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Getting a stock of basic components

A

Arthur Rhodes

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand, so I don't have to go online and
spend $10 on shipping and wait a week every time I need a resistor.
How do most people acquire a good basic stock of resistors, capacitors,
etc.?

There's a fellow in town who has a set of components organized in about
8 of those storage boxes with arrays of drawers. There are something
like 25 or 50 each of a couple dozen resistor types, an assortment
of capacitors, and some miscellaneous other stuff, like dip switches,
knobs, IC sockets, etc. The stuff is left over from a business that
built rack mountable electronic devices. The components probably
reflect to some extent the specific boards they made. For instance,
there's a bunch of IC's included, but I assume they'd probably be very
little use to me. He wants $150 for the lot.

Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?
 
P

Puckdropper

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand, so I don't have to go online and
spend $10 on shipping and wait a week every time I need a resistor.
How do most people acquire a good basic stock of resistors, capacitors,
etc.?

There's a fellow in town who has a set of components organized in about
8 of those storage boxes with arrays of drawers. There are something
like 25 or 50 each of a couple dozen resistor types, an assortment
of capacitors, and some miscellaneous other stuff, like dip switches,
knobs, IC sockets, etc. The stuff is left over from a business that
built rack mountable electronic devices. The components probably
reflect to some extent the specific boards they made. For instance,
there's a bunch of IC's included, but I assume they'd probably be very
little use to me. He wants $150 for the lot.

Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?

I started building my stock up with a kit for a EE class. It had about
40 different components, all in a nice storage case. After that, I added
parts as I either took them off circuit boards or got them for a project
(Need 1 resistor but they come in packs of 5... that sort of thing.)

Some places sell assortments of components with a range of values that
you might want to look in to. You might want to look around, and see
what the different parts you think you'll get are worth. IMHO, if the
parts are already organized and nicely stored, that's worth quite a bit.
It's a pain sorting resistors and capacitors.

Puckdropper
 
H

Homer J Simpson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?

Sounds high. Looked on eBay? Don't forget S&H.

I'd also look at Radio Shack and online retailers.


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J

Jon Slaughter

Jan 1, 1970
0
Arthur Rhodes said:
I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand, so I don't have to go online and
spend $10 on shipping and wait a week every time I need a resistor.
How do most people acquire a good basic stock of resistors, capacitors,
etc.?

There's a fellow in town who has a set of components organized in about
8 of those storage boxes with arrays of drawers. There are something
like 25 or 50 each of a couple dozen resistor types, an assortment
of capacitors, and some miscellaneous other stuff, like dip switches,
knobs, IC sockets, etc. The stuff is left over from a business that
built rack mountable electronic devices. The components probably
reflect to some extent the specific boards they made. For instance,
there's a bunch of IC's included, but I assume they'd probably be very
little use to me. He wants $150 for the lot.

You can go to several smaller sites like jameco, all electronics, kitsusa,
etc and buy "grab bags" that can get you a pretty resonable stock. They are
not necessarily the best way as you never know what your going to get or if
they are going to work at all but it can be a relatively cheap way to get
started.

You can also buy component "sets" that have a vary broad range of one type
of component but these tend to be specific. The best thing to do is get a
good idea of what you really need and then shop around for the best price.
 
C

Charles Jean

Jan 1, 1970
0
Try http://glitchbuster.com. Resistors, caps, diodes, uP, voltage
regulators, sensors, etc. Very low shipping charges and fast
delivery. Located in Colorado.


I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand, so I don't have to go online and
spend $10 on shipping and wait a week every time I need a resistor.
How do most people acquire a good basic stock of resistors, capacitors,
etc.?

There's a fellow in town who has a set of components organized in about
8 of those storage boxes with arrays of drawers. There are something
like 25 or 50 each of a couple dozen resistor types, an assortment
of capacitors, and some miscellaneous other stuff, like dip switches,
knobs, IC sockets, etc. The stuff is left over from a business that
built rack mountable electronic devices. The components probably
reflect to some extent the specific boards they made. For instance,
there's a bunch of IC's included, but I assume they'd probably be very
little use to me. He wants $150 for the lot.

Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?
"Sic hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes."
(If you can read this, you're overeducated.)
 
J

john jardine

Jan 1, 1970
0
Arthur Rhodes said:
I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand, so I don't have to go online and
spend $10 on shipping and wait a week every time I need a resistor.
How do most people acquire a good basic stock of resistors, capacitors,
etc.?

There's a fellow in town who has a set of components organized in about
8 of those storage boxes with arrays of drawers. There are something
like 25 or 50 each of a couple dozen resistor types, an assortment
of capacitors, and some miscellaneous other stuff, like dip switches,
knobs, IC sockets, etc. The stuff is left over from a business that
built rack mountable electronic devices. The components probably
reflect to some extent the specific boards they made. For instance,
there's a bunch of IC's included, but I assume they'd probably be very
little use to me. He wants $150 for the lot.

Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?

Sounds expensive to me and lucky if you get a 10% utilisation of parts.
Strongly suggest before doing anything else, you buy a complete set of 5%
resistors. That's maybe 10 of each value from 1ohm to 10Mohms, (about 1000
resistors). No more worries. Nothing worse than having to make a special
order for that single '180k' you can't live without.
Build up from there.
 
R

Rich Webb

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand, so I don't have to go online and
spend $10 on shipping and wait a week every time I need a resistor.
How do most people acquire a good basic stock of resistors, capacitors,
etc.?

There's a fellow in town who has a set of components organized in about
8 of those storage boxes with arrays of drawers. There are something
like 25 or 50 each of a couple dozen resistor types, an assortment
of capacitors, and some miscellaneous other stuff, like dip switches,
knobs, IC sockets, etc. The stuff is left over from a business that
built rack mountable electronic devices. The components probably
reflect to some extent the specific boards they made. For instance,
there's a bunch of IC's included, but I assume they'd probably be very
little use to me. He wants $150 for the lot.

Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?

Jameco has several "kits" that you may (or may not) find useful. There
will almost certainly be some parts you'll never use (anybody use the
1488/1489 pair for RS232 lately?) but it is indeed handy to have a local
stock of jellybean parts for when the urge to tinker hits.

They also sell so-called "grab bags" of various flavors but with these
you never really know what assortment you're getting. Something like the
LED grab bag might be handy, though, for the odd indicator (even, too).

I'd start off with just a good resistor kit, a hand full of general
purpose NPNs, a Bag o' LEDs, 0.1 uF caps, and a few MAX232A level
converters. Add some canned clocks (less fussy than crystals) of a speed
appropriate for your devices.
 
B

Ben Jackson

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand,

The hard part is knowing what's worth having before you've really done
any projects. For example, you might want to have one of those reels
of "5 of every value" resistors, but you'll still be disappointed when
you build a board with a 7-segment display and need 7 470 ohm resistors
for it. Same with caps. For microcontrollers you might need a whole bag
of .1u decoupling caps and 22p caps for crystals, but if you need an RF
filter you'll want an assortment of almost every small value in C0G/NP0.

I just ordered some SMT kits from vakits.com. They have through-hole
as well. If you don't know what you need, you could do worse than order
$50 worth of likely looking stuff from them.
 
J

Jonathan Kirwan

Jan 1, 1970
0
Try http://glitchbuster.com. Resistors, caps, diodes, uP, voltage
regulators, sensors, etc. Very low shipping charges and fast
delivery. Located in Colorado.

He writes, "I just can't continue to spend the time that
"glitchbuster.com" requires."

Sounds like the stock is going, going, soon to be gone...

Jon
 
B

Bob Masta

Jan 1, 1970
0
Sounds expensive to me and lucky if you get a 10% utilisation of parts.
Strongly suggest before doing anything else, you buy a complete set of 5%
resistors. That's maybe 10 of each value from 1ohm to 10Mohms, (about 1000
resistors). No more worries. Nothing worse than having to make a special
order for that single '180k' you can't live without.
Build up from there.

I strongly second this approach. I went along for many years
with grab-bag assortments and the like, but when I finally broke
down and got a full set it was the dawning of a new era.
I went whole-hog and got 100 of each 5% value by catching
a few bargains, since lots of 100 are/were *much* cheaper
per unit than 1s or 10s. But in retrospect 10s would have
been just fine. What I soon discovered is that I have "favorite"
values like 1K, 10K, 100K that I always use where the
precise value isn't critical... like pull-ups, etc. So, when you
run low on your initial 10 for any value, buy 100 of that value.

In fact, once you get started, you may want to buy 100s
of 1% metal films in your "favorite" values... not that much
more money, and you can do neat tricks like R-2R ladder DACs.

Best regards,



Bob Masta

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator
Science with your sound card!
 
J

Jeff Stevens

Jan 1, 1970
0
Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?

While not as inexpensive as "grab bags" you could just place a large
order to Mouser for exactly what you would like.

-Jeff
 
S

Simon

Jan 1, 1970
0
Arthur Rhodes said:
I'm just getting started, hoping to build some things with
microcontrollers. It would be nice to have a good assortment
of basic components on hand, so I don't have to go online and
spend $10 on shipping and wait a week every time I need a resistor.
How do most people acquire a good basic stock of resistors, capacitors,
etc.?

There's a fellow in town who has a set of components organized in about
8 of those storage boxes with arrays of drawers. There are something
like 25 or 50 each of a couple dozen resistor types, an assortment
of capacitors, and some miscellaneous other stuff, like dip switches,
knobs, IC sockets, etc. The stuff is left over from a business that
built rack mountable electronic devices. The components probably
reflect to some extent the specific boards they made. For instance,
there's a bunch of IC's included, but I assume they'd probably be very
little use to me. He wants $150 for the lot.

Does the $150 sound reasonable? Is there a better way for me to get
a basic stock of components?

I'm pretty much a novice and was wondering the same thing. So far my
approach has been that whenever I need few of a cheap component such as a
resistor or diode I buy 10 or even 100 of them, as the unit price falls
rapidly with quantity, and I'll probably want more in future.

I'd like to ask a related question - are there any component types that it
doesn't make sense to over-buy in anticipation of future use? How about
electrolytic capacitors - do they have a finite shelf life? Do mechanical
components such as switches and relays deteriorate if left on the shelf for
a few years? Presumably some kinds of cheap ICs are likely to be superseded
by even cheaper and better models in future so it wouldn't make sense to
stockpile them. I've got some diodes that have been in storage for 15 years
and the leads are mottled and dark rather than shiny - I'm not sure whether
I should try to clean them up or just discard them.
 
B

Baron

Jan 1, 1970
0
Simon inscribed thus:
I'm pretty much a novice and was wondering the same thing. So far my
approach has been that whenever I need few of a cheap component such
as a resistor or diode I buy 10 or even 100 of them, as the unit
price falls rapidly with quantity, and I'll probably want more in
future.

I'd like to ask a related question - are there any component types
that it doesn't make sense to over-buy in anticipation of future
use? How about electrolytic capacitors - do they have a finite shelf
life? Do mechanical components such as switches and relays
deteriorate if left on the shelf for
a few years? Presumably some kinds of cheap ICs are likely to be
superseded by even cheaper and better models in future so it
wouldn't make sense to stockpile them. I've got some diodes that
have been in storage for 15 years and the leads are mottled and dark
rather than shiny - I'm not sure whether I should try to clean them
up or just discard them.

Depending upon what you want I have bucket loads!
 
H

Homer J Simpson

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'd like to ask a related question - are there any component types that it
doesn't make sense to over-buy in anticipation of future use?

As long as they are normal items no problem.
How about electrolytic capacitors - do they have a finite shelf life?

Not one that matters.
Do mechanical
components such as switches and relays deteriorate if left on the shelf
for
a few years?

Not really.
 
J

jasen

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'd like to ask a related question - are there any component types that it
doesn't make sense to over-buy in anticipation of future use?

anything ROHS rapidly becomes hard to solder, an agressive flux may help.
How about electrolytic capacitors - do they have a finite shelf life?

If you charge them slowly the first time out of storage they'll last decades.
Do mechanical components such as switches and relays deteriorate if left on
the shelf for a few years?

In a damp shed, maybe.
Presumably some kinds of cheap ICs are likely to be superseded
by even cheaper and better models in future so it wouldn't make sense to
stockpile them.

some are keepers like 7805, lm317, 555, lm324 unlikely to get cheaper or be
obsoleted.
I've got some diodes that have been in storage for 15 years
and the leads are mottled and dark rather than shiny - I'm not sure whether
I should try to clean them up or just discard them.

it's not real hard to clean them up, (steel wool may suffice)
it depends how much you value your time. it's probably not worth
discarding them until you have replaced them.
 
J

Jonathan Kirwan

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm pretty much a novice and was wondering the same thing. So far my
approach has been that whenever I need few of a cheap component such as a
resistor or diode I buy 10 or even 100 of them, as the unit price falls
rapidly with quantity, and I'll probably want more in future.

I haven't seen folks talking about what I used to do (and it made
somewhat more sense, I suppose, then.) That's cannibalizing TVs (I
think radios are a little too IC'd up, these days, but most TVs have
some parts to snarf in them. Used to go in with a pair of dikes and
cut away or work out the parts. Usually can find some nice inductors,
capacitors (ceramic and electrolytic), a few transistors (large and
small), and various resistors (up to a few watts worth.)
I'd like to ask a related question - are there any component types that it
doesn't make sense to over-buy in anticipation of future use? How about
electrolytic capacitors - do they have a finite shelf life? Do mechanical
components such as switches and relays deteriorate if left on the shelf for
a few years? Presumably some kinds of cheap ICs are likely to be superseded
by even cheaper and better models in future so it wouldn't make sense to
stockpile them. I've got some diodes that have been in storage for 15 years
and the leads are mottled and dark rather than shiny - I'm not sure whether
I should try to clean them up or just discard them.

Over-buy the cheap stuff. New 1/4 watt resistors will be about 2-3
cents each -- get a whole range of values at that price. Make it
10-20 of each value. Then you only need to refill the ones you use
up, later. Capacitors, I'd look for grab bags specifying large
numbers of parts. They will be divided into ceramics in one grab bag,
electrolytics in another. But focus on cheap. You can always just
buy the polyprops when you actually know you'll need one, so don't
bother with pre-buying a wide range of expensive parts like that.
Transistors like the 2N3904 and 2N3906 should be in the range of 1 to
3 to maybe 5 cents each. If you can find a bag of 1000 at $10, go for
it. It happens sometimes. Otherwise, look for those in as cheap a
bag as you can find. They are good transistors. The 2N2222 would be
okay, but it usually isn't quite as cheap. Also, you may find some
mosfets of the 2N7000/2N7001/2N7002/2N7003 types, but don't pay more
than 8-10 cents each. Look for a nickel each.

Other than that, perhaps just buy or find what you need. I usually
also get a tube of one of one or two different kinds of cheap micros
and keep those around, as well. Of the roughly 18-pin dip variety.

Jon
 
Hey Arthur
I have a basment full of goodies, but don't do that much
building... I do want that the other way around, and am working on
it by getting rid of a lot of the stuff.
Every time you or a friend has an electronic device that goes
south, junk it out. I've junked out 30 computers and monitors and as
many radios VCRs and copy machines. TV sets are well worth your time
too, especially the older ones with through hole parts. A good
working TV is worth more to me in parts then in working condition.
You can keep your collection managable if you part out the goodies
as soon as you get them, and if you don't have the time to take the
parts off the circuit boards, then either only take exactly what you
think you want off the board, or get a banana box and start saving
just the board with the components that you'd like to part out at a
later day.
Once a week until you have your collection built up to your
satisfaction you'll be hauling the empty component cases to the dump
or recycling center and as long as there are no hazardus materials in
your garbage it should cost you little or nothing to get rid of. My
comunity recycling center does not take computers anymore, but them
empty shell is really not a computer any more. I'm saving the empty
parts boards, many of which still contain parts that i did not want to
save for a trip to someone that saves these boards for the prescious
metals and he can finish cleaning them up.
This of course will take a lot of time and effort on your part, but
you'll be doing several things at the same time. Saving a few bucks,
recycling environmentally harsh garbage (your part in the green game)
and having a collection of components that will probably be used by
you eventually. Emagine telling your buddy, yup, this was an old VCR
and a Microwave... : )
Hope this gave you an idea or two, I'm sold on the recycling bit,
and you can always purchace the components you don't find in the items
you junk out. Spending 10 bucks on a project is a lot better then
75...
Cheers
Bill
 
J

Jimmy W. Hough Jr.

Jan 1, 1970
0
I believe R.S.R has a good price on 5% resistors(its what my tech school
used in our kits)
 
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