Yea I'm a total electronics noob. I've always been interested in how electronics work; I took an electronics class back in high school but wasn't taught much other than how to solder. I bought myself an Arduino Uno, a breadboard, and a small package of LEDs and made jumpers using a spare spool of speaker wire last weekend and had a little fun controlling LEDs. With Christmas break approaching, I've decided to dive into it a little bit more.
Some things that I would like to try out during my vacation:
control a tv with an arduino
thermometer
detect motion
and possibly drive motor
A recommended shopping list is welcome, including any other things that I should have on-hand in general for starting out. I'm leaning toward ordering from Newark.com (those small packages sold on amazon get expensive.)
Well I'd start by getting a few accessories for the breadboard - pre-made wires with proper pins on each end are
great, reusable, available in many colours and a range of lengths, and get at least 30 or 40 in the first instance
(or spend time making some from solid-cored wire in various colours).
Beyond LEDs and switches then I'd suggest picking a few sensor break-out boards that interest you - you can measure
temperature, acceleration, light intensity, flexing etc, and perhaps make something useful from one of them (digital
thermometer, your motion detector). That's good practice for using Arduino and Arduino libraries etc. (So I'm confirming
your intuition basically).
For learning more general electronics then there's loads of possibilities, driving a motor is one place to start, perhaps
a microphone and amplifier are another (and this leads into opamps which might be interesting).
For more fun stuff with an Arduino then driving a graphical LCD, or LED arrays, or a clock using 7-segment displays
(perennial favorite that one I think).
For capacitors you can probably start with 0.1uF ceramic and 100uF electrolytic (perhaps 16 or 25V) in the first instance for
decoupling purposes.
Often 1k and 10k resistors will do for most digital electronics, the actual values are very non-critical, so a bunch of each of
these plus some for LEDs (150 to 500 ohm range perhaps). Everytime you buy cheap components get more than you need
now so you'll end up with a stock of frequently used values to help you out at a later date.
And then you'll need a way to store them... stack of small envelops can be useful there.
Thanks for the suggestions. About controlling relays, I was reading some old threads on here and apparently a solid state relay is the best way to go as you can directly control one with a digital pin. From what I've inferred, a conventional relay requires more more current than a digital pin can provide, so it has to be connected to the 5 volt pin which I'm assuming can provide the necessary current and therefore requires the use of a transistor and a digital pin to open and close the circuit.
I didn't see it in your starting list, but if you don't have a digital multimeter that should be the very first thing on your list. You absolutely have the need to be able to measure voltages, current, and resistances if you are going to wire stuff up to your arduino board. Many of them also can read capacitor values and able to check out diodes and transistors and other useful measurements.
As far as solid state relays, keep in mind that the vast majority of them work only on switching AC voltages on and off, not for switching DC circuits. So both SSRs and conventional relays have their uses.