Mount And Label Breadboard Buttons!
While salads and electronics don’t generally go together, this Button Crouton PCB by Synthotek strangely enough, seems aptly named once assembled. Like a standard crouton, the device takes a roughly cuboid shape, and fits on a breadboard to fit the food (but not actually food) theme. This clever device solves the problem of mounting 6mm buttons onto solderless breadboards, as an adapter with an ample male header pin arrangement on the bottom.
To use, one simply solders the button onto the special PCB mounting plate, along with the headers. When plugged in, it stays securely mounted on a breadboard. While you might argue that you can mount a button like this in a breadboard with no extra hardware, this certainly provides a much more secure arrangement, and, importantly, provides a white strip on which you can add labels. So when experimenting, you can make on-breadboard notes, or use them as a sort of semi-permanent display, perhaps in an instructional situation.
Of course, a button needs other components to go with it, and there are a variety of other Crouton-style devices on page 2 of seller Synthotek’s store. These devices look like a solution waiting for a problem, so I hope we’ll see them pop up in projects in the future. If you do see something Tindie related that you think is worth covering, be sure to let us know on Twitter @Tindie. You can also ping me directly @JeremySCook if you so prefer!