Breakout Boards

Breakout Boards

Breakout Boards

What is a breakout board?

Development breakout boards

The purpose of a breakout board is that it takes an electrical component, like a small sensor, and makes it easy to connect this to your Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or whatever platform you are using. Breakout boards are designed to simplify the process of prototyping with different components in your latest electronics project.

The component being connected is usually an integrated circuit (IC) – a small computer chip – which has a number of “pins” on them. These act as the connections between the chip and the rest of the system such as for power supply, ground or input and outputs. In the past ICs were large enough that you could drill a hole in the circuit board and use this to solder in a “through hole” pin which can easily be used with solderless breadboards. Over time the size of electrical components shrunk to the point were it is not practical to drill a hole in the circuit board – this has led to the rise of surface mount devices (SMDs). The ICs in these devices can no longer be used directly with solderless breadboards – breakout boards “break out” the conductors from the SMD onto a printed circuit board which can be easily be clipped into a breadboard again.

A comparable product is an Arduino shield which also allows simplifies the process of connecting new components to the main development platform. One advantage of breakout boards are that they tend to be smaller with the printed circuit board often being of a similar size to the IC. The main benefit is that breakout boards are not designed for use with any particular platform and are compatible with most micro-controller development boards – giving you more flexibility when you are experimenting with different setups.

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  • Stereo 3.7W Class D Audio Amplifier - MAX98306 - Adafruit 987 Stereo 3.7W Class D Audio Amplifier - MAX98306 - Adafruit 987

    Stereo 3.7W Class D Audio Amplifier - MAX98306

    AdaFruit

    £8.50
    Stereo 3.7W Class D Audio Amplifier - MAX98306 This incredibly small stereo amplifier is surprisingly powerful - able to deliver 2 x 3.7W channels into 3 ohm impedance speakers. Inside the miniature chip is a class D controller, able to run from 2.7V-5...
    £8.50
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  • High Sensitivity Sound Microphone Sensor Detection Module High Sensitivity Sound Microphone Sensor Detection Module

    High Sensitivity Sound Microphone Sensor Detection Module

    Proto-PIC

    £2.00
    High Sensitivity Sound Microphone Sensor Detection Module What did you say??? If only I had one of these super sensitive sound devices plugged in! The main chip is the LM393 with a working voltage of 4-6V DC, so perfect for use with an Arduino Uno or any...
    £2.00
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  • Environmental Combo Breakout - CCS811/BME280 (Qwiic) (SEN-14348) Environmental Combo Breakout - CCS811/BME280 (Qwiic) (SEN-14348)

    Environmental Combo Breakout - CCS811/BME280 (Qwiic) (SEN-14348)

    Sparkfun

    £39.00
    Environmental Combo Breakout - CCS811/BME280 (Qwiic) - Sparkfun SEN-14348 The SparkFun CCS811/BME280 Environmental Combo Breakout takes care of all your atmospheric-quality sensing needs with the popular CCS811 and BME280 ICs. This unique breakout...
    £39.00
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  • Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit - v1.1 (94) Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit - v1.1 (94)

    Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit - v1.1 (94)

    AdaFruit

    £23.00
    Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit - v1.1 Adding quality audio to an electronic project is surprisingly difficult. Here is a shield for Arduino 328's that solves this problem. It can play up to 22KHz 12bit uncompressed audio files of any length. It's...
    £23.00
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  • SparkFun GNSS Receiver Breakout - MAX-M10S (Qwiic) SparkFun GNSS Receiver Breakout - MAX-M10S (Qwiic)

    SparkFun GNSS Receiver Breakout - MAX-M10S (Qwiic) (GPS-18037)

    Sparkfun

    £45.00
    SparkFun GNSS Receiver Breakout - MAX-M10S (Qwiic) The SparkFun MAX-M10S Breakout is an ultra-low-power, high performance, miniaturized GNSS board that is perfect for battery operated applications that don't possess a lot of space, such as asset...
    £45.00
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  • SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, U.FL (Qwiic) (GPS-15712) SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, U.FL (Qwiic) (GPS-15712)

    SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, U.FL (Qwiic) (GPS-15712)

    Sparkfun

    £70.00
    SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, U.FL (Qwiic) The SparkFun NEO-M9N GPS Breakout is a high quality GPS board with equally impressive configuration options. The NEO-M9N module is a 92-channel u-blox M9 engine GNSS receiver, meaning it can receive signals...
    £70.00
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  • MiniGen - Pro Mini Signal Generator Shield Main MiniGen - Pro Mini Signal Generator Shield Rear showing jumper

    MiniGen - Pro Mini Signal Generator Shield (BOB-11420)

    Sparkfun

    £34.00
    MiniGen - Pro Mini Signal Generator Shield - Sparkfun BOB-11420 This is the SparkFun MiniGen Signal Generator, a small shield for the Arduino Pro Mini that is capable of generating sine, square, or triangle waves at up to 3MHz, and approximately 1Vp-p...
    £34.00
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  • Qwiic Mux Breakout - 8 Channel (TCA9548A) (BOB-16784) Main Qwiic Mux Breakout - 8 Channel (TCA9548A) (BOB-16784) Rear

    Qwiic Mux Breakout - 8 Channel (TCA9548A) (BOB-16784)

    Sparkfun

    £13.20
    Qwiic Mux Breakout - 8 Channel (TCA9548A) - SparkFun BOB-16784 Do you have too many sensors with the same I2C address? Put them on the SparkFun Qwiic Mux Breakout to get them all talking on the same bus! The Qwiic Mux Breakout enables communication with...
    £13.20
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  • 5V Relay Module with Optocoupler Range

    Relay Module With Optocoupler, 5V DC Control, 1/2/4/6/8 Channel

    £4.96 - £10.96
    Relay Module With Optocoupler, 5V DC Control, 1/2/4/6/8 ChannelWe've put together this handy range of Relay Modules. They can switch 250V, 10A AC, or 30V, 10A DC circuits, using just 5V logic. These relays are perfect for home, office, or factory...
    £4.96 - £10.96
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  • Breakout Board for FT245RL USB to FIFO Main Breakout Board for FT245RL USB to FIFO Rear View

    Breakout Board for FT245RL USB to FIFO (BOB-07841)

    Sparkfun

    £18.00
    Breakout Board for FT245RL USB to FIFO - Sparkfun BOB-07841 Basic breakout board for FTDI's popular USB to FIFO IC. Now with internal oscillator and EEPROM, the FT245RL is an impressive IC! This FIFO IC gives the user 8 I/O pins for parallel reading and...
    £18.00
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  • PPADA3119-HDMI-Plug-Breakout-Board-01

    HDMI Plug Breakout Board

    AdaFruit

    £5.00
    HDMI Plug Breakout Board Make your own custom HDMI cable or HDMI interface with ease, using this HDMI Plug to Breakout. You get a nice solid PCB with an HDMI plug and through-hole pads that you can solder to assemble your own wiring jigs. You can...
    £5.00
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    £5.00
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  • PPADA3093-Adafruit-CRICKIT-for-Circuit-Playground-Express-01 PPADA3093-Adafruit-CRICKIT-for-Circuit-Playground-Express-02

    Adafruit CRICKIT for Circuit Playground Express (3093)

    AdaFruit

    £28.96
      Adafruit CRICKIT for Circuit Playground Express - Adafruit 3093 Sometimes we wonder if robotics engineers ever watch movies. If they did, they'd know that making robots into slaves always ends up in a robot rebellion. Why even go down that path?...
    £28.96
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