What's in an electronics hobbyist's toolbox?

yungman

If you cannot find a used one in surplus store, you can check ebay or amazon. I just got a function generator used for $100, it is up to 3MHz sine, square, pulse, triangle etc. It even has TTL output.

Spend some effort to look for an electronics surplus store, you're going to have fun in it if you can find one. I am lucky living in the Silicon Valley, there are a few. They have all sort of cables, wires, connectors, all resistors, caps transistors................I can stay there for hours!!!!

I just went on ebay for you, this is exactly what I have and I am happy with it. I tend to stay with Tektronics or other big brands like HP. There is a reason they are the industry standard at least for these kind of old analog scope. They almost never die. I had mine for like 20 years.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=....c0.m270.l1313

If mine konk out on me, I'll buy another one in a heart beat.

Also here's some of the function generator in the price range of $100 to $160

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=....c0.m270.l1313


These might look very cheap, BUT I am born cheap!!!!

Just don't be cheap on the cutter, stripper and soldering iron. Get the Xcelite brand hand tools and at least....at least a Weller solder station. These are bread and butter. There are always newer scopes and generators coming out and the used ones get pushed into the used market.

Oh, I almost forgot, I don't know your age, but I have problem read small parts, I love to have a magnifying lamp. But as usual I born cheap, so instead I got the +3 reading glasses instead from the drug store!!!

berkeman

This is good advice in general, IMO. Even with high-quality suppliers, if you are taking resistors (or other components) out of supply drawers as you kit for your prototype, you should check the values of the parts (both via the markings/color codes and by testing them). I've had one time where a nearby-value resistor got dropped into the wrong bin by somebody, and that confused my bring-up of a prototype circuit. And another time that I noticed that a technician had refilled a resistor bin with the wrong value resistors (missed the "k" in the value) -- luckily I noticed that problem visually instead of trying to use those parts...

turbo

When Leo Fender was in business, he was not the type to keep stocked up on resistors, capacitors, etc. Run out of one value? Use components that would "work". I have rebuilt a lot of Fender amps and have found factory-installed components that were "off". This was most prevalent in the late "blackface" and early ""silverface" years IME, but there could be problems in the tweed series, as well. If you have a nice-looking old tube amp that just sounds harsh, blatty, or flat, start tearing that rascal down. Chances are, Leo and company were running out of components and started swapping in others.

yungman

I am even talking about resistor from HK that said 68.1K and measured 75K.....every one of them!!!! But they are so cheap that make measuring it worth while. You can go broke buying a kid from Digikey!!!!.

Dmytry

Ya. Can't stress it enough - measure the stuff, sometimes something gets mis marked. I got resistor kit in pieces of tape (as for feeding into machine), 50 values each with 50 resistors, and I measured one each value and wrote it on tape itself. I still can't quickly read the colour codes, especially as the paints vary and if i didn't see full paint set they used the very dull orange can either be orange or brown, etc. Heh.

Re: when you don't have correct part, you can just use several resistors in series/parallel. Ditto for power ratings. I recommend using in series as this increases max. voltage (resistors can arc over). Also, in many places the value itself is picked semi arbitrarily (and can be substantially different either way), but needs to be equal, or correctly related to another value.

Studiot

However you would need a 40 tonne artic to carry all the stuff mentioned here, rather than a toolbox.



We seem to be continuing this older thread.

http://physicsforums.com/showthread....t=meter&page=2

One cheap sig gen solution in post#23
Meter solutions in post#5
Attached is a useful older portable audio and telephone test set pic. It incorporates sources, load and metering.

Attached Thumbnails

 

jim hardy

Simpson 260 forever

i like my HP-180 o'scope

and a DOS PC with DCCAD for printed cuircuit boards and QBASIC for computing.

sandy.bridge

Hey guys,
Do any of you guys know of any "assortment" packages for circuit elements? For example, an assortment package of diodes, transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc? I want to get a vast variety to play with, but everywhere I go is about singles, and I'd prefer to not have to sift through a list of 200 transistors to pick ten!
Thanks

Bassalisk

I don't think thats such a good idea. Chances are, that the thing you are building, needs components that not usually(Murphy's law) in that assortment kit.

Best bet is that you pick a project, and buy components for that project. But buy 2-3 more than you need, unless its expensive, that is how you build your own assortment kit.

At least I did.

And I was on 10 dollars away from buying those assortment kits. I am glad that I didn't. But still, if you still want it:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electronic...item3f12e68624

or pick your own poison:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Electrical...p3286.c0.m1538

Enjoy

sandy.bridge

Going to be finalizing my order for tomorrow. Is a 10MHz function generator suffice? For a beginner, that is.

yungman

It depends on what you are working on. I work on music electronics, I only have a 2MHz generator for $99 as I born cheap!!!! Make sure to get one with square, triangular, pulse, DC offset etc.

ardalan

Oh,Very Good Topic.
Magnifying glasses,pliers(very Important Because I had Bad Situation Without Pliers),Nut,screw and screwdriver and etc.

Got Dzel

ElectroDroid. It's an app for your Android phone that puts together a LOT of very useful tools and information for the electronics geek. I downloaded it for free but ended up donating to the developer just because it is worth it.

Here are just a few of the tools it has:

Under the "Calculators" tab:
resistor color code
smd resistor code
inductor code
ohm's law
reactance resonance calculator
filters
every circuit simulator
voltage divider
resistor ratio
resistor value/series/parallel
cap charge
op amps
lm 317 calc
ne555 calc
power dissapation
battery life calc
PCB trace width calc
voltage drop calc
AND MORE!

It also has Pin Out chart for a PILE of common connections:
USB
Serial
Parallel
Ethernet
RJ
SCART
DVI HDMI
S-VIdeo
VESA
RCA
OBD-II
SD Card
...just to name a few

It also has a lot of resources like microcontroller pinouts, amp tables, schematic symbols (in case you forget what that weird one is!) logic gates, batteries and a pile more.

Look, I can't highly recommend it enough. It's really a sweet app!

phinds

I find it REALLY odd that no one mentioned electrical tape.

Also, I'd add shrink-tubing

dlgoff

Electrical tape
Shrink tubing

phinds

Ah Ha. I'm blind. Yep, that the reason. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

turbo

I spent my time rebuilding old tube amps. No need for tape or shrink tubing. Everything in there was bare. Solid wire soldered to tag-board.

I actually have tape and shrink tubing, but for house-wiring, not for electronics.