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

[armandine2]

You can also rat old machinery and stuff for good bits.  For example, I ratted a huge photocopier today.  I scored a 5V 20A power supply, a 24V 31A power supply (has M6 bolts for output terminals!),  various beautiful DC motors with shaft encoders and a great big pile of driver boards.  No doubt there's good bits in all that crap.  I might start a thread about it.

For some bizarre reason I recycled an old fly-tipped flat screen TV this weekend  - not so much salvaged, apart from a few spiders (some de-soldering practice) and a dubious power amp?

[armandine2]

still providing some entertainment

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

At the radio shop we get people dropping off collections of parts, mostly resistors and caps, mostly with leads for thru hole. Lots of gen purpose transistors and fets.
Sometimes entire drawer boxes with parts. Sometimes expensive parts show up like .1% resistors.
Lots of xtals, mostly weird ones though.
They really have little use for these things.
Other radio repair guys have the same experience.
If you have a radio repair shop anywhere near, you might try to see if this is their experience. Look for CB shops also.
I'll bet you that they would let you take a bunch of different parts for a donation of say $5 or $10  I sure would.These guys are too busy to organize the parts and take them to a hamfest or flea market.Sometimes a really good old breadboard shows up and no one has use for. Some of the older ones are very high quality.
Stuff like that.

[Solder_Junkie]

One thing not mentioned by others is to avoid buying semiconductors from China on eBay and similar outlets. There are a lot of fakes out there. Also be wary of electrolytic capacitors, often you need high grade, low ESR types and they aren’t cheap.

Farnell, Mouser, etc. can be surprisingly low cost, providing you reach their minimum order value. They sell genuine parts too…

Over the years we all tend to collect more parts than are easy to keep track of, and no matter how much stock you have, there will always be a need to buy something extra for a project. That’s life.

SJ

[alligatorblues]

I always purchase at least up to the first break point, save items that are in excess of $10ea. I keep everything in the bags, tubes, tapes, etc that they are delivered in, and organize those in boxes, actives, transistors, diodes, electrolytics, other caps, resistors, expensive resistors, inductors and chokes, op amps and regulators, and I have a box of parts just for the Fluke 732b/c. beneath all that are many boxes of obsolete, defective, surplus boards that I haven't gotten to the solder pot. I also hold onto certain transformers.

Then I have hand and power tools, crimp ends, crimp-end bodies. I picked up a defective 732B. All it needed was a wire harness for the battery. I just happen to have all the parts to make that harness, because I've made them before. Then there's salvaged  fasteners. I keep those in small fishing-tackle boxes. I take all the screws out of almost everything headed for salvage pile.

Then I've got cooling fans, heat sinks, power supplies, meters, standards, electrical cords. I've got 48 NEMA-15 outlets ON my racks, which are actually wire shelving. I usually havenwhat I need on hand, but not always.

[armandine2]

SOT-23 testing my scavenged haul of components - only two were transistors, half dozen were not identified, and the majority were various diodes (mostly Zener)

[jeepe]

hi,

I'm sure that many people have done this... but I'll just write it down

I'm only into pedal building, but recently I realized that what I have (of components) is a lot...
so I've built a database... "mysql" -- that is mariadb...
using a linux server... but it can be done on someone's PC too..

it is just a new project, at a very rudimentary level...
but already works great...
.... details, if someone's interested.... ↓
my greatest invention so far is to have different "tables" for different types of parts... resistors, caps, ICs, transistors, pots, jacks...
otherwise the one table would be far to "complex"...

so right now,
when I suddenly decide to build something (simple things, like a Tube Screamer), I'll just go at it...
and when I don't find a cap or resistor of a certain value..
I'll search...
but no longer in my boxes but in the database

scenario #2:
when I decide to build something... and I'm about to place an order to a local store anyhow,
I'll check the pots, for example... in the database...
and check relatively rare values of anything making sure I'll have them at hand...

I'll also check resistors (which I used to always buy, regardless of anything)...

just a few searches, and...
I won't buy everything... and 3x of everything... all the time...
nor will I assume that I already have what I need...

THE RESULT of this can largely differ from person to person...
my hope is that my stash won't grow anymore...
but I'll have what I need when I have that idea to build that (simple) thing..

for professionals, using a database could result in
making precise orders all the time...
that is, limiting the redundance -- like "oh, let me make it 20 or 200, sure what's sure"...

both your orders and your boxes will be streamlined...
and everything under control...

a database and the "user interface" -- a web page in a browser window --- doesn't have to be super fancy...
and if you manage to keep complexity down...
you'll love it...



+1:

another good invention of mine is to indicate the "stash number", which can refer to a box or a room, whatever..
and this will release you from under the requirement to have everything at one place strictly...
you just place a number in the "stash" field, other than 1, and you'll know  where to look
you'll know that when you don't find it, it's not missing, it's just in another box / room / heap...

[nick liu]

My approach, starting about 2 years ago was to get only resistors and capacitors in 0805 SMT kits. 

[nick liu]

And I tend to not use sockets for DIP parts so I can't really re-use them for the next project.

[5U4GB]

I would recommend AliExpress instead of eBay if you are looking for the lowest price and can wait a bit more ( In my experience electronic components are cheaper ~20-50% on AliExpress than eBay, there's a bigger variety, but AliExpress sellers do take time to ship out items, some ship immediately, some after 1-2 weeks).

Just be very careful ordering electrolytics off Aliexpress or eBay sellers in China, you're probably going to end up with Sacons (Suncon namesquatting) or Rulycons (Rubycon namesquatting), one of a million fake Nichicons, or that brand that sounds like Fuiyoh which should be called Haiyaa.

[5U4GB]

You'll never be able to stock ALL parts.

Challenge accepted.

[tridac]

Perhaps many of us started out in school days unsoldering parts from scrap computer boards, or ex mil equipmant. Pro kit does tend to contain higher than average quality parts, such as high stabilty resistors,  tantalum and other expensive or even exotic parts, much of which is reusable. Ebay unused job lots can be usefull and new sets of caps and resistors can provide a wide selection. The sort of parts you will need depends on the sort of work you plan to do, but common parts, resistors, caps, transistors and diodes, opamps etc,  can form the base of a working set. Then, specific items, as projects require them, a few more than you need, to build up a small stock. Takes time to get it all together, but after a year or few, you can end up with a good selection of parts, without always hiving to go out and order stuff. Here, boxes of all sizes, recovered and new parts, that make any what if type project much easier. Don't forget a good quality soldering iron, cutters, pliers, screwdrivers as well, as having the right (or close) tools for the job makes life much easier, improves workflow, and mental state. You'll probably make buying mistakes along the way, but experience will provide sharper focus over time. Electronics here originally, a house and storage full of collected junk, but mainly embedded software for decades now...

[Altair8800]

I know this is an old post... but it is Pinned...

I've had some luck with an Amazon seller that goes by EEEEE (or eeeee.shop ).

They sell Jelly Bean (very common) electronic components (Resistors, LEDs, Diodes, Transistors, Capacitors, ETC.) but they kind of Add Value in that they sell their components in individually closable containers and they have nice color coordinated labels with some useful simple information.  This really helps in the organization of the component parts from the start and they are nice and compact (do not take up too much space).

So if your new and want to quickly get some common circuit components, check them out...

Example below of their component kits.