Well, you talk about this as if I'm rich... or an adult...

In reality, I'm 13 and have no real way to make money. Between allowance and side jobs, I make $80 a week.

A MEGA is $65. The mega board needs an onboard usb converter, so it pretty much has to be a MEGA, not a "MEGA pro" from sparkfun.

As for the other boards, they just need to have the chip, and the accessories that make it happy. A seeduino could work, but they're still $20 each.

I could build my own, but I can't build a mega. As for making uno's, the reason I shy away from that is because when I put the parts in a shopping cart, they were more than an original board... Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

This has been changed to a thread on creating DIY arduino's basicly. The new discussion is where to get parts to create an arduino.

You know you are a tech geek when....

It bugs you that you aren't yet running the latest UNO bootloader in all your older 328p based boards.


Lefty

It bugs you when you don't own an UNO

when you place like 20 orders on eBay for various resistors, transistors, and IC's.

When anything you build has to envolve electronics in at least some small way...

Well, due to a day of thinking, I found a way to use less transistors. Thanks for the suggestions anyways guys

I am so tickled that apple made the ipad.  The Chinese came out with a ton of really good 5V 2A supplies in response and we can pick them up for as little as 3 bucks (US).  I have about five of them around the house and a couple in a box waiting to be used.  Heck, I even took the guts out of one and used it in a project box.

I don't have an ipad, but just love those supplies.

I don't have an iPad, or an iPad charger... But I plan to, hence the reason for having a 2 amp supply on the charger I'm making...

And if you we're curious, I'm making a custom headboard... And it's gonna have usb to charge iPhones, iPods, and in the future, an iPad... This is being thuroughly documented, and will be posted on various sites, including here.

Well, Lady Ada has investigated Apple charging. Perhaps that will help.

That's where I got it from... Well, from a form on her site. That's where that schematic comes from.

I may well be wrong, but I can't believe that they have to be that precise.  For the 49.9K I would just get a 50K, the 75K should be readily available and the 43.2K looks a lot like 43K or 47K to me.  I mean, what's the tolerance of the power supply?  It has to change as the battery goes up and down in charge....right?

I thought about that, then went against it because I wanted it to be perfect, but at this point, $ 4.50 total on ebay for all the resistors is way better than $8 + S&H at DigiKey... EDIT: It ended up being $3.47 actually this is nice

eBay, and close values it is... Already ordered, and shipped. Thanks for the suggestions dude.

Or you can just go to Digi-Key and get a 4A 400V NPN transistor for $0.23 each:

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/BUL704/497-7205-5-ND/1426970

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The QuadRAM shield: add 512 kilobytes of external RAM to your Arduino Mega/Mega2560

Love you Do those transistors require a heatsink with them tho? Cause I don't think that will be cheap if it does :/

Oh, and on a side topic, if your the creator of RC, then I would like to tell you that your designs are amazing.

Must it be a NPN rather then a high current logic level N-channel MOSFET?

By the way those wanting to do high side switching with P-channel MOSFET usually don't find them quite as common as their N-channel brothers, at least with good low Ron specs. Here are some I ordered on E-bay to check out.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280528177645?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Lefty

Well, I really just need some transistor that when I put +5 (through a 1k) to the Base, it will pass through the ground, or +5 at 2 amps. I don't know much about transistors, which is why I ask for help. The ones you posted look a tad excessive, but if they're good, I'll get em.

Well, I know this belongs in a "general hardware" topic, but I couldn't find one...

What would a good transistor for running 2 amps at 5 volts? Preferrably rated at a little more than that, just in case. I would also prefer them on ebay, and I need 28, so hopefully not more than a buck a pop. Also, I need them to be NPN transistors.

Please respond if you know any good alternatives.

Thanks,
Jeremy

I have an Airport Extreme for wifi, and an Airport Express as a print server. Works flawless, and easy to set up. I would say check out the airport express.

Is airport for apple?

Made by apple, but it works great for PC as well. In fact, I'm on a PC.

That may be true, but $0.25 for 1 resistor is a bit much.

So use a couple of junk box small 100k ohm 10 turn trimmer pots and set to the correct voltage values.
Lefty

Well, I am making 12 of those things, so pots have already been eliminated as an option. I guess I will just pay 25 cents each... Not THAT much I guess :/

That may be true, but $0.25 for 1 resistor is a bit much.