What Breadboard is

Breadboard behaves like a bench, not a diagram tool. Parts place freely on an open canvas and wire pin-to-pin (breadboards are just another part when you want one). Underneath, a from-scratch SPICE-style solver computes every node voltage continuously, so meters read real numbers, LEDs dim realistically with series resistance, and a part wired past its ratings genuinely burns out.

What's real here

• The analog engine: modified nodal analysis with Newton–Raphson, the same math family as SPICE. Capacitors charge, inductors kick, op-amps clip, the 555 oscillates because its comparators actually compare.
• The microcontrollers: Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico and ESP32-family boards run firmware on emulated processors. Start with a bundled example, or check Microcontrollers & firmware for your board's upload format and supported firmware. The Component reference covers each board's pins and limits.
• The radios: the ESP32's Wi-Fi comes up through the genuine Espressif stack against a virtual ether: scan finds networks, WPA2 does its real 4-way handshake, two boards on one bench talk over actual 802.11 frames. The C5 goes further and hears 5 GHz networks that no other board on the bench can. The C5, C6 and H2 add Bluetooth LE and an 802.15.4 radio, so BLE centrals pair with peripherals, Zigbee bulbs join a coordinator, and Thread meshes form over the same air.
• The failure modes: power ratings, current limits, and fuses are enforced. Mistakes look like mistakes: smoke, scorch marks, and a diagnostic telling you why.

Where to start

1. 1Open the example browser: choose a ready-wired project and inspect its circuit and code. The example walkthroughs explain what to look for and what to try changing.
2. 2Take the first LED tutorial: the app watches your circuit and each step completes when you've actually done it. Find more in Help → Guided tutorials.
3. 3Build from scratch with Getting started, then save your project so you can return to it.