The “Breadhouse”

This is a page that exists solely to show a simple invention I made to keep electrical prototyping more organized, what I call the “Breadhouse.”

Why?

I made the Breadhouse (“house for a breadboard”) to assist in making and troubleshooting basic electronics. I ran into a frequent issue where when I was testing a setup that involved, say, an Arduino, motor, breadboard, and various buttons / potentiometers I would quickly end up with a mess of wiring chaos on my workbench that was impossible to move anywhere without disassembly.

The Breadhouse solves that problem. There is a base with room for breadboards, Arduinos, etc to be fastened down (generally with Velcro). Then above that I have a pair of slots where I can drop in buttons or other controls. This keeps everything nice and organized for prototyping.

In these photos the Breadhouse is set up as a simple stepper motor test bed. There are switches for on/off and direction, a potentiometer for speed, and buttons for “learn position” and “return to position.”

Almost all the parts are laser cut, which made it very inexpensive. This original version is not strong, but a future version could use simple aluminum right angle bracket for the corners and that would dramatically increase the durability.