I'm quite new to this whole malarkey and was wondering where you all purchased your components? I've been using Maplin simply because there's a shop near me, but it's costing me an arm and a leg.
Ebay's a good bet I think. New to this as well, but I've had it recomended to me by a friend. Going down to the dump and scavenging old radios for potentiometers is another good way to get hold of interesting components.
we usually use www.cpc.co.uk or www.rapidelectronics.co.uk . Rapid are cheaper for stuff like switches but be aware that some some of their very cheap stuff is just crap. I remember buying a bunch of push button switches from them that were so cheap that the metal was stripped from the thread the second you unscrewed the nut and the whole thing melted into a pool of plastic the second you tried to solder anything onto the tags. The equivalent buttons at maplin now cost 70p each (unlike 20p or so at rapid) but at maplins they are far better quality. And thats something i never thought i'd say about a electronics company that told a mate of mine that he needed no knowledge of electronics to work there.
ATM - I'm getting parts from old/broken or just pointless machines stuff like pound shops, usually have some section that has some hint of technology to it - for example, getting a basic calculator, you suddenly get a series of at least eleven single-shot contact buttons - the voltage of which can easily re-routed though another circuit by directly soldiering the found bend points up.
The one I'm having troulbe finding is reasonably priced boxes to put the extra bits in...
AS some things (like FX pedals for example) tend to be very full of circuits already...
yeh, watch out in particular for the cheap red rapid toggle switches - only get the ones with the (i think its epoxy...) sealant around the contacts, otherwise when you solder them, the contacts seem to get longer as they melt out of the body of the switch! they are almost completely useless
Hi I don't mind the cheap switches personally, so long as i am careful it saves me quite a bit of money - 50p a switch. Operation wise they are fine, but you do have to be careful when soldering - I have melted a couple before. I agree the push switches they sell at Maplin are good quality. Another thing I have noticed from the cheaper switches is that the fixing nuts can be really poorly made, or even rusty.
The toogle switches are the same, the cheap ones melt really easily but operation wise they are okay. Again the type they sell at Maplin are okay but well over-priced. I think they are Talco and the sell them at Rapid too. Generally I use the better components when I am bending something more worthwile, and use the cheaper components when I am messing about, making prototypes or it is the first time I have bent a particular model. It's so depressing when you have spent ages bending something and spent money on good components only to fry it, tread on it, or ruin in some other careless way
bad news. maplins is moving away from electronic components to deal with more car and home audio stuff and those silly led toy crap they have. I heard it from an un happy worker when he was explaining why they dont sell audio pots or toggle switches anymore.....
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