I’m new to electronics and looking to assemble an array of components and tools for working on and designing electronics & circuits. Something immediately apparent is that all of the widely available kits orient you towards working with microcontrollers and SBCs; these kits are cool, but I want to have a halfway decent understanding of the underlying analog components and circuit design before I go digital.
With that in mind, what should I get? If anyone could specify specifics to look into, I’d really appreciate that! Thanks for the help.
Current list
- A decent breadboard
- Jumper wires
- Multimeter
- Batteries
- Variable Power Supply?
- Assorted resistors (1Ω-?)
- Capacitors (Electrolytic and ceramic?)
- Various ICs?
- Transistors?
- Diodes, probably?
- Potentiometers
I don’t understand the list, the first don’t have a question mark, but then they do. Does that mean that the first items are already in your possession and you imagine needing the rest?
If you have all the stuff on your list, I get a book. Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz is a terrific resource. With that in hand you can start dreaming up projects and realizing them.
If the question mark is the stuff you expect to need, I’d say that a lab power supply is almost a must have. Nothing fancy, something that’ll do 20 or 30V and a few amps, if you’re looking for something a bit more, then same specs but with current limiting. Something like this https://www.reichelt.de/de/en/laboratory-power-supply-0-30-v-0-3-a-risu-compliant-mcp-lbn-303-p324544.html but see if there’s a second hand market for this stuff in your area.
Some basic components kits like a resistor and a capacitor kit. Maybe assorted diodes and transistors. Maybe get some voltage regulators, 7805 7809 and 7812, they can come in handy, when you’ve only got a single output on the psu and need different voltages.
That should be enough for a few months of fun. Next you’ll maybe play with timing and triggers. So a pc scope opamps and some 555s.
Sorry, I should clarify - the list is items I believe I’ll likely need and the question marks indicate that I’m not sure if they’re necessary or that I’m not sure the specifics about what I should get. For example, I’m sure I need resistors, but I’m not sure if I need everything from 1Ω to 1MΩ, or which ICs to get. I was also unsure if I should get a variable power supply. Hopefully that makes more sense?
You have a pretty good list already. There are definitely still electronic component kits out there that are a handful of resistors, capacitors, and transistors of different values and some LEDs. You can also look at the parts in these kits and order them yourself from a place like Digi-key or Mouser, not sure what is available to you. It might save you a couple of bucks.
You probably don’t need a variable power supply, unless you really want one. But you should be fine with a 2 or 3 AA battery holder that has some wire leads you can plug into the breadboard. 10k Ohm potentiometers are the most common and the only kind I think I used in school. You can also look into logic gates (NOT, AND, OR, NAND, XOR) to start getting into the digital side of electronics without a microcontroller. Logic gates are the building blocks behind modern computers. There are IC chips that fit into breadboards in the 74HC Series.
Yeah, I agree. They’ll be able to get things working with AA’s or a 9V, no need for a fancy power supply. If I were them, I might even just pick up a couple of DC power supplies from the thrift store 25 cent bin of assorted cords.
OP, plenty of people donate things like DC power supplies, they are just not adjustable, they are just random chargers and cords they had laying around. You probably already have a couple. You might not be able to produce the 6.176523 V you want right off the bat if you just have a 5V and a 12V power supply, but one of the first things you learn about with analog electronics is voltage dividing, so it’s easy to get what you need.
Also, the kits that come with an arduino or whatever still have the stuff that you’d want. Arduinos are handy, too cause they’ll take analog inputs so you can graph stuff, or do whatever you want with your computer connected to your breadboard.
A power supply is something that a lot of hobbyists will build themselves. It’s very easy to build one with an LM317.
