Chris's tips
Project Homepage: Building the 8 bit computer
This page is just a potporri of tips that I've worked out along the way.
Jumper wiring tip
On the plus side, I did work out a handy way to cut wires to length without needing to measure them directly against the breadboard (as in Ben's Breadboarding tips and tricks video).
After searching around for some 3d printable jumper wire helpers and getting frustrated with my 3d printer, I realised I could use jumper headers to measure them accurately.
- Knipex cutter set to 9 on the scale and cut one end
- Inner headers represent the pins you want to wire up
- Outer headers (two holes away from inner headers) represent the wire to be stripped
- Cut the end of the wire against the header
- Use Knipex to strip the other end
- Then use needle-nose pliers to bend the wire.
- Then I use the "roll it under a pad of post-its" method to straighten the wires if needed.
While generally I followed Ben's method of measuring on the breadboard, I found this way useful when I needed to create a lot of the same size wire.