trying to describe

[AlexPitre]

Issues:

I got some longer wire, but the inside of the wire is just lots of smaller wires which did not surprise me. How do I get it to stay in my breadboard?

I got a soldering iron and now I feel like I might seriously fuck some shit up.

Which I might have done, so I've got a 35mm piezo hooked up and it registers vibrations but I basically have to touch to piezo and it barely registers it. What might the issue be? Would the wrong resistor make this kind of insensitivity?

Can you bring long wires to class and a random assortment of resistors? (because I only have two kinds and I'm pretty much just hoping they're enough and I also struggle with reading the bands...)

[chjno]

It sounds like you got stranded wire instead of solid core wire. Stranded wire doesn't play well with breadboards but it's good for soldered projects because it's much more flexible. If you really want to use the stranded wire in your breadboard, you can add solder to the tips of the wire as shown in this tutorial. That's a lot of extra work, though, and I would recommend getting some solid core wire. I can bring some to class on Wed.

I haven't used piezo vibration sensors much but they don't seem super sensitive. Have you attached it to a surface? They need to be stressed and only give you instantaneous readings. If you send a video of how you're using it and the kinds of readings you're getting, I could tell you if I think it looks normal or not. All the tutorials I'm seeing online say to use a 1 MΩ resistor (brown black green and then any color on the fat part of the resistor if yours have tolerances - calculator).

[chjno]

Here's an example of solid core wire from the additional parts and supplies page if you're interested in buying your own. You'll want 22AWG (the thickness of the wire) for breadboarding.