Not required for the main board
- Optional: Pause print to insert M2 nuts for screw mounting; alternatively, the bottom plate may be glued instead of screwed
But the plastic parts are only part of the design, as you still need conductors. It’s unclear whether breadboard metal bits are for sale anywhere, so instead, we’re given instructions to disassemble a standard breadboard in order to recover metal spring contacts.
At this stage, you’d need to install the spring contacts row by row into the new breadboard body. After the horizontal rows are installed, insert the power rail contacts on the left and right sides.
The final step for the wide MCU breadboard is to assemble the bottom and top plates, either with some screws or glue, and you should be good to go.
Via Hackster.io
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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The trick is to make your dev boards SIP so they don’t block any of the breadboard or to make them plug in edge on–with two rows of right angle headers on one side spaced 0.3″. This? This is suboptimal.
👍 👍 two rows of right-angle headers on one side
looks like a lot of effort. i just stuck two proto boards together with regular pin headers for the gigantic ESP32 dev board.
Or use two completely different breadboards with the dev board straddling them. That gives you even more space to work and to wire actual circuits of you need them. The only issue is that all these dev boards can’t pick a darn width! So it would need to be somewhat adjustable.
If you don’t want to destroy a working breadboard, Adafruit sells replacement breadboard strips (10 Strips of 10 Rows) for $2.95: https://www.adafruit.com/product/6107
I couldn’t find any on AliExpress or Amazon.
I cut my bread board down the middle. Then printed a panel just a bit longer and wide enough so there was 1 pin worth next to each pin on the esp32. Also added a hole on the end so i could hang it on a screw. Double sided tape to the new panel, way easier… then i just use tiny bits of wire for the power jumpers bent like a staple.
The old is new again. The original manufacturer of these things, Continental Specialties Corp if anyone remembers them, had a breadboard with an 0.6″ empty space in the middle, to accomodate the 40 pin DIP’s of that era such as the original Z80. Now that’s been reinvented for 3D printing. Heh.
Thank you bro you solved the problem