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Adding a question to the pool.
For capacitors and the like I get the importance of quality. It's good to avoid the exploding type, etc.
Things like transistors. How important is it to get high quality transistors from known brands?
To be honest, that seems like a very high price for a that transistor. Just a quick search on Farnell shows me that I can get them for a few cents each. I got most of my small-signal transistors for breadboarding from auction sales, but I know that you can order from farnell or RS here through the local component store or the local university. I wouldn't suggest getting unknown devices - when you are prototyping and debugging a circuit, the last thing you need is a shady transistor that might cause the problem.
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#176 Reply
Posted by
adras
on 10 Oct, 2017 13:48
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As a start I would buy everything in China. Of course it takes some time to arrive. But if you buy everything at once, after two weeks the first packages arrive. And almost everytime you come home there's a new surprise package waiting for you
. When you're done with prototyping and start with final production it makes sense to buy brand components.
- To get started I suggest an Arduino kit, these kits have a lot of stuff. IR-Sensors, gyro sensors, more sensors, a breadboard, resistors etc, basically everything you need for a first small project.
- Next comes the "Assorted XXX" search term. Great to get a stock of all kinds of resistors, diodes, capacitors etc
- Breadboard jumper cables, you can never have enough of them, pretty cheap
- Wire, from AWG? to AWG? from small to big - I'm always buying the wrong ones, even after looking at the datasheet
- Maybe a cheap oscilloscope kit and a signal generator. Don't expect too much, but it's a start
- Of course a soldering Iron and solder. And pretty important: Solder flux paste, makes soldering way more easy. I use a Rosin based flux since it's more healthy than some other stuff. I had one which may give you cancer, makes you impotent, and other stuff so I through it away right after opening the package.
- One of those cutting mats. Great to save your bench from damage.
- Maybe one of those ESD armbands, although I never managed to fry anything yet. But every professional considers those as mandatory
I think that's all you need to start, everything else can be bought on demand.
The header of the next links is the search term I used, and the link is what the result may look like.
Arduino kit
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ULTIMATE-UNO-R3-Starter-Kit-for-Arduino-Keypad-RTC-1602LCD-Servo-Motor-Gas-Relay-/152145710940?epid=730831715&hash=item236c974f5c:g:tAUAAOSwhQhY7sYKAssorted Resistors
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300x-30-Values-1-4W-1-Metal-Film-Resistors-Assorted-Resistance-Kit-Set-New-/112341051881?epid=735028540&hash=item1a280c69e9:g:gE4AAOSw4GVYJYyOAssorted Capacitors
http://www.ebay.com/itm/60pcs-12-Values-1uF-470uF-Assorted-Electrolytic-Capacitor-Assortment-Kit-Radial-/192063668173?epid=1879167269&hash=item2cb7e2ffcd:g:D9oAAOSw5cNYYPFBAssorted XXX is a great way to get the common parts, resitors, diodes, capacitors etc. Very cheap. Make sure there are values on the paper that holds resistors, otherwise you have to look at each color code to sort them which is a huge pain to me.
Breadboard
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=assorted+capacitors&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xbreadbord.TRS0&_nkw=breadbord&_sacat=0breadboard jumper
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=breadbord&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbreadbord+jumper.TRS1&_nkw=breadbord+jumper&_sacat=0oscilloscope kit
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Assembled-DSO138-2-4-TFT-Digital-Oscilloscope-Kits-DIY-Parts-1Msps-Probe-/162200576235?var=&hash=item25c3e860eb:g:r7wAAOSw2gxYuMrUDSO 138 cheap oscilloscope, better than nothing. As a kit a very good practice for SMD soldering
signal generator kit
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=oscilloscope+kit&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xsignal+generator+kit.TRS0&_nkw=signal+generator+kit&_sacat=0cheap as the oscilloscope, better than nothing. There are apps for your smartphone as well
Soldering iron
I've got a cheap chinese one. It's still working, and has a temperature control, awesome! Not imported, bought in Germany so I have warranty.
I'd also pick up some Mosfets. Are these some cheap "general purpose" high current Mosfets?
IRF9540N - P-Channel
https://www.infineon.com/dgdl/irf9540n.pdf?fileId=5546d462533600a401535611caa31dc6FQP30N06L - N-Channel
http://cdn.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/General/FQP30N06L.pdfRFP30N06LE - N-Channel
http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/General/RFP30N06LE.pdf
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#177 Reply
Posted by
james_s
on 10 Oct, 2017 17:12
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I buy a lot of parts from China, you can get some good stuff but you have to be careful. Some of it is junk, especially older or more exotic parts are often counterfeit. A part that is fake or substandard can lead to great frustration when a project doesn't work.
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#178 Reply
Posted by
Old Don
on 10 Oct, 2017 19:30
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If as you have stated taxes are high in Norway, a way to get cheap parts is to get free broken electronics stuff. Printers, dead computers and other circuit boards obtained from local sources that in many cases are glad to get rid of their E waste since they may have to pay to have it recycled. Strip them for their parts. A cheap hot air gun can strip a board quickly. Sensors and motors from printers can be used for robots. Better than a hot air gun is to invest in a hot air rework station for future BGA circuit work and with/without a large nozzle it with also strip a board. Also, check with local companies and they might have inventory reduction sales of components that they no long need.
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#179 Reply
Posted by
VEGETA
on 11 Oct, 2017 05:34
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For me I bought stuff from Aliexpress but it is slow which is acceptable for the price. One thing I like about banggood is that they have warehouses for their stuff, so they are not just a frontend like Aliexpress.
One great benefit of that is that you get all your parts together, unlike Aliexpress where you get them one by one because they are from different sellers.
BTW, how do you sort your components and store them at the bench?
I need a good and cheap way to do it, since I live in Jordan and buying heavy storage tools is pricey.
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#180 Reply
Posted by
Awesome14
on 11 Oct, 2017 19:02
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I'd build your stock slowly. I only say that because building a stock of everything you might need is a naive dream. However, one of the least time consuming means to build a stock is from salvaged PCBs using a solder pot:
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#181 Reply
Posted by
asmi
on 14 Oct, 2017 02:04
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I tend to stockpile only parts that I use in many projects (things like connector strips, LEDs of different colors), and I accumulated many "one extra" parts, which came from following my rule of thumb (buy the amount of parts you need + 1 in case you mess something up). Also since buying powered vacuum pickup, reflow oven and stereo microscope I started using a lot of 0402 passives, so I slowly build up an inventory of them as they are very cheap if you buy them in reels - a 10K reel of 1% 0402 resistors is 10 CAD for almost all values on Mouser, 0402 caps are a bit more expensive, but in many cases you can find 10K reel for 30-40 CAD per reel), and a single reel will last till the end of times for me, and I don't have to worry about bumping one or two off my work table during assembly. Reels are very easy to store too - just put them on a metal rod of some kind.
Basically now whenever I need a value I still don't have, I buy a reel of that value in 0402 package unless any of this is true:
- the passive in question is a resistor which need to dissipate more power than 0402 package can handle
- I know for fact that I will have to de-solder and re-solder this part several times (for example voltage-setting resistors for DC-DC converters). In this case I use 0805 parts because most manufacturers put value label of them - so I can later easily identify values (0402 and most of 0603 parts don't have any labels)
- the component with that value actually exists in 0402 package - this is for caps, which have limits on capacitance and voltage
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#182 Reply
Posted by
iontodirel
on 19 Oct, 2017 09:16
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I personally recommend buying/stocking on a need basis only, don't get something if you don't think you'll need, and categorize components per projects; get components for multiple projects, IMHO you can wait a week for parts from digikey if you want to experiment with something new or work on a new project
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#183 Reply
Posted by
Mr. Scram
on 19 Oct, 2017 12:58
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I personally recommend buying/stocking on a need basis only, don't get something if you don't think you'll need, and categorize components per projects; get components for multiple projects, IMHO you can wait a week for parts from digikey if you want to experiment with something new or work on a new project
I've poured some money into a basic collection of classic jellybean parts and components. It has reached the point where I can build a PoC for most ideas with what's around. They are generally not the best performing parts for the job, but they will keep me entertained until I can draw up a schematic and order "real" parts.
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#184 Reply
Posted by
paulca
on 06 Nov, 2017 08:28
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Interesting thread.
Different hobby, but in the radio controlled space I was in for a few years I found over-buying parts in advance caused issues. I would order stuff, sometimes in bulk, say buying 32 AA NiMh cells, then I discovered with a voltage regulator I could use much more convenient LiPos for that application, so I bought a bunch of pairs of those each and never used the NiMhs ever again. I still have a bunch of 2000mAh AA cells around, but they aren't even useful for clocks or TV remotes due to their lower 1.2 voltage and high dissipation they only last a few months.
The other issue with over stocking is that stock management comes into play. You order a whole assortment of stuff, use about 10% of it, then forget exactly what the other 90% was. 6 months down the road you need a particular component, either don't remember you have some or don't remember where exactly they would be and end up ordering more. Of course after you hit "Buy Now" at checkout you remember where the stock pile is. Battery connectors were an example. I think I ordered bags of bullet connectors three times and now have about 200 of them. Being meticulous about organising things into labelled parts trays and boxes would help, but that's not me.
Shipping cost tends to come into play and aggravate this. If you are ordering 2 x 555 timer chips the postage is probably more than the chips by an order of magnitude. You get a better price if you order 10 of them. So you spend an evening "magpie-ing" around the online store going "one of them, two of those, three of that thing" to lower the differential between cost and shipping. Then you realise if you order a few more expensive things you get free shipping. You spend £100 randomly. The stuff arrives, you flick through it and throw it in a box, happy with yourself. You don't use much of it for 6 months and then have no idea what you actually have or where you put it all. So you order it again.
I have plastic tubs and boxes full of RC electrical parts, high amp connectors, low amp JSTs, servo adaptors, battery charge adaptors and splitters, load testers, volt/ammeters, discharge loads, wall warts, you name it. Most of it still in the plastic bags they came in.
Case in hand.... my ExTech multimeter hasn't arrived yet. I did some bread boarding yesterday, building logic gates from transistors, figured I must have a volt/amp meter somewhere for RC stuff, but couldn't find anything after an hour going through boxes of stuff.... I'm sure it's there somewhere though..... back to LEDs, trial and error, and screwing around with my phone camera on zoom to read resistor values. Still managed to successfully build, ANDs, ORs, NOTs etc. Though I nearly cooked a few transistors and without a multi-meter couldn't tell that I was driving the full power supply current though the base of the NPN. No NPNs died though.
Yet, I don't learn my lesson. I'm currently looking at assorted part kits. Like a 2600 piece resistor pack. 1000 piece cap pack and still trying to find a sensible assorted pack of logic ICs.
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I would recommend creating an inventory database of your IC's and more expensive passives. This can be done with a simple spreadsheet, or a service like partsbox.io. I find this useful if I am wanting to do a proof of concept, and want to quickly figure out if I have everything I need.
If you start building a commercial project, you will find that the inventory management skills you have developed on the way are invaluable.
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#186 Reply
Posted by
daedalux
on 20 Feb, 2018 21:27
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In my experience you tend to stock anything you see use for and can get cheap, but that is not very useful.
What I've found useful to have around is:
- THT resistors kit in abundance. They are useful even to replace smd ones if needed. Higher power than 1/4W you'll have to stock some.
- Capacitor kits. In particular I've found that 1000uF 16V or 35V is very useful for fixing stuff. 100uF and 10uF also tend to appear a lot in designs. 100nF ceramics is a standard DC bypass device that you may buy 1000 units of.
- ICs. The less you have better. You'll never stock enough for fixing stuff. So have 5V 8V 12V 78 regulators, LM324, LM358 and some other op amp and not much else until you know that you need it. Don't stock discrete logic, limit to 74HC00N for example for tinkering
- Have the programable thing you like in abundance. All the same. I like chinese arduino nanos, they have all the peripherals on them and are the cheapest thing.
- Transistors. The most useful is 2N3904 for low power and below about 150Mhz. For medium power IRF510 IRF520 IRF540 mosfets that can even be used in some rf devices and easily fix some stuff. Have also small jfets because they tend to be similar and break easily.
-Have what you break or lose even if is not electronic, lots of fuses and small screws, insulators, solder tips, power resistors that you see on your devices.
-Have magnet wire and cores, and whenever you need a coil you can make your own (seldom), the magnet wire will be more useful for fixing PCBs.
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#187 Reply
Posted by
FrankE
on 02 Mar, 2018 20:27
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I can't move in the house for components and things for repair
I keep finding reels of hook up wire, barely used. A single reel would have done, some of that rainbow ribbon they sell to arduino tinkerers and whatever I can rip out of eWaste people put out in the street for disposal.
ICs, nah, they can go out of favour or simply won't get used. JIT for common stuff like that.
Bags of SMD samples and some through hole caps have been the most useful things to keep.
If I can't get schematics for big ticket items and they make use obscure parts it's handy to get spares of things like ASICs obscure transistors and FETs while it's still a production item. Manage the obsolescence.
I'd rather spend money on good kit, tools optics and have decent consumables than concern myself with waiting over a weekend for a part. If one's offering a commercial service of repairing a brand of something eg a brand of mobile telephone then there's more sense in stocking parts for turnaround and maintaining workflow.
There'll be as many Availability philosophies as there are people and circumstances though, so each to their own.
I bought 8 boxes of Jacob's biscuits for cheese (800g) in early January on sale, just for the boxes for components. I've eaten so much cheese as a consequence I have reflux. Oh, the sacrifices.
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#188 Reply
Posted by
whoKnows
on 24 Mar, 2018 20:47
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easiest thing is to unsolder basically everything from every board you get
....
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#189 Reply
Posted by
tkamiya
on 06 Jun, 2018 19:38
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I do, contrary to my own advise, buy from China often. But I sometimes end up with parts that aren't usable. One example is a 50 ohm BNC terminator. Ebay seller had this bag of terminators for price less than one would cost from Digikey, so I bought 20. Connection and performance is iffy, measured by me, so I took my hacksaw and found out why.
Inside was a regular 1/4 watt register. The ground side is not soldered anywhere but wire simply folded back and forced into a heatsink look like area.
Put it on a return bridge and wiggle.... or just let it sit. I can see reflection changing wildly. Basically unusable.
So I have a reservation in buying large quantity from unknown sellers. (basically all China sellers) What's critical, I buy from Digikey. Imagine if I bought 100 bag of these?
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#190 Reply
Posted by
ez24
on 07 Jun, 2018 04:32
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So I have a reservation in buying large quantity from unknown sellers. (basically all China sellers) What's critical, I buy from Digikey. Imagine if I bought 100 bag of these?
I agree What I do on Aliexpresss is sort on "Orders" and pick the seller with the most orders. I think this helps
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#191 Reply
Posted by
HB9EVI
on 20 Jul, 2018 19:12
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Isn't actually the worst thing in piling up tons of compenents the fact, that whenever you have an idea and want start from the scratch a new project, you realize, that this is missing and that is missing - and the more often that happens, the more you start thinking, it might actually be a good idea to have a proper stockage of "&+°?$.
So there you go, starting to buy the complete set of E24 1% resistors in through hole and today in SMD too, you buy caps in ceramic, foil and electrolyte, every kind of bjt and fets, opamps, logics, mcus and like me RF parts too. In the end you have the lab full with drawer compartments and boxes - and, with the next brilliant idea you sit down at the bench and realize, that half of the needed components are missing.
It simply never ends
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#192 Reply
Posted by
Pirateguy
on 24 Oct, 2018 12:01
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i like to buy what i need in greater numbers then i need it cuz once i have some experience using
a component, that's what ill likely try to use first in future experiments.
also i find i kind of have 2 modes of shopping:
i either buy components with a vague idea of what i need, for the purpose of experimenting, and with an eye on future projects.
meaning i look for versatile things that if it doesn't work for my intended purpose, are likely to be useful somewhere else.
or i have finished some project and i buy a very specific list of components to build the final version.
as a result i now have a fair selection of stuff to experiment with, and the only stuff i have now that i seem unlikely
to use is a bunch of 74 series logic i once bought for B.E.A.M. robotics, which i lost interest in a while ago.
(i could never think of anything interesting i might make a robot do)
anyway what i really wanted to say is:
NOW is the time to get cheap crap from china off ebay and amazon etc.
with trump putting pressure on china and trying to stop them from plagiarizing n stuff,
it is quite possible that chinese electronics are going to stop being so cheap in the near future.
i dunno much about politics and the economy n stuff, but maybe we need to bet getting what we can
while the gettin's hot?
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#193 Reply
Posted by
HB9EVI
on 24 Oct, 2018 12:19
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Well, to be precise - there isn't only crap coming from China; there are very well good deals; e.g. I don't see a reason why to pay 4 CHF for 100 metal film resistors, if can buy the same amount for under one buck in China; the same goes for jellybean components like BC550, NE5532, LM336 a.s.o.
Surely watch out about different deals. I recently got 10pcs. AD8066, which turned out to be clearly fake, absolute trash; on the other side I already bought several AD DDS chips on that way, which all fulfilled specs.
I don't expect too much change on the market, since, let's face it pretty much every company is manufacturing in China; my recently ordered Dell notebook, ordered directly at Dell CH but shipped from China.
Long years plenty of workers in the Americas and Europe got to hear to not be competitive enough with the chinese - so there we are now, there will be no rollback of that trend, whatever any politician in those countries is telling now - let's not forget - it is Corporate America and Corporate Europe making the essential political decisions - not us, nor the politicians we vote for - they just do what corporate lobbyists tell them.
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#194 Reply
Posted by
Pirateguy
on 26 Oct, 2018 04:37
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well i say 'crap' lovingly
as for politics, 2 years ago i would have agreed, but something is happening right now
and i am not placing any bets.
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#195 Reply
Posted by
HB9EVI
on 26 Oct, 2018 06:48
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Well, we all don't know in the end...
for the first I'm much more bothered by the new swiss VAT-regulation starting 01/01/2019 reducing the tax-free import limit from 65CHF to 5CHF goods value only.
That wouldn't really be a big deal since we just have a VAT of 7,7% - the real deal is Swiss Post charging incredible high customs handling fees on top of the VAT - that really sucks!
So right now I'm vigorously stocking up piles before 2019 arrives
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#196 Reply
Posted by
AngraMelo
on 12 Dec, 2018 12:00
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Reading you guys "talk" and remembering the days I used to live in the US it makes perfect sense.
Now that I live in Brazil it is border line ridiculous.
There are NO Digikey/Mouser type of sellers here. Forget about the "new" or high end stuff. If you want that you will need to order from the US and pay an INSANE shipping cost and nearly twice the price of your order in taxes.
Now for the fun part. The Chinese do not offer free shipping for Brazil, even worse, 90% of the sellers stack the shipping price for each item. For ex: Seller X sells 7805 and charges 10.50 for shipping. If you want their 7805 and the 317`s you will pay the price of the goods PLUS 10.50 PLUS 10.50 even though they are sending on a single package.
You guys complain about ebay being flooded with fake parts? Our eBay (mercadolivre) is ONLY fake parts.
We have NO factories manufacturing semi conductors so everything is imported
The mail service in Brazil charges a standard value OVER the shipping you already paid. So for every package that comes through the mail (international ones) you pay the regular shipping fee PLUS around $4 (R$15 our currency is called Real) PER package.
Also, they do not alert you that you have a package so you have to manually input the tracking on their website, hope they can track it, then keep looking to see when it arrives here, after that wait for them to tell you to pay their fee only THEN it gets sent to you home. If you dont keep an eye, after 30 days they send it back to the sender and no one is the wiser.
Ok
After all this BS
This is what I do:
Resistors and electro caps are easy to get. So I order plenty.
Now I make a list of the most used semiconductors.
I buy lots of them from China from the few sellers that dont want to rip me off with the shipping fees.
Every month I start making a list of things to buy and add them to the cart on Aliexpress.
Pull the trigger at the beginning of the next month
So then I wait 2 months
To fix the things I bought the parts for.
Crazy, isnt it?
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brazillian here, its very hard to get stuff down here in the jungle. The scanning fee is only for packages declared over 50USD, so I keep my orders below that. Also digikey delivers here, i just have no idea about the shipping and i think taxing would be pretty much a lucky dip. So i buy in bulk, 50 dollarydoos at a time. It's christmas year round! I'm starting my inventory by just typing "(component name) kit" into aliexpress and sifting through stuff. I just took delivery this morning of my first few packagings (its a christmas miracle!). Also helps to be a bit of a vulture and get stuff from old electronics, I asked people to hold back on chucking some stuff in the bin and give them to me instead
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I started out as a beginner buying 3mm led kit, 5mm led kit 1/2 watt resistor kit, 1/4 watt resistor kit, small electrolytic kit, cermanic caps kit, zener kit, 1 package of (100x) 1n418, a few lm7812 and a few 7805, a few ne555 timers, lm358,lm386,4017, lm324, ua741, 8 pin dip socket, 14 pin dip socket, 16 pin dip socket nylon stand offs, brass standoffs, heat sinks kit i made myself, heat shrink kit, dupount connectors kit, header pin kit, breadboard jumper wire kit, rectifier diode kit 1n4001-7. various transistors i bought in sets of 100.
I have a long skinny plastic bin for solder pulls(used parts i pulled).
I store all motors, transformers, and larger items in plastic bags in a box under my bench. I literally have 1 quart size bag of every color wire i have pulled from scraps separated by color.
When I buy components i always by 100 or more. When I replace resistors etc, i buy 100 or more of that value. Same with leds or anything else small. Larger stuff like transformers i usually only buy one or two. Large caps i buy about 4 or so of each. Case fans, fuses etc about 4-6 of each. I 3D print most of my storage boxes, but i have found floppy disk boxes and recipe card boxes from goodwill useful as well.
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#199 Reply
Posted by
boffin
on 27 Aug, 2019 22:26
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I 3D print most of my storage boxes, but i have found floppy disk boxes and recipe card boxes from goodwill useful as well.
I'm a huge fan of cardboard bin boxes. Available from any warehouse supply/shipping company for little money. Available in standard sizes, fit easily onto cheap shelving, and a big flat surface to put labels or just write on.