My Electronics Parts Kit Addiction
Whether you’re an electronics hobbyist, like me, or a professional in the industry, you’re going to need a lot of electronic components to build your circuits. As the number of brick & mortar retailers that offer electronic parts has dwindled, in most cases this will mean you need to order parts online, with the inevitable wait until they arrive.
This gave me a reason to create my collection of electronic components so they’d be ready to use whenever a project of mine called for them. The best and most seemingly economical way to do this was to purchase components in kits of parts. These are normally put together and marketed for a certain type of component for multiple values/variations. Purchasing these electronic parts kits has helped me to build up my stockpile of components and has come in handy with just the right part for multiple projects thus far. But,….there is a downside.
My Amazon packages started to come more frequently with these little kits and modules that were the result of stoking the fire for my online retail adventures. Soon other online retailers were involved such as Jameco electronics, Digikey, AliExpress, Battery Hookup and more. When I realized that some of these purchases had such reasoning behind them of “I’m sure I can use this someday” or “I may not find this part again” I figured out I might have a problem. I was an Electronic Parts Kit Addict.
With that public admission out there, and expressed in this video, I’ll also cover some of the more practical reasons why purchasing such kits, AS NEEDED AND IN MODERATION, can be a very good thing to stock up your electronics workbench. I’ll even show you some of the kits that I’ve purchased, admittedly mostly from Amazon and give my impressions on which kits are the best and some of the thought processes behind my decisions to buy certain ones.
If you’re building up your electronic parts stockpile for your own work bench, hopefully this will give you some good ideas, but this is also a cautionary tale as this can be very additive, as you’ll see.
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Now that I got a job, I think I went overboard trying to kickstart my childhood hobby. I am also developing this addiction.
I really need some ideas on how to do smd indentification accurately and fast any suggestions?
The Fact is; No Matter What you THOUGHT you Had, you Can’t FIND it when needed ! HELP !!
I’ve got this issue as wel, though it is a tiny candle compred to the raging bomfire of my vintage test equipment gear acquisition syndrome. At least i buy broken and fx those up, in my, admittedly, weak defense.
Okay guys, beat this . . . I have all new equipment (beginner level) including a soldering station with heat gun, electronic spot welder, benchtop variable DC power supply, digital oscilloscope, probably approaching and possibly exceeding a thousand electronic parts, components, and kits, etc . . . I am three score and a dozen years old and I would say I am maybe haf a degree above the general public when it comes to competency in electronic design and theory. My only excuse is my late father was a career electromechanical engineer for Hughes Aircraft and I always had a great time when we spent time together working in his electronic hobby at home. So, now that I am retired I am doing what I can to learn electronics to create neat gizmos for family and friends. Problem is my bench is so covered with tools and other items I have to spend two days organizing before I have workable space for a project.