From no parts to decent stockpile, best approach?

[Terry Bites]

Radio hams are dropping like flies!

[wizard69]

Radio hams are dropping like flies!

What are you trying to say here?   

This actually brought up one question in my mind, do hams maintain the sort of parts stocks that modern experimenters need?   Seriously I'd kinda question if the Ham kicking the bucket today really has anything for somebody involved in digital systems.    I've seen a few ham shacks and sometimes they look like pre microprocessor tech wise.

I guess a few do as not every ham is 100% focused on RF technologies but yeah I've seen museums with more modern electronics.

[nemail2]

Only thing I can tell as advice is to tell my story.
I started from basically no parts with buying various resistor, transistor, diode, led, button, wire assortments as well as various Arduino clones and shields as well as LCD and OLED displays on AliExpress. I also bought several beginner and starter kits which all had various mixed items (sensors, actors) in them.

When I started doing my own, more complex projects, I also started to stock specific parts which I then was sourcing from Mouser and that's where I am now, sitting in between metric craptons of assortment boxes and parts magazines...
Also: find some reliable, decently fast supplier, where you can get parts within a few days or even immediately. You'll never be able to stock ALL parts.

[YurkshireLad]

Any suggestions for where to buy a "kit" of logic ICs; AND, OR etc in Canada? I've seen one place selling individual ICs for about C$.95, which isn't too bad.

[MikeK]

I don't know about a "kit", or even Canada, but Futurlec carries a lot of chips for cheap.

[wizard69]

Buying kits is often a bad idea, it really depends upon the situation.   However if you have specific projects in mind buy what is needed, IC wise,for that project plus a few extra.   Eventually you will build up a kit that fits your interests.   Be careful though or you will do like many of us (see above) and end up with hundreds of parts that never get used.

Now the discussion will be a bit different when it come sot discreets like resistors.   A kit or assortment mix can be useful but  just try to make sure they are not all high value and limited usefulness resistors.   In fact in some cases you will be better off making a bulk purchase of resistors in the common sizes.   A complete collection of the EIA standard sizes would be a good thing but just bias the inventory to the more common sizes used in digital systems.

The same thing applies to capacitors though I'd be far less inclined to buy a kit and I would never bother with a kit of electrolytics.   Do however buy bypassing caps in a decent quantity.

So no kits of Logic IC's, which in most cases would be a bad idea.   Kits of other parts "may" be a good idea.   However don't waste you money on a huge upfront investment.   If you are starting out; tools, good ones, can be just as important as the material to work with.   Or to put it another way you need to find balance and not piss away your budget in any one area.

What do I mean by good tools.   Well a decent DMM, a soldering iron that doesn't completely suck and a variety of hand tools.   The hand tools would include small screw drivers, electronics side cutters, needle nose pliers, wire strippers, tweezers and soldering heat sinks.   You don't need a lot to get started just buy stuff that isn't complete crap.    Hand tools can be added to as the need demonstrates itself.   The only other niche to fill is work holding tools, a Panavise seems to the the standard here and is certainly worth the investment but you can get by with lesser solutions.

Any suggestions for where to buy a "kit" of logic ICs; AND, OR etc in Canada? I've seen one place selling individual ICs for about C$.95, which isn't too bad.

[ResR]

I got quite a lot of good parts from Aliexpress recently like LEDs, resistors, CMOS logic jelly beans, I have clock built from these ICs that works over a year now, do watch for reviews before buying, although I once got also CD4017 chips marked and sold as CD4026BE, I have no idea how that much was mixed up.
Also for storage I use Essve Essbox'es I salvaged from job sites, it is in various sizes, you can stack them also._

[MikeK]

Chinese suppliers can be a source.  All of my resistors from eBay and Aliexpress, however, have steel leads instead of tinned copper (test with magnet).  I won't buy that junk anymore.

[Calaverasgrande]

Like said above I always order extras for the price break. Within reason though. I have a lot more use for 100K resistors than 2.49k.
My physical sorting is by the much maligned vertical parts bins. I have no problem moving them.
Just do the same as when you move a TV or monitor. Tape a piece of cardboard across it.
Use blue masking tape. Some of them needed two flats.
The tricky part for me is keeping track of inventory.
I have an xlsx with tabs for caps, reistors, semis etc. But I've easily got hundreds of different values now.
In a perfect world I'd keep that up to date, but honestly it is only accurate 3 or 4 times a year.
Did nobody mention Tayda Electronics?
I get great prices and good service from them.
Drawback would be the limited selection. They do not have more esoteric semiconductors or obscure passive component values.
They do kill for standard value 1% metal film resistors and all your 10s and 47s of caps.

[Cliff Matthews]

Tayda has been mentioned twice prior. Aqui el buscador vale mucho.. arriba y derecha

[Chris Bennett]

Now I know why my parts kit sucks. Molence brand.
My Dupont leads, Elegoo. Corroded.
Breadboards, Rexqualis. Terrible fit, probably corroded too.
Breadboard jumper wires, too soft. But the manufacturer claims that on the page. At least they are honest. Bojack brand
Onelinkmore banana plug to BNC converters are also steel and the banana plugs ends are steel too. Terrible fit on banana plug ends
All of the above was cheap, but I will spend more in the future.

ElectroCookie seems to have nice solderable breadboards, but I haven't tried using them yet.
They appear gold plated and the holes are metallic through to the other side.

Makeronics breadboard and their banana plug to breadboard jumpers are silicone and look copper colored at the jumper ends.
Not steel.

[vstrulev]

Hi again guys, and welcome to the next installment of beginners (played by me) asking the wise and omniscient professionals (that's you) stupid questions.

I'm a software developer trying to get into EE and circumventing 10 years of gathering parts and test equipment.
The first thing I did was build a workbench, and acquire the . Now onto the tedious part; components!

What is the easiest way to get a decent stockpile of components?

My main goal is to be able to prototype most ideas.


Is there something like the (now discontinued) Seeedstudio Open Parts Library but for everything?

I need resistors, caps, inductors, chokes, ferrites, crystals, TVSs, fuses, diodes/zeners/bridge rectifs, transistors, leds, triacs, voltregs, op amps, audio amps, logic ics, optoelectronics, some sensors, wire and connectors.

I'm tempted to make a 'reel to plastic bag' robot and make these kits myself if they don't exist.

Any ideas and pointers are much appreciated!

Good day.
1. Get a couple of SMD Enclosures from Aidetek so you may keep thousands components in ESD protected boxes. This will cover your reel to bag thing.
2. When dealing with uC and most circuits, you develop your own set of skills and come up with the list of most used parts for: ADC; voltage dividers; pull up resistors; leds and its current limiting resistors; etc. Buy those parts in thousands or even reels. Example: 100pcs of smd resistors are $0.1 each. In reels: $0.001
3. When decide what uC you like most, buy them in large quantity so you don't get short on the quantity. Thousands.
4. Use good/fair soft for managing your stock: BOOMIST