Simple Examples of Electronics Aquisition
3 Examples of Sourcing Basic Electronic Parts
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| A strip of RGB style LEDs, 1 |
SITUATION 1:
"We need more color and light in our lives!"
A common project for the modern electronics hobbyist is fun, colorful room lighting. There are many ways to come to a solution for this project, but we will only look at one. You can use a strip of APA102 RGB LEDs controlled by an Arduino to produce a programmatically controlled light sequence to fill a room with lights which might enhance other entertainment or be nice to look at on its own. You will also need an adequate power supply of the appropriate voltage (In the case of most APA102 that will be 5v but be sure to double check. Arduino are most commonly 5v). Be sure to buy a high quality power supply.
You can also commonly find strips such as these available with a controller and power supply if you don't want to have a whole bunch of fun programming your own lights. These controllers tend to not have a wide range of options available for fun light sequences.
The best online locations to purchase goods such as these are likely to be:
1) Amazon.com (A common marketplace for 3rd party vendors to sell goods)
2) Ebay.com (A common marketplace for 3rd party vendors and members of the public to sell goods)
3) Aliexpress.com (A common marketplace for international vendors to sell goods)
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| An example of Conway's Game of Life, 2 |
SITUATION 2:
"I am bored and crave inspiration!"
Another common task the electronics hobbyist might come across is the need to relieve boredom while at the same time possibly educate ones self. The educational electronics kit is a great answer to this problem. A small oscilloscope, a tiny synthesizer, an all LED Conway's game of life, or a components tester are all examples of the fun world of electronics kits. Most of these styles of kits will come with all the components needed for assembly (except for a soldering iron) and if they do not usually they will inform you as to what you need to provide for yourself. Check them out!
Some of the better locations to purchase this style of good are:
1) Adafruit.com (A website devoted to electronics hobbyists and electronics education)
2) Sparkfun.com (A website which is similar to Adafruit but with a somewhat more technical lean)
3) Newark.com (A website that blends industry needs and hobbyist needs)
4) Amazon.com (A common marketplace for 3rd party vendors to sell goods)
5) Ebay.com (A common marketplace for 3rd party vendors and members of the public to sell goods)
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| A circuit board populated with Surface mount components, watch out! , 3 |
SITUATION 3:
"I am desperate for this one component and don't want to wait for shipping!"
This situation may come up frequently until you have accumulated a nice pile of extra bits and bobs and whatnot. You need a capacitor (gosh, only one!) with THESE certain characteristics or you need a voltage regulator YESTERDAY! (so that you can peel back the layers of ignorance and misunderstanding through experiment) BUT your box of spare bits is empty in the spot where that last whatever it is that you need should be. You can salvage electronics components from old circuit boards to fill in the gap! A circuit board is rarely fully damaged (or damaged at all) when the larger machine it is a component to fails. With careful testing and soldering you can retrieve spare bits and upcycle them! When looking at old circuit boards you should lean towards through-hole patterned board and try not to harvest parts which are surface mounted, especially when new to the process. [http://blog.optimumdesign.com/through-hole-vs-surface-mount to tell the parts apart] If you burn or break these old parts its not an issue as they were probably not being useful caged inside a broken thing to begin with! Another consideration is to ensure the capacitors are discharged. Capacitors can hold an electric charge for a long time after the board in question has had electricity removed from it. NEVER work on boards that you do not know the charge status of, especially if you know the board operates directly off of mains voltage. Put the board on your shelf and read about how to properly discharge capacitors.
We will be making a post in the next few weeks about simple desoldering tasks.
Some examples of common day products with usable electronics components in them:
1) Computer motherboards (PC or Apple, but with a lean on boards produced 6+ year ago)
2) Computer Printers (Good for motion parts![gears/ pulleys / linear rods])
In Conclusion:
I hope that this article has inspired you to look further into some of these vendors. There are many fun and interesting things to pursue within an electronics hobby! This barely scratches the surface of the neat things you can do with an interesting and understanding of electronics. Keep an eye out for posts in the future!
Keep makin' it happen,
William
Credits:
https://pixabay.com/photos/cyber-security-network-internet-2377718/ , 3
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