Electrical Component Kit

[John Gutmann]

i am good at electrical stuff like desgining circuits and all that but I am also very good at bread boarding but i don't get to do too much of it on the account of me not having the right parts. So i decided i was gonna make and electrical component kit for myself so i dont gotta repeatedly order things from places that have a manditory 6$ ordering fee. so i would like to know from everyone what things I should order in terms of any kind of components.

i already have in mind:
And gate
Or gate
inverter
Nand gate
Nor gate
Xor gate
Xnor gate
resistors
capacitors( should i get very small sizes like in mylar?)
LEDs
LED displays
Speaker(already have like 9)
7805 (TO-220 package) (does anyone know any other power regulators i can use in the 7805's place or that could be of use?)
and umm.... anything you wanna add
also if you would like to add anything that we could put in if someone were to do this as a team that would also be helpful

[sciguy125]

What's your price range?

Your list seems to indicate that you will be doing digital. In addition to the gates, there's some higher level digital stuff you might find interesting (flip-flops, mux/demux, counters...). Are you considering doing some analog work at some point? If so, you might want to consider some analog ICs, particularly op-amps. Analog would go nicely with your speakers.

You also didn't mention anything about tools. Are you already outfitted for electronics work?

[MikeDubreuil]

I would recommend a 555 timer IC. More info.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

555 Timers

Edit: Mike beat me to it by about 5 seconds. Oops.

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

...i already have in mind:
And gate
Or gate
inverter
Nand gate
Nor gate
Xor gate
Xnor gate...

Did you know that each of these gates can be constructed from a NAND gate(s)? Also, you might consider looking into a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development board like this one and learning a Hardware Description Language (HDL) like VHDL or Verilog.

-Kevin

[BrianBSL]

For my various ECE classes, I've had to buy 2 different kits - one was the development board Kevin posted a link to and the other was one containing resistors all the way from 10 ohms to 10 Mega-Ohms, along with caps from 5 pF to 300uF, various IC's including op amps, 555 timers, simple gates, LED's, pots, various transistors and regulators, a breadboard and a wire kit for it. Its very useful, but I can't say that I would have been tempted to spend $80 on it myself if I wasn't forced to get it for the class. Its made by this company - http://www.esssales.com/esssales/custom-lab-kits.html but the parts are custom ordered to what WPI wanted for their classes. The FPGA board Kevin posted a link to is extremely useful, because of the nature of FPGA's you are not limited by specific "hardware layers" (not sure if that is the right word really, but you are not limited to an RS-232 serial port or ethernet port), you can implement anything on it until you run out of logic space.

[John Gutmann]

o yeah i forgot to include alot of simple stuff like the 555, fliop flips, latches, and pots.

[Sparks333]

All I can say is get a very, very wide variety of resistors. I do the same sort of thing, and I am always using resistors, and some of the time, I need a specific resistance, and its very handy to have the right one lying around.
Oh, and spare wire. It's your friend. I also keep other things in there, such as hex inverters, shift registers, and 5v regulators (even a servo or two if I am working with that sort of thing) but definitely resistors.

Sparks

[sciguy125]

I forgot to mention that Mouser has component kits. I think that the 5% carbon film resistor kits are in the $20 range. There are also kits for inductors, capacitors, transistors, diodes, connectors, and some other things.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Each designer has a their own list of stuff. Since mine is mostly analog...
a handful of NE5534 OpAmps
LM317 Voltage regulators (they can be programmed for different outputs with two resistors)
a handfull of electrolytic caps, 10, 100, 500 mfd and some .01 .1 ceramic caps
A nice bench power supply, either buy or build, two outputs, 0-15 volts @1 amp at least.
Can never have enough push button switches
A nice Fluke VOM, spend the money you will use it for the rest of your life.
Catalogs and data sheets if you can get them.
Load up on 1N4148 diodes they are cheap
1N4001 diodes if you plan on doing much in power supply design
A nice drawer cabinet to put everything in. If you can't find it you will never use it.