Buying Components

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

I am wondering where I can buy (online) resistors, and other components... I see there are some on this website, but I live in the United States and I think it would be too much to ship them here. It looks like the products on this website are coming from another country.

I can't find any place online that I can buy components for my projects. I've searched on Google, but haven't found any place that I think I can trust.

1 Like
2

Digikey, Mouser, Adafruit, Sparkfun...

The first two are parts warehouses with more stuff than you could ever understand how to use. The later two are meant for hobbyists and have a simplified selection, at the expense of fine-tuning your options.

Shipping IME is reasonable from all of the above. (Digikey and Mouser, for example, may not quote the S/H fees for USPS, but it's almost always less than $10 for Priority unless you're ordering something big and heavy.)

3

take a look at http://www.taydaelectronics.com/ fast service - inexpensive.
Goods reaches me. (68N 16E) in a week.

4

dx.com has some components, and so does fasttech.com

5

eBay works as well if you want a large amount of resistors for example. Just make sure to buy from someone with a lot of sales history and excellent ratings.

6

Thanks, I'll check those places out.

Mainly, I want to buy breadboards in bulk and get a lot of other components like resistors, sensors, LEDs and other things.

7

Let me know if you find a cheap source of decent breadboards. The ones I find for less than $10 or so end up being junk.

8

SirNickity:
Let me know if you find a cheap source of decent breadboards. The ones I find for less than $10 or so end up being junk.

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002010/1144000-mini-170-tie-points-prototype-solderless-breadboar
These ones are cheap and great for little projects.

I came across them when I was looking at this guy's AVR fuse restter:
http://www.simpleavr.com/avr/hvsp-fuse-resetter

9

Thanks.

I don't think you can have too many breadboards. There are some projects that I like to save. I don't like taking some of them apart, just to build something new.

10

You could always transfer those projects to perf-board for more permanent safe keeping than breadboards.

11

ralphd:
These ones are cheap and great for little projects.

Aw man... they have a ton of great heat sinks too. This site could get me in trouble.... Thanks man! XD

12

Dipmicro.com & taydaelectronics.com are both good for parts as well. Inexpensive mailing costs, and not so many variations of parts that you get lost trying to find a part.

13

SirNickity:

ralphd:
These ones are cheap and great for little projects.

Aw man... they have a ton of great heat sinks too. This site could get me in trouble.... Thanks man! XD

I've been buying stuff from FastTech for about a year now - they almost always have better pricing than DealExtreme.

14

I don't know what some of this means. I'm looking for 220 and 10k resistors, like I got in my Arduino starter kit. The websites say things like:

RES 10K OHM 1/4W 1% AXIAL
RES 10K OHM 1/4W 0.1% AXIAL
RES 10K OHM 2W 1% AXIAL

I have no idea what all those numbers mean, or which ones would work with my Arduino. The book says to use 10k resistors and 220, but I don't see anything about what those other numbers mean.

I'm looking on digikey.com since they are located in the U.S. I think it will be easier for me to order from them.

I also don't know what a good manufacture is. They have dozens of manufactures listed to choose from.

15

RES 10K OHM 1/4W 1% AXIAL

A 10K Ohm resistor
Rated to dissipate 1/4 Watt maximum
Its value is within 1% of the nominal resistance quoted above
The leads exit along the resistor axis, ie at the ends

16

For reference, wattage is calculated by multiplying your voltage and current (always in volts and amps), so if you have a resistor using up 5volt and 20mA you are dissipating .1 watt which is under .25 watt. So the most current you could put through a quarter watt resistor at 5V would be 50mA although i wouldn't take it that high, if you needed 50mA at 5V you should probably buy 1/2 watt to leave plenty of 'wiggle' room so your resistor doesn't get too hot.

17

..for things like arduino projects, 'any will do', even 5% carbon resitors.
When you need precition you will always calibrate - often using multiturn, trimmer resitors.

18

There seemed to be so many internet suppliers, in the end I just looked for suppliers in my hometown and used them. Means I can save postage by just calling in if I'm passing to collect the (pre-ordered) items.