Hi fellows! I am kinda new here. I am working towards a degree in Computer
& Electronics Engineering Technology (CEET). I am close to 6 months away from graduation but feel I have not used anything I have learned. Other than the usual Lectures and labs I have no experience in building circuits. I did manage to build a simple light detector which was tons of fun to do. Anyways the point of this message is to get some advice. I want to start some projects or a project. I need to order parts due to all I have is the school issued tools and parts which isnt much. Where is a good place to order components (I heard ebay is one)? I have about $60 to spend. Can you guys suggest some begginer circuits(Some fun ones)? Thanks.....

 

Hi everyone, I am new on your forum www.electro-tech-online.com, I've been reading it for a while, and decided to try my luck asking a few questions
Who can tell me more in detail about the "http://www.electro-tech-online.com/". Please Mail Me..!!
Best Regards..!!

 

I personally like robots. It's too bad you are so close to graduation...you could have joined one of the student design projects at the university.

I use Digikey mostly; for electronics components anyways. I get robot specific boards and stuff from other suppliers. Mouser has better prices though but their shipping is higher so I only order "supplies" like wire and contacts and stuff that comes in huge amounts from them. www.glitchbuster.com sells basic components like PICs, crystals, transistors, diodes, caps, resistors and stuff like that for very cheap in small quantities.

I hope you already have a soldering iron or something. Why don't you use the $60 to try to retrofit a toaster oven to become a reflow oven (for soldering if you didn't know. Use Google)? Not the most flashy thing, but it's a good start and you can use it to build your other surface mount projects.

If you don't like that, have you ever considered building beam robots? Depending on where you start, you can build them yourself from scratch for very cheap or you can buy kits and figure out how they work and start from there. Check out www.solarbotics.com

 

You don't say where in the world you are so any advice I give will be US centric. I think the first thing you should build is a power supply. You can get parts from a number of different mail order places such as Digi-Key, Mouser, Jameco and others.

Tools:
1/4" drill and drill bits
1 Slotted and 1 Philips Screwdriver
Needle nose pliers
Diagonal side cutters
1/4" nut driver
Soldering Pencil
Solder

That's about the bare minimum
Good Luck

 

I am going to a Tech school in TX and not a university. Thanks for the input thus far

 

Got everything you listed.

 

I've used Digi-key a few times. Just don't order out of stock items, they'll say they're getting some next week for about 6 months straight. Anything really in stock ships fast. They stock all common IC's and more buttons dials knobs and switches than you could possibly want, including project housings PCB making materials... whatever. Their catalogs are close to 2000 pages and available in PDF format.

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The stuff from Digikey ships too fast for me since I tend to make 50 changes to my order while I'm waiting for the last item to come in...it almost always ships too early before I can make that 51st change

 

LOL Never heard some one complain about good service. Thanks for the input. How about the begginer circuits? I know I can look it up on google or whatever. What I want is personal recommendations on fun or interesting circuits. I need this so I know what parts to order.

 

I would recommend you build something you can actually use. That way you can stay motivated. Checkout this site for some project ideas:
http://www.electronics-lab.com/
Also don't forget the projects on this site:
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/electronic-projects/

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--- The days of the digital watch are numbered. ---

 

You could do something simple such as an electronic dice, a counter or a keypad lock, etc.

You will find examples if you search this forum.

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Len

 

I've learned quite a bit just by taking apart old electronics that were lying around the house and reusing some of those components. Its getting more difficult though since everything is using surface mount these days.

Be careful in tinkering with electronics, you are quite liable to get addicted to it.

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Jeff
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

Thanks for the replies jrz126 and ljcox. I completed the dice project last night and am about to finish my first FM Transmitor. Oh and yes this stuff is addicting!!!!

 

Surface mount isn't so bad just requires a little bit more skill to manipulate. Considering that a lot of new design IC's are available only in surface mount packages, or at least very hard to get in DIP get used to it =)

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