Starter Components for hobby electronics

[N3rot0xin]

I'll keep this short as I can. Basically I'm looking for a list of basic components for messing around with hobby electronics. I have an arduino mega, breadboard, couple 555 and a parallax propeller I got from a friend. NO idea what I can even do with that yet as its way above me but I digress. Anyways, im curious as to what kinds of basic (caps, resistors, diodes, etc) components I should have on hand for any basic projects. I actually have an assortment box of caps and resistors, but im wondering about other things. Like transistors, diodes, regulators etc. Any suggestions? I'm pretty new into this field but its something I've always wanted to do.

Looking forward to some feed back!

[manikyath]

LEDs are always fun things to mess with, as well as a pack of 1K resistors, whenever i have a project i somehow always can solve it with only 1K resistors.

 

beyond that... it kinda depends on what you're doing.

[GlassBomb]

You can start off with a cheap soldering iron, and a multimeter. I think some hardware stores actually gives away mulimeters for free.

 

Edit: It's Harbor Freight that does it. Check 'em out. It's a really cheap one, but it will do for some entry-level low voltage stuff.

[Unimportant]

Diodes:

1N4148 small signal diode - general purpose.

1N4007 diode - rectifier.

 

Transistor:

BC547/BC557 - small signal, basic switching.

BC337/B327 - Can handle up to 800mA, i like these for driving the common on 7 segment displays.

 

Regulators:

78XX - Where XX is the voltage, for example 7805 is a 5V regulator, i stock some common voltages such as 5 and 12V.

LM317 - Adjustable voltage regulator.

 

Resistors:

A bit of everything in the E12 series goes a long way.

 

Capacitors:

Most common used:

0.1µF (100nF) - Basic filtering, power supply decoupling.

1000µF - Buffering after rectification.

 

If you're going to play with timers like the 555 other capacitor values might be handy but you can always play with the R (resistor value) in the RC to adjust time values. If you want to play around with filters then other capacitor values will quickly become a must.

 

Leds:

LEDS! and some 7 segment displays perhaps ?

 

Pushbuttons and switches:

Because you need input at some point.

 

That's all i can think of atm

[N3rot0xin]

24 minutes ago, Unimportant said:

Diodes:

1N4148 small signal diode - general purpose.

1N4007 diode - rectifier.

 

Transistor:

BC547/BC557 - small signal, basic switching.

BC337/B327 - Can handle up to 800mA, i like these for driving the common on 7 segment displays.

 

Regulators:

78XX - Where XX is the voltage, for example 7805 is a 5V regulator, i stock some common voltages such as 5 and 12V.

LM317 - Adjustable voltage regulator.

 

Resistors:

A bit of everything in the E12 series goes a long way.

 

Capacitors:

Most common used:

0.1µF (100nF) - Basic filtering, power supply decoupling.

1000µF - Buffering after rectification.

 

If you're going to play with timers like the 555 other capacitor values might be handy but you can always play with the R (resistor value) in the RC to adjust time values. If you want to play around with filters then other capacitor values will quickly become a must.

 

Leds:

LEDS! and some 7 segment displays perhaps ?

 

Pushbuttons and switches:

Because you need input at some point.

 

That's all i can think of atm

You sir, are awesome. I hope many google searches land on this specific post for that list.

[N3rot0xin]

37 minutes ago, GlassBomb said:

You can start off with a cheap soldering iron, and a multimeter. I think some hardware stores actually gives away mulimeters for free.

 

Edit: It's Harbor Freight that does it. Check 'em out. It's a really cheap one, but it will do for some entry-level low voltage stuff.

I've got both of those already, and both came from Harbor Freight haha. I replaced my soldering iron with a butane iron as well as another soldering iron. But I've use the multimeter a heck of a lot already. Came in handy when I was sleeving my power supply cables for my pc. Having one of those literally saved me from burning my computer in blue smoke!

 

 

[Lordmac14]

On 9 May 2016 at 3:03 AM, Unimportant said:

Diodes:

1N4148 small signal diode - general purpose.

1N4007 diode - rectifier.

 

Transistor:

BC547/BC557 - small signal, basic switching.

BC337/B327 - Can handle up to 800mA, i like these for driving the common on 7 segment displays.

 

Regulators:

78XX - Where XX is the voltage, for example 7805 is a 5V regulator, i stock some common voltages such as 5 and 12V.

LM317 - Adjustable voltage regulator.

 

Resistors:

A bit of everything in the E12 series goes a long way.

 

Capacitors:

Most common used:

0.1µF (100nF) - Basic filtering, power supply decoupling.

1000µF - Buffering after rectification.

 

If you're going to play with timers like the 555 other capacitor values might be handy but you can always play with the R (resistor value) in the RC to adjust time values. If you want to play around with filters then other capacitor values will quickly become a must.

 

Leds:

LEDS! and some 7 segment displays perhaps ?

 

Pushbuttons and switches:

Because you need input at some point.

 

That's all i can think of atm

A speaker is also is handy for some projects (basic 50mm 8 ohm)

 

You can get mixed packs of caps, resistors, LEDs etc. which are good for building up an inventory

[You_are_a_cunt]

Look for general purpose component kits on sites like Digi Key.

Those usually contain a few of anything you'd most commonly need and might be cheaper than buying them separately

[klh2000]

On 5/9/2016 at 0:51 PM, GlassBomb said:

You can start off with a cheap soldering iron, and a multimeter. I think some hardware stores actually gives away mulimeters for free.

 

Edit: It's Harbor Freight that does it. Check 'em out. It's a really cheap one, but it will do for some entry-level low voltage stuff.

I have a bunch of those meter from horrible freight. I hooked one up to my high voltage capacitor bank, and the meter blew up around 430 volts.

[GlassBomb]

35 minutes ago, klh2000 said:

I have a bunch of those meter from horrible freight. I hooked one up to my high voltage capacitor bank, and the meter blew up around 430 volts.

I would only use one as a first-step into hobby electronics. Rasberry Pi, Arduino, and other small breadboard measurements. I would never, ever use something like these on higher voltage stuff than that.

 

Even less so when this one has little protection if stuff goes wrong. So yeah, for free it's usable within certain limits. And it works, as long as you keep it within those certain limits.

 

If you want to do more serious stuff, then you can just pick up a Fluke 15B+ on eBay for around $80, or there about. Which is a great price for a solid multimeter.

[N3rot0xin]

Yeah I wouldn't use those on any high voltage circuits. They were free / <$10. Definitely not designed for high voltage and would probably get a "Bullshit!" review from EEVBlog. But for low-voltage stuff like Arduino, its perfect.

[klh2000]

1 hour ago, GlassBomb said:

I would only use one as a first-step into hobby electronics. Rasberry Pi, Arduino, and other small breadboard measurements. I would never, ever use something like these on higher voltage stuff than that.

 

Even less so when this one has little protection if stuff goes wrong. So yeah, for free it's usable within certain limits. And it works, as long as you keep it within those certain limits.

 

If you want to do more serious stuff, then you can just pick up a Fluke 15B+ on eBay for around $80, or there about. Which is a great price for a solid multimeter.

I have a fluke 26 iii as my main meter, I was doing a destructive test of the meter from horror fright