Basic electronic sets

Hello everyone.

I teach a robotic group, and last week we decided it was time to stop using kits and start doing something on our own. So we collected 20$ each and we need help at choosing the best stuff to buy.

We buy from local shops, 20$ is just so you know aproximatly how much we can spend.

We have tools already, we need just the electronic stuff. So i was thinking of getting:

  • a breadboard (6$ is the cheapest I could find)
  • wire
  • resistors (10x 10kohm, 10x 1kohm, 10x 100ohm, 5x 100kohm, 2x 1Mohm, 20x 470ohm (if that is the best one for most of the LED-s))
  • some capacitators (I don't know which ones)
  • few basic transistors, like 5 PNP and 5 NPN
  • LED-s, 10 green, 10 red, so they can blow them up, they are the cheapest part here
  • maybe a switch and/or a button, but they are very expensive here, over 1$ each
  • photoresistors and phototransistors but only if we have enough money for them.

So what do you think i should add to this list? And what capacitators to get? 

I would suggest for the wire,

that you try to find some scraps of CAT5. I checked to make sure it wasn’t just some flaky memory of mine. The author of the article that I just checked said he got a 50 foot strip that lasted throughout his college career. Just make sure you get the solid core cable rather than stranded, not that I have seen stranded CAT5, but, I believe it does exist.

solderable

I think I tried it once and I couldn’t solder on it so I left it out as an option. But it should be good for breadboarding, so thank you for the reminder =)

Boy, this sort of question

Boy, this sort of question comes up quite often. I really should put together a post that combines all the answers submitted by people over time… but not today.

Here’s a few links to similar posts, the answers may help you.

How would you spend $100?

Most commonly used electronic components

Good luck!