Many microchips these days are only available in a SMD (Surface Mount Device) packages. These chips have very tiny legs that are very close together making them super difficult to individually solder. The leg spacing and orientation also means that the chips can not be put in a breadboard for experimentation.
A breakout board is a basic printed circuit board PCB that has the surface mount chip soldered on and some or all of the pins connected to more easily accessible solder points or holes.
In addition the breakout board may include a few little passive components like resistors or capacitors to support the main microchip so you don't need to add them.
Code: COM-40015
Need more IO? This analog and digital multiplexer-demultiplexer breakout board provides 16 IO channels using just 5 pins on a microcontroller. Digital signals like I2C, Serial are supported as well as analog IO. Operates over 2-6V. More Details...
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Code: SKU-003307
This simple board breaks out the pins of a microSD card connector to a 0.1″ pin spacing that is compatible with standard perfboards, solderless breadboards, and 0.1" connectors. More Details...
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Code: SKU-002259
Cherry MX Keyswitches are top-of-the-line mechanical keyboard switches. They’re satisfyingly “clicky”, reliable up to tens-of-millions of key presses, and a standard in gaming and programming keyboards across the globe. More Details...
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Code: MCU-60215
This board has a surface mount RGB LED for a full rainbow of colour. The built in WS2812B controller chip allows single wire control of many modules chained together. The board has pin holes spaced for breadboard use. More Details...
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Code: SKU-005106
The SparkFun TSH82 Configurable OpAmp Board was designed to give you the best combination of performance and flexibility that we could achieve by giving you two gain stages, each one independently accessible on the header pins. More Details...
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Code: COM-40005
The FTDI basic breakout board by SparkFun Electronics is ideal for programming the Arduino Pro 328 and Arduino Pro Mini 328 via a USB cable. It is also usefull for general serial applications. The board includes TX and RX LEDs to monitor traffic plus it can be configured to work at 3.3V via a jum... More Details...
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Code: SKU-001905
You’ve always wanted to output analogue voltages from a microcontroller, the MCP4725 is the DAC that will let you do it! The MCP4725 is an I 2 C controlled Digital-to-Analogue converter (DAC). More Details...
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Code: SKU-002216
The SparkFun Level Shifting microSD Breakout is quite similar to the SparkFun microSD Transflash Breakout, but with the included level shifting hardware, this board allows you to utilise a microSD card at Arduino’s SD library’s top speed on a 5V system. More Details...
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Code: SKU-001207
This is a breakout board for the PCA9306 dual bidirectional voltage-level translator. Because different parts sometimes use different voltage levels to communicate, voltage level translators can be the key to making different parts play nice. More Details...
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Code: SKU-003710
The SparkFun Load Sensor Combinator is a bare PCB that combines four load sensors into a standard four-wire Wheatstone bridge configuration . If you open up an electronic bathroom scale, you’ll find a large rat’s nest of wires. More Details...
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