What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

MDeGrauw — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 17:26:21 GMT

Hmmm some 1702 EPROM always come in handy and most don't know how to use this type.

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

hugohu — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:30:01 GMT

That's sad. Would you like a free 555 IC with free shipping to anywhere in the United States?

Anyways.

I need lots of jumper wires. They tend to get lost easily. Should invest in some 22AWG wire.

Microcontrollers. The heart and soul. SBCs too.

Soldering iron and accessories.

Breadboards. These aren't all that useful but ok

LCDs and other displays. Any display. I like making portable stuff that don't ever leave the house.

Batteries. I have some lithium batteries I never use.

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

rsc — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 19:13:25 GMT

Electronics "Kit", ha

Come back when you want to know how many rooms full of electronics "Bins/boxes/crates" are required to do a job.

[View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-772ea455-24e2-4316-a303-4abe949d6ca2/contentimage_5F00_938.png:16:16]

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

aspork42 — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 03:55:45 GMT

For prototyping and breadboarding, it is different than making pcbs. So through hole is more important to me than smt variants. It is hard to argue in my opinion against an array of Arduinos/ esp8266 and Raspberry Pi. I had something two weeks ago and I was able to pull a Pi out of “inventory” to flash a special program on. The arduino makes it so dead simple to talk to sensors for experimenting; and there are 5v and 3.3v variants. I get the appeal of using 555 timers but running “blink” on arduino is faster and gives you more options for hooking up sensors and getting feedback from the serial port.

Double sided perfboard is a must for moving beyond the breadboard.

Buffers, transistors, and Optoisolators are a must for dealing with different voltage levels. I also keep relays in stock for simple projects.

I would also add that just being a general hoarder and not too proud to pull stuff from the dumpster is a great way to build up inventory, and also a great way to trace circuits and look up data sheets to learn about components. I’m still using stuff I pulled from E-waste 10-15 years ago on new projects.

I just ordered “all” the jumper wires from AliExpress. 10,20,30 cm with m/m, m/f, and f/f.

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

zabari_saad — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 20:22:30 GMT

The most important components are on my kit are :

The passive components :

resistor mainly 150R,270R , 330R, 1K, 2.2K , 5.1K , 10K
Potentiometer 10K and 100K
Ceramic capacitor less than 1UF and electrolytic specially 4.7UF , 10UF,2.2UF, 47 UF

Active components :

Diode 1N4XX series and 1N4148
LED 5mù and 3mm
7 segments display

Switch and push buttons

LCD and LED Matrix

TTL IC like 74ls47 74CHT153

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

Gough Lui — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 08:02:02 GMT

What are the top 5-10 parts you keep your electronics kit?

* Resistors (including precision trimpots)

* Capacitors (all sorts)

* Switches, Relays

* Logic-Level N-channel MOSFETs

* 3-terminal Linear Regulators

* 2.54mm Header Pins & Jumper Wires

* 4mm Banana Plugs & Sockets

* Arduino (Uno, Leonardo) and/or ESP8266-based equivalent (Adafruit Feather Huzzah, NodeMCU Amica, WeMos)

* HD44780-compatible Character LCD (16x2, 20x2 or 20x4)

* I2C Sensors (BME280 Temp/Press, MMA8451 Accelerom, etc)

What electronics consumables do you keep on-hand?

* Crimp Terminals

* Heatshrink

* Electrical Tape

* Isopropyl Alcohol

* Paper Towel

* Solder

* Desoldering Braid

* Flux Pen

* Vero/Strip Board

* Fuses (M205, 3AG in various ratings)

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

babint — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 06:13:11 GMT

You can do a lot with a LED and I have carried a few LEDs in my pocket before at conferences and helped people check that a coin cell battery was dead or that a pin on an IC didn't actually having power to it (no MM) or even polarity. I try to squeeze a few in anything I have.

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

jkittle99 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 04:33:11 GMT

Everybody needs the 741 op amp in their bin [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-772ea455-24e2-4316-a303-4abe949d6ca2/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

happylittlepcbs — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 01:21:31 GMT

I think SMD 3V3 regs (like the '1117) are the thing that I grab for the most when throwing together a 'quick' project. I also love to have USB connectors, barrel jacks, terminal blocks, headers, and other connectivity stuff.

I had the good fortune of garbage-picking reels from the work dumpster, especially since we've phased out 0603 largely for 0402, but I still use mostly 0603 on personal projects, so I have plenty of parts. I also came by some ancient bins that happen to be the right size for reels, wish I could find more. The most pulled reels are 10ks, 0-ohms, 0.1u caps, and 10u caps.

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x284/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-772ea455-24e2-4316-a303-4abe949d6ca2/8306.contentimage_5F00_192025.jpg:620:284]

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

genebren — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 14:00:47 GMT

There are a lot of good idea here.

On by list would also be ATmega328PB. Maybe it goes back to my software background, but I find that every project needs a microprocessor. I have used 100+ of these parts and just had to restock my supply with another 100.

Other items on my essentials list:

USB connector
FT230XS-R (USB to serial)
LEDs
5V regulator (AP2210K-5.0)
3.3V regulator (AP2210K-3.3)
Li-Ion charger (MCP73881)
small tactile pushbuttons

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

cstanton — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 13:37:50 GMT

I often do a lot of breadboard work, so what I find useful are those 'barrel connector' or 'usb connector' to breadboard breakout/adapter boards you can get that put power on the breadboard rails from whatever your input is.

I'm also surprised you didn't mention LEDs or Diodes, often a simple way to check that something is working is to stick an LED in the circuit, and diodes I mainly use when I have motors involved.

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

herr_brain — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 02:47:26 GMT

I'll leave the passive components to other people. Here are a few things I recommend...

TLC555 (or another CMOS 555 variant)
TL072 or TL082 op-amps: these are JFET-input op-amps that offer acceptable performance for audio and some sensor applications. Just be aware of the power supply requirements and input common-mode range.
LM324 op-amp: a fairly old op-amp, but it works across a wide range of voltages (both dual- and single-rail). I generally recommend choosing an op-amp based on project requirements. It's extremely difficult to get one
LM339 open-drain low speed quad comparator
TL431 adjustable shunt voltage reference (basically an adjustable Zener with much better regulation and lower operating current than an actual Zener diode)
LM317 adjustable voltage regulator and a few LM78xx fixed regulators

2N3904 and 2N3906 NPN and PNP transistors
PN2222A NPN transistors (higher power than the 2N3904)
BAT54S dual Schottky barrier diodes: useful for digital input protection, SOT-23 package
2N7000 N-channel MOSFET

74AHCT125 quad tri-state buffers for logic level translation
74LVC1G99 multi-function logic gate: super useful since you don't have to buy a bunch of different logic gates, but only available in SMD packages
74AHC595 8-bit shift register: SPI-compatible interface
0.1in headers: get regular, long, and right angle male; regular and long female

I recommend getting AHC or LVC instead of LV (TTL) or HC logic families:

AHC is significantly faster than HC, but the transitions are rate limited to in order to prevent the ground bounce issues
Higher drive current
It supports down-translation (3.3V supply with 5V-tolerant inputs)
LVC is similar to AHC, but is optimized for 3.3V operation and is faster than AHC; good if you are doing a PCB but on the fast end for breadboarding.

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

Jan Cumps — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 19:14:44 GMT

Almost nothing in my case:

Through-hole:

330R, 1K and 10K resistors, trimpots

A few transistors and opamps, generic

Some capacitors, a red led and a button

A set of cement 0R1 and 1R resistors.

Copper clad and other bulk proto pcb

No 555. For prototyping it's easier to program a microcontroller kit.

No logic ICs. I use an fpga kit for prototyping logic

I do have more parts. Mainly SMD. They are leftovers from building designs.

I found that recycling parts takes a lot of work and that most components then sit in storage forever.

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

colporteur — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 17:24:24 GMT

I like the initial list.

After closing my eyes and imagining a project, some items I found conspicuous by there absence were noted by other response with the exception of :

600Ohm resistor. (old audio guy 0dBm)

A couple of N-Channel FET IRFZ44N
A few 2N2222 transistors ( do they still make this old faithful?)
assortment of switches N.O. & N.C. single and double pole and throw

spiral ring note pad & pencil
alligator clip leads
a sharp, clean-jaws (the jaws align) set of side cutters that cut flush. No one has used them to cut #10 solid wire and then wonder why the don't work on PCB bench:)
micro screwdriver set.

James,

[mention:57a79c8ceae84c06b59d42e67a0ded50:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] if you are looking for an individual to test such a kit, I offer my services and will agree to pay for shipping[View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-772ea455-24e2-4316-a303-4abe949d6ca2/contentimage_5F00_2516.png:16:16]

RE: What are the most important parts to have in your electronics kit?

dubbie — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:07:05 GMT

I have been retired nearly three years now and doing my electronics for fun on Element14. During this three year period I have not purchased a single capacitor (apart from to Supercapacitors to use as power storage), or inductors, or diodes (although I did purchase a box of small LEDs of different colours to make a grid display for aE14 Project14 competition. I am currently thinking of purchasing some Zener diodes to provide some Nano inputs from over-voltages but that's it.

So having thought about the bits I consider important it is probably

micro servo motors (180 degrees)

micro servo motors (continuous rotation)

small yet powerful DC motors

Nano

Hookup wires

For none electronic bits I would say

solder

plastic micrometer (manual - no batteries)

wire strippers

breadboard

3D printer

Dubbie