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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  • Keypad to Serial Converter Kit for Matrix Button Pads Keypad to Serial Converter Kit for Matrix Button Pads

    Keypad to Serial Converter Kit for Matrix Button Pads

    Proto-PIC

    £5.00
    Keypad to Serial Converter Kit for Matrix Button Pads This great little board is supplied as a kit, with the PCB, Capacitor, Headers & a Chip programmed with the code, ready to go. Once you have assembled the kit, connecting up a keypad like our 3x4...
    £5.00
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  • Breadboard Power plate CR2032 holder main Breadboard Power plate CR2032 holder on a breadboard

    Breadboard Power plate CR2032 holder

    Proto-PIC

    £3.00
    Breadboard Power plate CR2032 holder This simple little kit makes testing your coin cell operated, breadboard mounted designs easy to power. We use these to test any new coin-cell-powered designs for battery life, as well as stability of operation. Kit...
    £3.00
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  • Mosfet Driver board for the Micro:bit

    Mosfet Driver board for the Micro:bit

    Proto-PIC

    £2.50
    Mosfet Driver board for the Micro:bit This neat little MOSFET board has a 2N7000* Mosfet, a resistor to stop the Mosfet switching on due to EMF, and a 2.1MM Barrel Jack connector to supply power to the device you want to control. The Mosfet is rated at...
    £2.50
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  • SMT Breakout PCB for 32-QFN or 32-TQFP - 3 Pack! main SMT Breakout PCB for 32-QFN or 32-TQFP - 3 Pack! front

    SMT Breakout PCB for 32-QFN or 32-TQFP - 3 Pack!

    Proto-PIC

    £5.00
    SMT Breakout PCB for 32-QFN or 32-TQFP - 3 Pack! Beguiled by a fancy new chip that is only available in a QFP or QFN pinout? This breakout PCB set will make your life much much easier and get you prototyping faster than ever. One side has a 32-QFP pin...
    £5.00
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  • 00495-01__21631__51538 00495-01__21631__515381

    SOIC to DIP Adapter 20-Pin

    Sparkfun

    £2.40
    SOIC to DIP Adapter 20-PinThis is a low-cost, basic SOIC breakout boards. This custom PCB will interface a standard SOIC package IC to 0.1" headers, which are easier to work with and integrate well with breadboards.There is DIP-standard 0.6" spacing...
    £2.40
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  • 00496-1__15451__17964 00496-1__15451__179641

    SparkFun BOB-00496 SOIC to DIP Adapter 28-Pin

    Sparkfun

    £3.00
    SparkFun BOB-00496 SOIC to DIP Adapter 28-PinLow-cost basic SOIC break out boards. These are custom PCB boards that interface standard SOIC devices to standard .1" headers.28-SOIC: Standard .6" spacing between pins. Will fit directly into a standard...
    £3.00
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  • SparkFun BOB-00497 SSOP to DIP Adapter 8-Pin main SparkFun BOB-00497 SSOP to DIP Adapter 8-Pin dimension

    SparkFun BOB-00497 SSOP to DIP Adapter 8-Pin

    Sparkfun

    £3.50
    SparkFun BOB-00497 SSOP to DIP Adapter 8-Pin 8-Pin SSOP to DIP break out board. The footprint was rotated to accommodate different width SSOP devices and can be used with 8 pin SSOPs. Designed to be used with 0.65mm pitch devices but can also be used...
    £3.50
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  • SSOP to DIP Adapter 20-Pin 10p size comparison SSOP to DIP Adapter 20-Pin dimension

    SSOP to DIP Adapter 20-Pin

    Sparkfun

    £2.40
    SSOP to DIP Adapter 20-Pin 8, 16, 20, and 28-Pin SSOP to DIP break-out boards. The footprint was rotated to accommodate different width SSOP devices and can be used with any pin count up to 28 pins.Designed to be used with 0.65mm pitch devices but can...
    £2.40
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  • SOT23 to DIP Adapter - Sparkfun BOB-00717 main SOT23 to DIP Adapter - Sparkfun BOB-00717 dimensions

    SOT23 to DIP Adapter (BOB-00717)

    Sparkfun

    £1.00
    SOT23 to DIP Adapter - Sparkfun BOB-00717 6 pin SOT-23 to DIP adaptor. Created to take SOT23 of various pin sizes breakout to DIP. This will work with 3-pin MOSFETs, BJTs, Voltage Regulators (SOT-23-5), and various other Micro6, Micro5, etc packages.DIP...
    £1.00
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  • SparkFun BOB-13655 SOIC to DIP Adapter - 8-Pin main SparkFun BOB-13655 SOIC to DIP Adapter - 8-Pin front

    SparkFun BOB-13655 SOIC to DIP Adapter - 8-Pin

    Sparkfun

    £3.50
    SparkFun BOB-13655 SOIC to DIP Adapter - 8-Pin The SparkFun 8-Pin SOIC to DIP Adapter is a small PCB that lets you adapt SOIC packages into a DIP footprint. These tiny boards are useful for modding and upgrading devices that use 8-pin DIP ICs, when the...
    £3.50
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  • SparkFun SEN-13030 RFID Reader Breakout main SparkFun SEN-13030 RFID Reader Breakout front

    SparkFun SEN-13030 RFID Reader Breakout

    Sparkfun

    £2.00
    SparkFun SEN-13030 RFID Reader Breakout This is a simple breakout board for our RFID readers. The SparkFun RFID Reader Breakout converts the 2mm pins to bread board friendly 0.1" headers. With this ability the ID-3LA, ID-12LA, and the ID-20LA you can...
    £2.00
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    £2.00
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  • SOIC to DIP Adapter 8-Pin

    SOIC to DIP Adapter 8-Pin

    Proto-PIC

    £2.50
    SOIC to DIP Adapter 8-Pin A basic SOIC break-out board. What’s the difference? The 8 Pin board is TINY. And you can’t beat the price! These are custom PCB boards that interface standard JEDEC SOIC devices to standard .1" headers.This board...
    £2.50
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    £2.50
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