The Breadboard-Arduino-inator Lives!

Good news, citizens of the Tri-State Area: the crystals have arrived.

Yes, I know that sounds like the opening line of a prophecy. In a way, it is. These particular crystals are quartz oscillators for the standalone Arduino circuit at the heart of my Breadboard-Arduino-inator — and with them in hand, I was finally able to rewire the whole thing properly using the official Arduino standalone instructions.

And I have to say: compared to my last attempt, this was practically effortless. Relatively speaking. There was still a phase.

The Spaghetti Phase

On the left, you can see what I am calling the Spaghetti Phase. Every connection is technically correct. Every wire goes exactly where it needs to go. It is also an absolute visual catastrophe, with cables long enough to trip over looping dramatically across the board like they are trying to be scenic. Functional? Yes. Dignified? Absolutely not.

On the right: order. Precision. Elegance. That is what happens once you cut your jumpers to the actual lengths you need instead of just letting them roam free like unsupervised noodles.

The Great Amazon Jumper Betrayal

Here I must pause to address a grievance.

I ordered a jumper kit — advertised as 140 pieces. One hundred and forty. I had plans for those 140 pieces. I had mentally allocated those 140 pieces across multiple future Inators. I was, you might say, 140-pieces-confident going into this.

What arrived: 38 pieces. All of them extremely long.

I would like that to sink in for a moment. Thirty-eight. Long ones. Every single one requiring manual trimming before it was usable. I did not order a jumper kit, I ordered a jumper raw material situation.

I cut them down. I measured. I persevered. Because that is what Evil Scientists do — we adapt, we overcome, and we leave a strongly-worded review.

What Comes Next

With the circuit clean and properly wired, the path to the perfboard layout is now clear. That is the next step: getting this off the breadboard and onto something permanent, so the Perfboard-Arduino-inator can fulfill its destiny as a real, soldered, proper Inator rather than a very determined prototype.

Progress is being made. Evil is being done. The crystals are in.

– Doof, Evil Scientist and Reluctant Wire Cutter, Tri-State Area