Beavis Board

[madbean]

I use PCB mounted pots on my prototyping board. No wires, no screwing and unscrewing. Swapping different pots is a snap! Just mount them directly into the board.

I also have 3 breadboards hooked together. That offers a lot of space!

[Dr Tony Balls]

Yeah, i suppose the alligator clip solution works well. It's modular, which is great, but they're also kinda heavy and have a tendency to flop around and lay where they may. I know that's probaby a ridiculous thing to complain about, but in the spirit of anal-rententiveness, let's investigate further....

One thought would be to have a handful of test pots (make em as you need em, and save em in your box of breadboarding crap) wired up to any sort of 3 terminal connection, with sockets for said connectors mounted on your board with leads coming out of them for the breadboard. You could probably just put 5 sockets on your board to cover most projects. This way you have the modular capability for swapping pots, but hard connections that stay put.

Better yet, how bout the same concept but the pots and their connectors have a rigid connection. Imagine the pots like Legos that you just pop in and pop out. OOH BABY...

[RnFR]

Better yet, how bout the same concept but the pots and their connectors have a rigid connection. Imagine the pots like Legos that you just pop in and pop out. OOH BABY...

you could do this sort of thing with pcb mount pots. just have the leads stuck in the proper points in the breadboard, and pop your pots in and out. i use pcb mounted pots sometimes if i need an extra pot, and also use some with flying leads. the problem with pcb mounted pots is that they can stretch out the holes on your breadboard, and are prone to popping out. an idea- maybe just have one of those very small, cheap breadboards mounted on velcro off to the side of your larger board. that way you could mount your pcb mounted pots to that and it would be cheaper to replace when the holes no longer firmly hold the pots.

[Dr Tony Balls]

OH YEAH! haha.....that's very true. but man would that be super-easy. a sack full of PCB mount pots and you're on your way....

[beavis]

Better yet, how bout the same concept but the pots and their connectors have a rigid connection. Imagine the pots like Legos that you just pop in and pop out. OOH BABY...

the problem with pcb mounted pots is that they can stretch out the holes on your breadboard, and are prone to popping out.

This is the problem I had with PCB-mount pots. The leads are quite a bit larger than the holes. After a few insertions, the breadboard contacts begin to get a bit dodgy.

Of course, as Mr. Keen noted on the subject (going from memory here)

"Breadboards are like underwear. Both should be changed frequently."

[steelplayer]

I was inspired by a couple of pics on Paul Marossy's site showing the connections to pots pre-wired to the board. It worked out well for me to just run those into a terminal strip and then just make a number of short stranded wires with a clip on one side and spade connector for the terminal on the other. Makes for fast changes with minimal hassle. See the pic I posted above.

[yearofrolling]

I broke down an bought the beavis board. I think it was worth it.
Making your own breadboarding station is cheaper and fun,
but the beavis board comes with a KILLER parts stash!
I consider that a big plus and a nice selling point.

[lolbou]

But I'll also use a bracket in my beavis-inspired (cheers mate!) project to come...

Ha ha, project "to come"...

Finished it this summer!

I've routed cavities on the back of the board to run the wires.

Upper right toggle is a DPDT that switches between the standard 9V battery/DC jack combo and the two banana inputs for other voltages.

Blue/Yellow/White/Green banana plugs are simple connectors.

Enclosure holds two input on the right (BNC or jack), and a toggle select the input source. The second toggle is the "footswitch", leading to the output jack in both bypass or effect mode.

The extra yellow/black banana are connectors, who knows...

The bracket holes are intended for pots, toggles and jacks.

Hopefully this will inspire some of you, as much as I've been inspired by all the other ones I've seen!