How to make 9V battery clip easier to work with breadboard

Question

I just recently started to play around with electrics. I use a breadboard as a playground and I have to plug in and out my 9V battery so many times that the clip is now broken. The tip of the lead came off (see picture) and stuck inside the breadboard.

I found the lead of the clip is hard to work with in the first place. It's too easy to bend, and that makes it difficult to stick into the breadboard, don't you think? Do you have some kind of tricks to make it easier to plug in and out 9V battery, perhaps something with a stronger lead?

Answer 1

You could solder the ends onto some stiff wire pieces or (better) onto a 0.1" (2.54mm) pitch header (pull out some pins if you want more spacing than 0.1").

Put some shrink wrap around each wire if you really want to do a nice job. Source here. Naturally you'll need to thread the heatshrink tubing on before soldering, then slide it down and shrink it into place.

By the way, usually the back of those solderless breadboards can be peeled back or otherwise removed and the errant piece of wire cleaned out.

Answer 2

You mighty want to try a battery holder with leaf contacts instead of snaps, something like this, and available here:

If you were to make a little base (suggested above, in red) you could wire to the PC pins and have the whole thing sit nicely on your benchtop without hurting the pins or the work surface.

On the breadboard end of the wire, a little connector a la Spehro Pefhany would be perfect.

Answer 3

You could replace the battery pack wires with a couple of breadboard jumper wires (the ones with the nice thick pins, like this). Just cut and solder them on. That seems like a pretty quick fix.

Answer 4

Do the following inexpensive & simple steps to solve your problem:
1. Strip (1/2") the ends of your battery clip leads & tin them with solder.
2. Strip (1/2") all ends of 2 insulated (1"L x 20 AWG) solid copper wires & insert them into your breadboard power rails.
3. Buy/Make 2 (stranded-wire) jumper wires with boot-insulated alligator clips on each end (i.e. 2 wires & 4 clips--whatever length you want).
4. Clip the alligator clips to the battery clip wires & when you want to power your breadboard, just clip the other alligator clips to your breadboard power rail wires.

Alternatively, you could do the following instead:
1. Strip (1/2") the ends of your battery clip leads & tin them with solder.
2. Strip (1/2") all ends of 2 insulated (6"L x 20 AWG) solid copper wires.
3. Solder one side of the solid copper wires to your battery clip wires.
4. When you want to power your breadboard, just insert the other ends of the stripped solid copper wires into your breadboard power rail.

Or, simplest of all, you could do the following instead:
1. Strip (1/2") the ends of your battery clip leads & tin them with solder.
Tinning the wires makes stranded wires quite inflexible--but be careful when inserting them--the point where the tin approaches the insulation is vulnerable to stress & can weaken stranded wires over time.

HTH

Best Regards!