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What are the best products to start with?

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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Radio shack is the option of last resort.

By all means go there, but just look at stuff, see what the prices are and keep your wallet firmly in your pocket.

Exactly. I learned this also the expensive way.

Bought a capacitor (one!) that I needed and when I got home after opening its fancy bubble packaging (for ONE capacitor) it has a whopping 20% tolerance!!! Way over what I needed it for. Had to wait for the Joe Pack to arrive a week later. Doh!
 

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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Ok, for breadboards - I found two types:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008A9UORM

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002U3BD6

It looks like the second one has posts for connecting to a power supply or something. Is that going to be something necessary? Or am I better off just buying the breadboards and "something" else to connect it to?

The "posts" are, so far for me, gimmicky. Maybe the more experienced guys can chime in. I just stick my power wires into the power rails directly. Maybe later it will be more convenient if I have those banana plugs to plug in, from a bench supply. But you still need to have jumper wires from those plugs to the breadboard so I don't see how it matters much.
 

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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the Ramsey one you have looks like it has 3 panels, and the other one has 2.

But I think the 2 one is ok. It looks like it has 2.54mm pitch (the distance between holes) and that should be the standard (it is important so that you can fit the pins of microchip packages into it properly).

Best to make sure the other guys here agree with what I said but I think it's a good buy. I might get that too one day. You get the jumper wires also which is convenient.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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The "posts" are, so far for me, gimmicky. Maybe the more experienced guys can chime in.

Perhaps useful in theory, but in practice I do the same as you.
 

drymetal

Jul 5, 2013
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Ok, do I want 1/4, 1/2 or 1W Resistors. Joe Knows Electronics has a 860 piece pack in those three (sizes? wattage's?) All three sets are come with E12 values from 0 ohm to 10M ohm with 1% tolerance. Whatever that means.

Here is what is in my cart so far:

Any other suggestions?
 

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drymetal

Jul 5, 2013
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Interesting, I didn't know lightbox came integrated into vBulletin.
 

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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Ok, do I want 1/4, 1/2 or 1W Resistors. Joe Knows Electronics has a 860 piece pack in those three (sizes? wattage's?) All three sets are come with E12 values from 0 ohm to 10M ohm with 1% tolerance. Whatever that means.

Here is what is in my cart so far:

Any other suggestions?

1% tolerance means the thing will only vary by 1% from its stated specifications.

So, 5% is lower quality in terms of sticking to the specs.

10% is even worse.

Depends on how accurate you need the actual specs to be, but usually when learning, we do not want the thing to vary too widely from what the books tell us to use.
 

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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your cart looks good; since you have Prime I suggest just getting the book ASAP and read it and see what else to buy.

i get a lot of parts from Mouser.com also (unfortunately, not free shipping like Amazon)
 

drymetal

Jul 5, 2013
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Yeah my thought is to go ahead get the book and read it. At least in the meantime I'll have a couple breadboards and some common items stocked up. I'll more than likely buy the arduino at some point. But, from what everyone has said, and reading around these forums - I think this route will give me a better foundation in learning and understanding.

So RadioShack having a 20% tolerance is horrible compared to these having a 1%. That's interesting. I always had it in my mind that RS was the place electronics people went to. I wonder if they've changed over the years - or if they've never been a company that "people in the know" use?

It's kind of sad when you think about it...

So I guess I'll just get the 1/2W then. I always prefer the middle option. : ) Well...except when I get fast food. Then I prefer the large.

This is kind of exciting. I've seen projects on here of people working on everything from small projects to doing stuff for aircraft. I think this is probably the type of stimulating hobby I've been longing for.
 

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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i think THE SHACK changed over the years and now it is more profitable to sell those "consumer electronics" like smartphones and such, and things for tourists (batteries, etc).
 

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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Here are a couple of items you can also think about

Elenco Electronics ST-12 Soldering Tool Kit - this is a good value kit. Good value does not mean high quality. Just good bang for the buck. The solder sucker itself is about $6 separately and you get the cheap iron which you can use for screwing around until you get a proper temperature controlled, high wattage iron. I have a cheap iron that I use for that purpose and don't much care about it, using it to desolder old PCBs and general experimentation. The lead-free solder that the kit comes with probably is crap, see what the other guys say, but as far as I understand, leaded solder is easier to handle and better performing (and lead-free needs higher temps, bad for sensitive components). The iron stand you might be able to reuse. Wick is good, and will cost a few bucks separately too.


Helping Hands with Magnifying Glass - this is quite useful.
 

NuLED

Jan 7, 2012
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Forgot: Get a pair of cheap wire cutters for wires, etc. and don't use the nice cutters (the one already in your cart) for that. Use the nice one for clipping component leads, etc. on the board, not rough work.
 

sirch

Dec 6, 2012
109
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Just to chime in on the Arduino again, it is a good platform with loads of libraries and a great community. I've currently got 3 on the go. Some people think the are expensive but for me an Arduino Nano can be had for about £10 which is less that it would cost me to buy the parts and it is already on a PCB. For your first though I would suggest buying an UNO or a Mega.

Ok, there may be projects where you don't need some of the on-board parts (e.g. power regulator) but its probably going to be a while before you get to that point on your journey.
 
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