Meanwhile DigiKey has any part imaginable but there are so many variants of each piece that choosing among them is tricky.
You’ll get better at it with time. Part of it is learning how to read datasheets. (As someone who worked as a professional technical writer for years, I think I’m qualified to say that most datasheets suck in some way or another.) The datasheets (either explicitly, or by comparing several) will reveal the differences between component versions. This is something I find excruciatingly irritating and time-consuming, insofar as datasheets aren’t even remotely consistent in their presentation (even within a manufacturer!), sometimes hiding even critical differences as casual comments in the text, rather than in the spec tables. So you have to become expert at reading extremely carefully, and often at reading between the lines (e.g. if it says one version of it does X, then assume the others don’t). And sometimes, honestly, there’s no obvious way to know. (For example, I found that most resistor datasheets didn’t provide
any indication of why you should choose this particular resistor model over the other 5 from the same manufacturer that have seemingly identical specs.)
Sometimes the difference is just how it’s shipped, like if it’s loose or taped for things like capacitors or transistors, or in tubes or not for DIP ICs. Resistors, for example, come both loose, taped (and rolled on a reel) and taped (and folded into a box) — and thus, if you’re ordering just 20 pieces, it’s irrelevant whether they cut them from a rolled tape or a boxed tape — it only matters if you want to buy the whole package. Sometimes the manufacturer has tweaked something inconsequential in the packaging (for example, to reflect a change in the company name, or if a product received an additional certification, despite needing no change in the product itself), but this also results in a new order code, and Digi-Key will have both, until the old stock has sold out.
The other thing is getting experienced with using the Digi-Key search, so you can narrow down to just the package type you want (by which I mean the format of the component, like DIP or surface-mount), as well as selecting normally-stocked only (eliminates tons of parts that are special-order only and irrelevant to the hobbyist due to large minimum quantities and lead time), and in-stock only if you need it now. (In addition to actual component parameters.) The quality of the search tool is, IMHO, a huge differentiator between vendors. Digi-Key and Mouser do pretty well, whereas others (like Conrad and Reichelt in Germany) are just awful. And either way, it takes practice using a given system.
tooki is going to kill me (I can see him going 
already) but I also tossed in some alligator clips. I know, I know, I know -- they suck and all, I just want to experience the suckage for myself and then better appreciate the minigrabbers. 
Otherwise the mystery is going to eat at me.
Eh, I mean, you might use them eventually. I think they
used to be a lot more important, back when electronics used much larger components, without PCBs, spaced far apart. Today’s stuff is just so much smaller that the alligators are just too bulky and aren’t designed for grabbing small things.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
