Sensor breakouts

2. Breakout boards

So far we have constructed our own sensors with variable resistors inside voltage dividers. We will now explore some manufactured breakout boards that will output their measurements to Arduino.

In fact this is the basic concept of breakout boards; to take more complex electrical components, such as integrated circuits (also known as ICs), components and make them easy to use.

These more complex circuits (integrated or not), have many connections and pins, doing a multitude of things, such as for supply power, ground, input and  output. A breakout board 'breaks out' these pins onto a printed circuit board that has its own pins that are spaced perfectly for a solderless breadboard, giving you easy access to use the integrated circuit.

There are all type of breakout boards – but most of them are for different types of sensors, for example ultrasonic distance sensors, temperature or humidity sensors, soil moisture sensors etc.