ProtoBoard review

Like many electronics hobbyists, Simon Monk likes to prototype projects on a solderless breadboard before transferring them to something more permanent once everything is tested and working correctly. He says he’s never been completely satisfied with other prototyping board designs, though, so he decided to address what he saw as their shortcomings. The result is the MonkMakes ProtoBoard. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it’s now available as a deluxe kit from Amazon.

The full article can be found in The MagPi 53 and was written by Phil King.

Inspired by Adafruit’s Perma-Proto boards, the ProtoBoard mirrors the layout of a standard solderless 400-point breadboard, featuring the usual interconnected rails and rows, but adding longer rows at the bottom of the board for modules that use 2×4 or 2×5 pins, such as the ESP01 or NRF24 modules: a nice touch.

The most obvious difference, however, is the addition of an area on the right-hand side where you can put extra components that don’t fit straight onto a breadboard. These include a standard ‘sugar cube’ relay, 3.5mm audio jack, and general-purpose screw terminals. There’s also an area at the top for creating a power supply by adding a barrel jack and linear voltage regulator and capacitors. This can be connected to one or more power rails by soldering the +V and GND bridges on the board.

Two packs of components are supplied in the deluxe kit available from Amazon, along with a half-size solderless breadboard and four rubber feet. When prototyping projects, Simon advises sticking the breadboard permanently to one of the ProtoBoards and adding a full set of components to the side panel. Then, once your circuit is working as intended with this setup, it should be very easy to transfer (or copy) breadboard components to another ProtoBoard placed to the side, as well as replicating any components used in the side area. It’s a neat idea that really does help.

As well as being suitable for any project that you could start with a 400-point solderless breadboard, the ProtoBoard can be used for those that feature a microcontroller such as a Particle Photon or Arduino Pro Mini – you could even use it to make an off-board Arduino.

Last word

4/5

With a well-thought-out design, the ProtoBoard makes it easier to transfer projects from a solderless breadboard to a more permanent PCB, featuring through-plated connection holes. In particular, the side panel comes in very handy for components that don’t fit straight onto a breadboard.