One thing to note, eBay listinfs of LED's with included resistors are not always the greatest. I purchased a bulk order of LED's which came with resistors, and the resistors were not what they were suppose to be. The color coded bands were not accurately reflecting the actual amount of ohms they were suppose to impede, about 2% of the resistors were off by around 25% (above and below) which sometimes led to dim led's and some led's that burnt out quickly.
Just be sure to test the resistors with a multimeter you trust.
I wasn't completely mad though... it was about 5 dollars for 100 UV led's with resistors ;D
Alright, I was gonna buy a bunch of stuff in bulk! Sounds like its not a terrible idea!
So what about the Arduinos that are sold super cheap, Ive heard they are fake?
I've bought a lot of electronics components and modules on eBay without problems...
I've bought everything from simple components and IC's to FPGA board and to larger development boards.
Sure Electronics is a good seller, I've used him/them a couple of times. I can also recommend WideHK!
Not what I expected! I'll definitely be checking some of these sellers out, thanks!
Anyone ever use an Arduino clone from here? http://www.earthshineelectronics.com/
I don't think I would have a problem with an Earthshine device; they have provided the community with one of the best "beginners guides" to the Arduino I have seen so far (for free online!) - as well as as a starter kit that goes with it (you pay for the kit, of course) that includes parts and such to complete the "course" in the guide and learn about how to properly use the Arduino.
So far all the cheap parts I've bought off Asian FeeBay sellers have been good with the exception of a DVI to VGA adapter for my PowerBook.
I'm pretty poor these days. As much as I hate to send my money to non-US vendors the few pennies I have need to get me maximum yield. Thus far the dirt cheap stuff off eBay has been mostly OK.
so far, I've bought all my components online, except some less-common stuff and the ATMega324 with bootloader.
stuff like LED, resistors, wires, capacitor. pretty much like everything.
I even bought an arduino board off ebay. Everything seems to work fine.
I am not sure if it's fake. but i haven't run into any problem whatsoever yet, so good enough for me.
I've bought stuff (in general) from China for years. Never have I had a problem. Recently, bought LEDs, LED matrix boards, and a few other odds n sods... the shipping on it was quicker than a guy that lives about 30 miles away from me on a first class post item (large letter size)
My 2c worth on Earthshine is that the stuff I've bought from them is absolutely fine, and they're nice people to deal with. I believe the boards are DFRobotics ones, so not your usual knocked-off dodgy ones; certainly the DFRMega I have here is fine.
And Mike's starter guide is, as has been previously posted, an excellent one.
If I was trying to build the space shuttle I would probably not go with components off ebay.
If I am getting parts for me just to make some LED's blink the ease of them comming to my door at an inexpesive cost is actually pretty cool even if it takes a couple of weeks.
I buy lot of stuff from china. I never had a problem, the only requirement is patience. Here in Italy chinese packs usually take 2 to 3 weeks to come.
My last buy is a 130W TEC for a desk beer cooler, arduino controlled of course ;D