Basic Electrical Circuit Building Build a Simple Inexpensive Electrical Circuit Board. What you’ll need: Parts Solder-able Breadboard LED Resistor Switch Battery holder Battery Hookup wire Solder Tools Safety Glasses Soldering iron Wire stripper (optional) Flush cutter First, we suggest watching SparkFun’s Video: Learning How to Solder with David Stillman Here are the steps we took. Click any photo for a slideshow: Gather the parts you’ll need: Solderable breadboard, battery, switch, resistor, LED, and battery holder Gather the parts you’ll need: Safety Glasses, Hookup Wire, Soldering Iron, Wire Stripper, Flush Cutter Insert the metal legs of the battery holder in the breadboards holes. Be sure to leave room for other components Notice the positive (+) and negative (-) connections on the battery holder. You’ll need to use these later. Solder the 2 battery holder pins to the breadboard Insert the two legs of the LED into neighboring holes, taking care to place the longer + leg in the hole closer to the + pin of the battery holder. LEDs don’t work if you get + and – backwards. Bend the legs of the LED out to help to hold it in place Solder the two legs of the LED to the breadboard. Be sure not to let the solder from the two legs touch which would make a “short circuit”. Trim the legs of the LED with a flush cutter or wire cutter LED legs after trimming with the flush cutter Insert the switch in the breadboard. Be careful to place the pins as shown Solder the 4 pins of the switch Insert the two legs of the resistor through the top of the board. Turn the board over and bend the legs to help hold the resistor in place. Solder the two legs of the resistor, then trim the two legs with the flush cutters. Now we’re going to connect all the components. Start by stripping 1.8″ of insulation from the end of the hookup wire. Solder the end of the hookup wire to the battery holder – pin. Trim the wire long enough to reach the closest pin on the switch. Strip 1/8″ from the wire. Solder the wire to the closest pin on the switch. Strip and solder a second wire to connect the other close switch pin to the resistor pin nearby Connect the second pin of the resistor to the – side of the LED by touching the soldering iron to both pins and feeding enough solder to “bridge” across the two pins. It may take a couple tries and a bunch of solder. Solder bridging handy skill to know when connecting to nearby components. You’re almost finished! Strip and solder a wire to connect the + pin of the LED to the + pin of the battery holder. Insert the battery with the + side up. You’re ready to test your work! Push the button. The LED should light up while the button is pressed. If the LED doesn’t light up, you need to “troubleshoot”. Try: Replace the battery. Check that the LED isn’t backwards. Check that all your wire connections are in the correct place. Replace the LED.