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Basic Electronics kit

chopnhack

Apr 28, 2014
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For the folks on the site that have built a few items, what would you tell someone to stock who has next to no parts?

Is it worth spending a few dollars to buy a series of resistors?
What range of caps would you recommend? Electrolytic, ceramic, tant? All kinds?
Transistors?
Diodes?
Zeners?

Anything else that you can think of would be appreciated, thanks!
 

KrisBlueNZ

Sadly passed away in 2015
Nov 28, 2011
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For the folks on the site that have built a few items, what would you tell someone to stock who has next to no parts? Is it worth spending a few dollars to buy a series of resistors?
Yes, probably, if you can get a kit with, say, two or five resistors of each E12 or E24 value, that's not too expensive, that's probably a good idea. I tend to use certain values much more often than others - I prefer the 10 and 33 values in each decade, and the most common values I use are 10k, 33k, 3k3, 1k, 100k, in order of decreasing frequency, probably. If I did a lot of work with LEDs I would stock lots of resistors in the relevant range - 100Ω to 680Ω or so. If I did a lot of power work, I would stock 5W and 10W resistors in low ohms ranges. I would also get familiar with my local and e-order suppliers and what stock they had.
What range of caps would you recommend? Electrolytic, ceramic, tant? All kinds?
Not tantalums. Well, perhaps a few values. Electrolytics, ceramics, and some film types.
Transistors?
Standard small signal transistors - in America, 2N3904/3906, some small Darlingtons (MPSA14,64), and some resistor-equipped transistors (FJN33xx) - and some small and medium power transistors in TO-126 and TO-220 packages, like BD139/140 and TIP1xx (including some Darlingtons), and TO-3 if I was doing power stuff. Also BS170 small-signal MOSFET (or 2N7000 in USA).
1N914/4148; 1N4004,7; 1N5404,7; 1N5819; other high-speed, high-voltage and Schottky types if I was working on power supplies.
Maybe, if there were specific voltage/power combinations that I needed often.
Anything else that you can think of would be appreciated, thanks!
Potentiometers. Trimpots! LEDs. Stripboard. Jumper pins. Connectors. IC sockets. Resistor networks. Pushbuttons and small toggle switches. Rotary switches. Crystals. Microcontrollers. FPGAs. CMOS or 74HC or 74LV logic. It all depends what sort of stuff you're doing.

I'm keen to hear what others suggest!
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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Not tantalums. Well, perhaps a few values. Electrolytics, ceramics, and some film types.

Haha ... hmmm yeah, I like tant's as they are physically much smaller than equiv electro's
But unless treated nicely, they do have a habit of failing, and sometimes quite spectacularly
If treated well they are quite reliable and have a good lifetime

when I picked up an old Tektronix 465B o'scope ( 1970's vintage)
3 of the 4 blown capacitors were tantalums ( but hey they were over 30 yrs old!!!)

Dave
 

Arouse1973

Adam
Dec 18, 2013
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For the folks on the site that have built a few items, what would you tell someone to stock who has next to no parts?

Is it worth spending a few dollars to buy a series of resistors?
What range of caps would you recommend? Electrolytic, ceramic, tant? All kinds?
Transistors?
Diodes?
Zeners?

Anything else that you can think of would be appreciated, thanks!

Hi Chopnhack. I just got selection of capacitors and resistors from amazon. Have a look they do different size kits. They also do a kit of semiconductors which includes transistors and a few 555 timers. Unfortunately I accidentally ran over the 555 timers in my car and now they don't work. :)

Cheers
Adam
 

chopnhack

Apr 28, 2014
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Hi Chopnhack. I just got selection of capacitors and resistors from amazon. Have a look they do different size kits. They also do a kit of semiconductors which includes transistors and a few 555 timers. Unfortunately I accidentally ran over the 555 timers in my car and now they don't work. :)

Cheers
Adam

Adam, I sense a funny story coming on - explain how your auto destroyed your components :p:D
 

Supercap2F

Mar 22, 2014
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I found this on ebay from a supplier in Hong Kong http://www.ebay.com/itm/141019618980 I thought for $7.5 US it's not a bad assortment.

Hello Chopnhack! What I did for resistors is I bought this. The ones you linked to have 56 values, this lot has 148. It is a little bit more money though. The quality is OK, but the leads are a little bit thin. I measured one with my meter and it was under 1% off.

Regards
Dan
 

chopnhack

Apr 28, 2014
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Hello Chopnhack! What I did for resistors is I bought this. The ones you linked to have 56 values, this lot has 148. It is a little bit more money though. The quality is OK, but the leads are a little bit thin. I measured one with my meter and it was under 1% off.

Regards
Dan
Hey Dan, that is quite the assortment! At over $31 US I think I will make do for now with what arrives. I will let you know about the quality when they arrive for anyone that is interested. I am trying to spread the $ around to get a good kit together, don't want to waste money on trying to be inclusive at this point, God knows that there may be some parts that I never use so why tie up good money, right ;)
 

KrisBlueNZ

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Nov 28, 2011
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Thoughts on quality of the resistors? Can one assume since they are rated as 1% that you are actually getting a quality product or can this item vary that much?
For general low-power applications, metal film 1% resistors are normally used even when 1% accuracy isn't needed because they're pretty cheap and it's not worth keeping stock of more than one type. The only place I've seen carbon 5% resistors used nowadays is in cheap Chinese products, where every hundredth of a cent is important I guess. So are there resistors that claim to be metal film 1% but are actually something else? Or really cheaply made and unreliable? I don't know. Buy a pack through eBay, and you may find out!
Adam, I sense a funny story coming on - explain how your auto destroyed your components :p:D
Adam has an intense dislike for 555s. If they didn't fall out of the pack by themselves, he would have made sure they did.
 

chopnhack

Apr 28, 2014
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I am actively buying up all sorts of goodies from China-Bay, LOL - perhaps in a month or so, if the pirates don't strike I will have some fresh parts to play with!
So far I have assortments of ceramic caps, electrolytics, pots, zeners, a 30x jewelers loop, diodes, battery holders, leds, resistors, breadboard with jumpers, 8 pin sockets sourced. I am still looking for some cheap but varied offerings of ic's and transistors.
 

Arouse1973

Adam
Dec 18, 2013
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For general low-power applications, metal film 1% resistors are normally used even when 1% accuracy isn't needed because they're pretty cheap and it's not worth keeping stock of more than one type. The only place I've seen carbon 5% resistors used nowadays is in cheap Chinese products, where every hundredth of a cent is important I guess. So are there resistors that claim to be metal film 1% but are actually something else? Or really cheaply made and unreliable? I don't know. Buy a pack through eBay, and you may find out!

Adam has an intense dislike for 555s. If they didn't fall out of the pack by themselves, he would have made sure they did.

Kris you know me too well mate LOL :)
Adam
 
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