This Clever 3D-Printable Modular Breadboard Project Keeps Your Wiring as Neat as Possible

Semi-pseudonymous maker Jacob "Testudor" has grown tired of breadboard projects creating a tangle of wires, and came up with a neat solution: a modular breadboard design with open-hardware adapters offering banana jack connectors, USB Type-C serial ports, and more.

"I decided to start this project because I wasn't happy with the quality of existing breadboard/banana-jack combinations," Testudor explains of the origins of the ambitious modular breadboard design, "and it kinda escalated from there."

The core of the project is the Modular Breadboard Base, which is exactly what it sounds like: a base onto which an off-the-shelf solderless breadboard can be sat. At the top of the base are small cut-outs with four mounting holes, designed to house the modules — that is where things get clever.

Each module is a compact circuit board, designed with a specific purpose in mind. The most basic is a banana jack module, dubbed the Banana Bread, which provides an easy way to connect the breadboard to external devices including power supplies. If you need multiple connections — different voltage rails, plus ground, and even connectivity to an oscilloscope or other tool — you can add as many modules as you can fit.

As Testudor says, though, the project soon grew from its origin point. A template PCB is shared between modules, with an eight-pin female header at the base for connecting to the breadboard circuit itself. Those eight pins offer plenty of room for modules more complex than a banana jack — such as the Serial Bread, which offers a compact USB to UART converter with USB Type-C and user-configurable logic levels.

Those interested in making their own base and modules can find design files on Testudor's GitHub repository under the reciprocal Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, with the base suitable for 3D-printing or CNC milling depending on the tools you have available.