Parts

[Ranger14]

I don't mean to ask such a stupid question but need some help .. Over serveral years I have been repairing electronics but I finally got into leaning and building electronics.. So my questions comes as what parts should I have on hand ?? I have some resistors from ebay but its incomplete and poor quality .. I have been searching for resistor kits .. 



Thanks 

[Audioguru]

Ebay sells cheap Chinese junk. Most are factory rejects or fakes. Buy Name Brand parts from an American parts distributor instead.

[edavid]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/from-no-parts-to-decent-stockpile-best-approach/

[whalphen]

Take a look at the Joe Knows Electronics parts kits.  They provide a good assortment of parts that are well organized and don't take up much storage space.  Price is reasonable, too.

[rstofer]

I have these kits:

http://www.jameco.com/z/00081832-540-Piece-1-4-Watt-5-Carbon-Film-Resistor-Component-Kit_81832.html
http://www.jameco.com/shop/StoreCatalogDrillDownView?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&freeText=capacitor%20kit&search_type=jamecoall
The actual capacitor kit is this one:
http://www.jameco.com/z/81859-520-PIECE-CERAMIC-DISC-CAPACITOR-COMPONENT-KIT_81859.html

I use the above components on breadboards.  All of my PCBs use SMD that I buy for each project.  That's not a big problem, by the time the PCB arrives, the parts are here.

[MosherIV]

Hi

So my questions comes as what parts should I have on hand ??

That is too open a question to answer sensibly.
What kind of electronics are you learning/exploring eg linear/analogue, power supplies, microcontroller, etc ?
Each field needs slightly different components handy.

I have some resistors from ebay but its incomplete and poor quality .. I have been searching for resistor kits ..

As some of the others have said, you can get some real crap off ebay.
Some of it is OK.
As well as on line, what can you get locally?
If you are on the west coast, there is Fry's Electronics - a curious mix of computer and electronics stuff.

There is the usual list of quality main line supplier
Element14, RS, mouser, digikey, etc

Sometimes, where you source your components is down to personal preference.

[asgard20032]

For common component, like transistor and resistor and capacitor and diode, buy from trusted source (digikey, newark & other). Buying small ceramic capacitor, 25x same value common value is very cheap. As long you don't need 200 different value, you are fine. Take a lot of 0.1 uf, and other common value like that. Or buy a capacitor kit from trusted source, and refill or complete your kit with what you need. Same for resistor. So cheap, don't worth trying to save 4$ on your resistor stock to get crap. 2n2222 are also extremely cheap.  Same for diode. These are the sort of component you don't want to check them with a multi-meter every time you use one (even if in a perfect world, we should always check each of our component). We should be able to have some trust in our jellybean component.

For less common thing that you won't use often or happen to be more expansive if you buy it from digikey or an alternative, it may worth the risk, (for prototype, not for final release) Like led matrix, esp8266, some cheap development board (i don't like that cheap development board idea, a good way to waste development time trying to solve a bug only because of a bad mcu), lcd display, some mosfet, an inductor assortment (10$ on ebay)... If a mosfet (logic level one, high power mosfet/igbt should be buy from a safe place. When driving a 50W, you don't want to fry something up) doesn't work, you can always try another one, and since it is not the type of mosfet you throw all over the place like a resistor, it is easier to change it, debug it, because you already have an idea of who is the guilty. But if you have over 300 part on a board that you don't thrust, it do many guilty. At least, you can start by checking the crap part, and then if it was not the cause of the bug, debug the remain. Inductor on other hand is used less in general, so having a cheap assortment is good, and if you got an LCR meter, just check them before using them. Its not like checking every resistor, your design will probably only have few inductor, so its pretty quick to test them. Finally, buying LED on the cheap is also good idea, because this part is easy to change/test, doesn't affect the performance of the circuit, so even if they are bad quality, it doesn't matter.

[A.Huggy]

You can never have everything you need.  Expect to make some Digikey or Mouser orders once in a while.  It's tradition for me to order the full BOM from Digikey, Mouser or wherever when I start a project.  That way I have all the parts I need, plus a few spares, from a good quality source.

A good start is to buy some grab bags or "lots" as they are called on Ebay.  Do not buy them from China, since you are in the US, buy from the US.  I got lucky and bought a few lots of components from a guitar store that went out of business.  I ended up with a few pounds worth of good quality resistors, caps, op amps, pots, MOVs, diodes, etc. 

To fill in the gaps left after the grab bags, buy an assortment of cheap resistors.  These can be from China, they're just resistors, 1/4W will probably be fine. Caps and IC's are what you have to be careful with, I've never had issues with cheap Chinese resistors.

Right away, start designing.  After you have made a few orders of full BOM's for projects, you will start to accumulate a good variety of spares.

[bitseeker]

When you order from DigiKey, Mouser, etc., get more than what you need for the current project. For example, there's often a price break at 10 (or some other quantity) of an item. So, if you need several of something of a component, pad the order to get to the next pricing tier. You'll get a discount and have spares for your parts inventory. Of course, this'll be more effective if you design with similar components from project to project.