Basic compontents you should always have on hand?

[DirtyLude]

I used to buy assorted packs when I started out, and it's a good way to get a bunch of values, but I would never buy an assorted pack of anything right now. I know what values for components I need, and I buy them. Getting them for half price and only being able to use half of the product or less is not a bargain for me, and I already have enough stuff that I will never likely use.

 

[3v0]

I used to buy assorted packs when I started out, and it's a good way to get a bunch of values, but I would never buy an assorted pack of anything right now.

I agree. Also make sure when ordering an assortment that the seller list the actual values. Do not trust "popular values" to be what you expected.

 

[AtomSoft]

it wierd i have used allmost every value on that list for some reason lol

 

[thatguy39]

Learned alot here.

 

[duffy]

Let me see you breadboard a SMD lol ...

Not a problem.

 

[3v0]

It is easier for me to make the PCB then point to point wire a board. I work out the iffy bits on a solderless breadboard and then make a PCB.

Changing SMD resistors and caps is quicker then the non-SMD ones. If there is enough solder on both ends you can wipe em off the board in a single swipe of the iron with no damage to part or PCB.

To make changes I add a bit of grass to the early PCBs. If the changes start to get ugly I make another PCB.

The schematic capture proived by Eagle helps.

 

[AtomSoft]

ok duffy i never said its impossible just stating this:

How long would it take you to push a AXIAL resistor or DIP IC into a bread board? 2 seconds?

How long would it take you to make a board solder the SMD resistor or SMD IC onto it and then wire it to the bread board. The whole thing is a waste of money and time.

Its awesome for final testing like after breadboarding and working well then you can SMD it and have a nice small prototype.

 

[duffy]

No, not a waste of money and time. SMT components are cheap. If you are going to build a small device anyway, starting out with a through-hole just means you're doing it all TWICE.

Yeah, you always screw something up - but that's a fraction of the time to fix as to compared to building it twice.

 

[AtomSoft]

Ok you say its cheap and its not a waste. Think about this...

I dont pay for water or electricity in my apartment. Its all included ...

does that mean i should leave the water running and leave the lights on all day?

 

[audioguru]

A pcb makes the wiring twice.
I use stripboard and the strips are already half of the wiring of a pcb and the parts plus a few jumper wires make the other half. Easy. No intermittent contacts and no millions of antennas of a breadboard.

 

[DirtyLude]

That's some crazy perfboard SMD work. Never thought I'd see that. I could have used that technique when I started and was trying to figure out what to do with the SOIC chips I had.

I personally use leaded components very little in breadboarding myself. It takes so little time for me to make up a single sided board, everything is all made with modules and I just wire them together on the breadboard. This way I have permanent breadboarding modules that I can plug together how I need them if I want to try something different.

I'm going to be trying out some ARM7 stuff, so I'll just make an ARM7 controller board, plug it in and try it out with the other peripheral modules I have.

Like this:
**broken link removed**

 

[Hero999]

Strip-board is suitable for some SMT components: 805 components can easily fit in-between the tracks and SOT-23 is also easy to work with.

 

[duffy]

I like those ARM processors, I'm goofing around with a COG board right now. It's amazing the amount of I/O this $20 chip has... camera inteface, lcd, keyboard, mouse, USB, serial, audio, SD memory...

Here's another suface mount gadget I built, this is a switching regulator in a little wheeled robot -

 

[3v0]

How long would it take you to push a AXIAL resistor or DIP IC into a bread board? 2 seconds?

If you worked with SMD PCB prototypes for a while you would think differently. I now use SMD resistors and caps on PCBs with DIP IC's.

With an 805 resistor I dab a bit of solder on one end of the resistor, hold it in place with the tweezer and reheat the solder to attach it. Solder the 2nd side and it is done. It comes off even faster.

With paste it is much faster. Spread paste over entire PCB using stencil, place parts. Heat on cook top for 2 minutes.

Also when you start with a PCB by the time you get to the final product you have a tested layout. You do not have to start layout from scratch after finishing the point to point or solderless breadboard prototype.

EDIT: I am doing more work with solderless breadboards because of school. The kids do their projects on a SBB. I make one first to work out parts placement and bugs. I would much rather do the work on a PCB with SMD parts.

 

[AtomSoft]

ok ok this is getting out of hand. This isnt even our topic lol lets just say its a point of interest. I prefer to test out and dev on a breadboard using traditional parts. Your choice seems to keep you happy so i guess its good for you. I like my choice. If i MUST use a smd part then i would Adapt it to the SBB then. Otherwise its DIP for me.

Once done with DEV the SMD is a option i might choose depending on usage.

I dont do my own boards (ETCH n stuff) as of yet. I have in the past but when i get back to it... ill be sure to do tons of SMD tho. I always liked the footprints for these tiny buggers

 

[duffy]

Same here, you don't have to crimp and cut and flip the board over.

 

[AtomSoft]

You do have to create a custom board tho. My income tax forms came in yesterday and are filed already. In about 2-3 weeks i get paid. When that happens i am buying a nice kit from MG Chemicals.

The Photo Fabrication Kit. and some extra boards.

Ill be sure to make a complete SMD board for starters just to test how small a trace i can do. And to verify the quality.

Where do you buy SMD stuff from? I think Newark is cool mainly because it ships fast and is nice priced and the navigation and images are 100% the way i want to shop.

 

[duffy]

Try Mouser and Digikey. Newark's expensive. You can get a HUNDRED smt resistors for less than a dollar!
**broken link removed**

 

[AtomSoft]

Nice! So is there a standard on sizes? Like i know they come different sizes.

Heh 4.7k : **broken link removed**

I use 4.7k so much its not funny lol. Ill be sure to get about 100 of each common values i use like

47 Ohm
330 Ohm
1k Ohm
2.2k Ohm
4.7k Ohm

Those are what i use most lol Then to buy capacitors next.

I cant find cheap capacitors without a large quantity

 

[duffy]

Yes, a "1206" means it's .012" x .006". That's a good size for working with tweezers and hand soldering. The wattage is limited by the size, same as other resistors.