Unobtanium! (discontinued product)
Somehow I have the history of the breadboard company
as it changed names
from Elenco Precision to Continental Specialties to Global Specialties
(with or without logo), and even labelled "Archer" for Tandy/Radio Shack.
The .3" center breadboard's remained mostly unchanged for all these years.
The Elenco Precision Breadblox model 9550
had slots in the center and only 2 mounting holes compared to the solid center
and 4 mounting holes of the Experimentor 300.
Meet the family of Experimentor breadboards: quad bus, .3 and .6 inch centers.
I like the way the Global Specialties Experimentor breadboards interlock on all sides.
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Okay, who's playing with the TARDIS controls?
I just accidentally stepped into a time-wormhole while sorting thru a magic box-o-parts and found 2 positively ancient Elenco PrecisionAnd on the right, an AP Products 432-875 really minimal breadboard (no numbers/lettering, no busses, no mounting holes, no edge strips or tabs to click together). |
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Elenco label & tag Oh my! None of the numbers match! On top is the rear label from the pre-model 300 breadboard. It's exactly same size (a little under 6"), 47 columns of clips, 5 per side, and one bus bar to each side with 8 groups of 5 contacts. But it's labelled the "model no. 9550, 550 tie points with two power lines". Technically, it's correct: 47 x 10 = 470 central contacts (called jacks on the tag), 8 x 5 = 40 contacts per bus, x 2 busses = 80 bus contacts, 470 + 80 = 550. But the bag label says "part no 9555" which does not match the breadboard's label or even the back of the bag which lists even larger "bredblox" (different spelling). The bag tag lists this as "no. 9415 with 470 jacks and 5 5/16" lgth" but I measured it as 5 15/16"! Had they made the no. 9416 with 590 jacks, that's 59 columns (vs. 47 of the model 300) which would have compared favorable to the 63 columns on the 6.5" ones by EIC (even the same length!) |
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The top one with the binding posts is the Elenco,
the bottom one a matching contemporary Global Specialties Corp Experimenter 300 breadboard. |
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The Elenco is so old that the rear labels have neatly fallen off,
revealing the same contacts still used by the Experimenter (as seen as label indentations). This opens up some interesting opportunities
Inspired by this web page, he documented his other breadboards. |
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Here's a vintage Continental Specialties "Proto-Board no. 100"
I think that's a phenolic backing instead of aluminum for a ground plane. Perhaps the address helps date it? 44 Kendall Street / PO Box 1942 New Haven Conn 06509 A-ha! The PO Box address is on the 2nd one in this photo with the CSC logo and was retained as they moved to 70 Fulton Terrace. |
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A cardboard slide-rule of conversions from Continental Specialties Corp
at 44 Kendall Street, New Haven CT 06512 Why not something EE related such as the resistor color code or parallel resistance calculator? |
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Other breadboard makers | |
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The
AP Products
201k ACE: All Circuit Evaluator was my first breadboard!
I bought it as a kit! I had to push in all the connectors from the bottom! Here I'm breadboarding a Dale Wheat Pic-A-LCD (the manual is online here) with a Sipex version of the Maxim RS232 transceiver. My name's on the bottom using a genuine Dymo script lettering wheel. Here's something few folks see: the clips from inside the breadboard. These are spares from my AP ACE 201k kit. |
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I bought mine from an ad in
Popular Electronics,
such as this vintage ad from July 1976 via Windell Oskay's flickr |
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AP and 3M no longer seem to make brotoboards
but they still make test clips.
AP Products clips from 8 to 64 pins! My largest is 64 pins at 0.8" width then 48, 40, 28, 24 pins at 0.6" then 24, 16, 8 pins at 0.3" |
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48, 64 pin ones are for the 68000
The pins that grab the chip are hard to see in these photos. The AP ones use a spoon/duckbill shape to better grip each IC pin. |
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springs and hinges
The better ones use a spiral spring, metal hinge pin and a piano hinge for a uniform grip of all pins. The blue Archer (Radio Shack) one uses a plastic hinge as spring too. |
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other variations: the top connectors
3 styles:
Others have one side higher than the other for clips or connectors to reach over each other |
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Some AP clips were sold under the 3M or Lafayette label.
I'm unsure who made the Archer Radio Shack one. The blue 20 pin SOIC clip is by ITT Pomona |
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Another ancient breadboard in excellent condition:
SK-10 by E&L Instruments of Derby Connecticut, made in Israel! A ceramic Z80A's on this SK-10 solid one piece breadboard, with 4 busses! This is now sold by Global Specialties as the UBS-100 still with E&L markings on top with 64 tie points, making it the largest available! |
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EIC vs. Global breadboards Admittedly, the Global Specialties "EXP" (Experimentor) breadboards (bottom) have fewer tie-points than similarly-sized E.I.C. brand breadboards (center, top) but it's one solid piece with edge channels that connect on all sides. Counting only the 10-across rows:
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And accessories:
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And no-name generics | |
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On the right: a mail-order breadboard pre-mounted on a blue metal backplane. There's no mfgr's name: the box says only "R.S.R. NE #304 solderless breadboard". What a gyp!
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Here's the tiny EIC on top of the R.S.R. See how much easier it is to read the EIC markings and bus designations? |
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My
NJIT 68000 trainer lab kit has a remarkably similar generic breadboard but with numbers. I inked the red marks to remind myself of the split busses. |
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This ebay Chinese clone has a clue!
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Niel Cherry (an IXR member) has this breadboard with gold contacts! The bottom was covered over so we don't know the maker. |
