Popular Parts
With so many different parts available, it can be hard to figure out which component to use. Taking a look at what others regularly use might make this process easier.
Note that links may or may not be to the best source. Look around, add a link if you find a better one. Do not delete a link, unless product is gone for good.
Kits and Projects[edit]
If you're working from a kit or published project consider getting extras of the parts. The authors of these things tend to know, and pick, what's popular. If you use them once you may use them again; there are exceptions, though.
PICs[edit]
Because PICs are mostly digital logic, if you use PICs you will need most of the stuff in the Popular Parts#X=Digital Logic section as well as stuff in this section.
| What | Comment | Specific Part
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|---|---|---|
| The PIC |
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| Debugger |
I don't recommend wasting time on pure programmers for development purposes. Once you get past the blinking LED stage, you are going to need a debugger. |
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Proto Board |
Some People hate them, but many find them a nice quick way to experiment. I have found a max clock speed of 4 megHz works well. Breadboard |
see links
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Crystals |
I keep 4 megHz and 20 meg Hz on hand. Note that some PICs can do without crystals, but timing is not very accurate. Check your spec. sheet, some PICs may be able to go to 40 meg Hz. Note that a couple of capacitors are needed as well. Ceramic resonators may be used instead. |
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Pull Up Resistors |
Can be used as pull down as well. I use 10k ohms, often useful for other stuff as well.
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10K
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Generally Useful Chips |
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| Op Amp | Need to condition your inputs? a op amp may be just the thing. See section on op amps. | |
| LED | How else can you say hello world? Pretty much anything will do. Do not forget to get a current limiting resistor 220 ohms or anything close. LED also come in arrays and as 7 segment displays for numerical read out. |
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| Push Button | Need this for input. I get mine from salvage. Later I will find a source for you. |
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| Low Side Switch, Driver Chip | When you need more power from an output port this is the way to get more than 10 times a much current, Not very expensive. One chip will drive 2 stepper motors. ULN2803 has 8 inputs and outputs. | ULN2803 |
| High Side Switch Driver Chip | Like a low side switch, but on the high side. If you are driving "rows and columns" then you need some on the low side some on the high side. The UDN2981 has 8 inputs and outputs. | UDN2981 |
| Sensors | There are so many, for light photo diodes and transistors, for temperature LM34 and similar see section on Sensors. | *whatever |
| LCD Display | Put out full alpha numeric data, several characters. Seems like a better? solution than LED when many characters are required. Probably best used with a controller to keep use reasonably simple. | *HD44780 parallel interface
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Op Amps[edit]
| What | Comment | Specific Part |
|---|---|---|
| op amps | consider ... what, |
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| Proto Board | Some People hate them, but many find them a nice quick way to experiment. | ? |
| Resistors | For precise gain you need 1 percent resistors. I start with 10k and use multiples and sub multiples. |
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| trim pots | When you need a bit of adjustability. |
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| diodes | When you need current one way, not the other. See Transistors, Diodes, etc. for details. |
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| Power Transistors | An op amp might be good for 20 mA. Couple it to a darlington transistor and get a full ampere (1000 mA). You may want to go push pull with a pair of npn and pnp transistors. With this you can build power supplies, battery chargers, motor drivers, and audio amplifiers. | TIPsomething |
| Sensors | Measure something. See Sensors. | Sensors
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Digital Logic[edit]
If you use any microcontroller, you will probably also need most of the stuff in this section.
| What | Comment | Specific Part
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|---|---|---|
| Gates |
| |
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Counters |
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Shift registers |
Often used to expand the number of ports. |
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| Voltage Regs | Power to the Chips |
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Voltage Reg |
Easy choice is LM7805. A couple of caps usually go with it. .1 and .01 bypass caps are generally useful. |
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decoupling capacitors. |
"I can only recall using less than 1uF decoupling cap in one circuit in the last 8 or so years ... 100nF bypass caps [0.1 uF bypass caps] are so 1990s. If someone tells you that should be the standard value, you should be careful about what other bad or outdated advice they may be dispensing." -- one post in the PICList Thread (EE) "1.0 uF Decoupling Cap - A Must?" by Olin |
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Electric Motors[edit]
See motor driver for details.
transistor
"my favorite International Rectifier FU5505 power MOSFET transistor" -- David Cook
External Links[edit]
- The Big List These are the parts the EE Shop keeps in stock to sell to students. UNL likes them why not us?
- This section contains circuit examples from commercial products and datasheets of transistors which are studied in this course. If MIT studies them, maybe they are worth looking at.
- Choosing an op amp: it's no longer a trying task The oldies in particular may be good, but not expensive parts.
- Starting with PICmicro controllers See the Selecting a PIC Section
- DorkbotPDX: Recommended Parts
- John C Luciani Jr. answers "What parts would you recommend stocking?"
- Partfinder from ladyAda
- [3] Dangerous Prototypes' list of common parts
