Integrated circuit (IC) chips usually have
two sides of pins, with anywhere from 2 to 10 pins on each side. The chip
needs to be inserted into the circuit board so that no two of these pins
are on the same bus. Integrated circuit (IC) chips usually have
two sides of pins, with anywhere from 2 to 10 pins on each side. The chip
needs to be inserted into the circuit board so that no two of these pins
are on the same bus.
On a protoboard, it is convention to connect the left halves of the vertical buses to the power supply, and the right halves to ground. Red wire should be used when connecting anything to a power supply, and black wires for ground connections.
To see a detailed diagram of your board, click here
Always pay close attention to the pin numbers. Working from such a simple drawing can often be deceiving and many people have been known to lose concentration and miswire large portions of their boards.
Most of the chips that you will be working with have either 14 or 16 pins each, but the pin numbering method is the same.
Play the video clips to see how chips are placed onto a protoboard and removed using a chip extractor.