Kid: Kuya, kuya, that looks so interesting! What is that?

Kuya: Hay, come here lil’ bro… you want to know what this contraption is? This is what we electronics
students call, the bread board. Let me tell you all about it! Everything you can find here is
sort of like a part of a community. I’ll introduce you to the members one by one. This colorful
guy over here is called a resistor. He comes in several different colors and cools down our other
friends here so they won’t get mad and explode or something. His close relative is this one with
the spinny-thingy, called a potentiometer. These black rectangular structures are called ICs – some
are big, while some are small, just like the mall. These candy looking ones naman are LEDs – they
light up when they are happy. These fat ones and weird shaped ones over here are capacitors. When they get mad, they explode. Then we have spider-like creatures here which are called transistors. This lonely guy over here is the LDR, he’s kind of sensitive that when you get near him, he will light up. There is also a lamp here which is always happy as long as he is fed with food which I’ll tell you about later. Oh, and this box here with the eight is called a seven-segment display which
acts like a billboard! This big disc shaped thing is the speaker which is like a big microphone for
everyone. Finally, we have these wires which are like the streets or roads we walk through.

Kid: Wow! That sounds like they’re one big happy community! So what do they do there? Is that bread board like the city which they live in or something?

Kuya: Yup! Exactly! You got that kiddo! Let me tour you to a typical day in – let us call it – Bread Board City! This huge box here is called the power supply which provides the food for the whole city.

Kid: Yehey! Yehey!

Kuya: Hm, do you want to know how those Christmas light work? Okay, let me take you then to one of the famous malls here, the 555 mall. People love going here because it teaches you how to count – it’s basically a counter mall! In this instance, the LED mom and dad decided to visit and because they are happy, they light up! However when they become too full of food, they get angry and could die. This is why our friend resistor is here to save the day! He will cool down the LEDs to make them happy all the time. There, see, they look like Christmas lights na! Or maybe you want, blinking
Christmas lights?

Kid: Woooow, amazing! Sige! Can you show me that rin kuya?

Kuya: We just get resistor’s relative, potentiometer to visit this mall rin and the mall beside it
called the LS93 mall. Let’s also make the whole LED family visit here. Basically, potentiometer gets
all the food from 555 and transmits it to the ’93 and give each family member food at different times
making them happy and light up at different times! Mr. Potentiometer can also dictate how fast he will feed the LED family anytime! See, it sort of speeds up or slows down our blinking Christmas lights!

Kid: Ang galling galling kuya! Teach me more! What does this seven-segment display do?

Kuya: Oh, the billboard. Well, you see, It has roads going to the ’93 so it also lights up according to the LED family. See, just like a digital clock, it counts depending on the LEDs’ number of food intake.

Kid: Okaaay… eh I wanna know what this speaker does!

Kuya: Hmmm, how do I say it? Well, first you see we go back to the 555 mall. It gets food from other malls such as the flip-flop mall which can remember the amount of food to pass on to other malls. The flip-flop mall passes to the security guard transistor the food and finally to 555. The 555 once again hands over the food to two security guard transistors who know when to give the food to the speaker the food so it can shout out messages to the city. Of course, with our friend potentiometer over here, we can again control how loud our speaker’s microphone will sound!

Kid: Oh, so it’s like the alarm clock of my cellphone!

Kuya: Well, yeah, something like that. Now, I’ll show you how to make a street light. You know… those ones that light up only during night time?

Kid: You know how to make those? Wow, you’re my idol! Teach me, teach me!

Kuya: You see this mall over here? It is called, the Op-Amp mall. It has the power to multiply food! And by passing on the food up to those two security guards again, the lamp will be happy and light up constantly. Now, if we bring in this guy over here, Mr. LDR, remember how sensitive he is? He is selfish and wants all the food and even takes away the lamp’s food. But when other people go near him, he becomes afraid and gives the food away to Mr. lamp! Just like this! See, Mr. lamp is happy again and lights up! Now let’s try something more amazing, by making our friend potentiometer visit here again, he can control how much food to give LDR and thus, also controlling the amount of food given to Mr. lamp!

Kid: You’re the best kuya in the world! It really is like our street light! Wow, you can be an electrician na! Uy uy, pero you didn’t tell me about these other malls. What do they do?

Kuya: Ay, they’re kind of complicated na eh. Well, I’ll still try to explain though. Ito, these are called the AND mall, OR mall, XOR mall, and NAND mall respectively. For the AND mall, there are gates that allow only 2 pairs of males to enter, any other combination of genders would not be allowed to go in. As for the OR mall, pairs that have both male, or both male and female are only allowed to go inside. For an XOR mall, the gates allow only pairs that have male and female pairs, while NAND malls allow pairs that have females only.

Kid: What’s the food you’re talking about ba? Do they have water to push it down rin?

Kuya: Ahem, well the food is what we call voltage. Without food, the community won’t be able to function. Their water is what we refer to naman as current. It flows and pushes the food toward the different parts of the community.

Kid: Ahhhh… okay, now I understand how our bread board city works. You’re so smart kuya! I want to be just like you.

Kuya: Naaah, that’s nothing bro. I only know a lot because I’ve got the best professor in the world – Engineer Tris Calasanz.


story by: Ryan Prachayasitierkul and Adrian Rodriguez II BS CS

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