Starting with Components

[Rand alThor]

I have been looking into robotics for some two to three months now and I want to get started building! The problem is I don't know exacly what to build in the first place (Of course a podracer would be nice , but... ) and I have little components to work with. So what I guess I am really asking you guys is what components and how many of each do I need to get my shop set up, since I don't want to pay for shipping for each resistor it turns out I need. I would like to know what capacitor and resistor values as well as other stuff I need that I forget here. Thank you all VERY much!

P.S. I do have soldering iron stuff, screwdrivers, and general stuff like that.

[dsheller]

Radio shack is a decent place to go for resistors and capacitors, selection isn't always amazing, but it beats paying for shipping if you just want like 10 resistors and couple diodes... have you looked at the $50 dollar robot tutorial? There are a lot of components mentioned in there which are good to have, personally I bought a kit of a few thousand resistors from digi-key when I first entered college to become an EE... I still have most of them after three years. What you should look into with more depth is the micro controller you want to use, that will be the most expensive start-up cost (~ $35 bucks for an AVR chip / programmer ).

[Rand alThor]

The problem with the radioshack idea is we don't have one in town and as school is starting soon, I don't think I'll be getting to any out-of-town(15-30min. away) ones soon. But, begging your pardon, I was balking at the three-didgit prices for those things. Also, where might I find a good capacitor assortment and is there any real difference between types? I mean, can I replace one with another, as long as they are the same value?

[dsheller]

Three digit prices for resistors? Those better be some damn tight tolerance resistors...
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=RS250-ND

17 bucks for a decent assortment... 5% tolerance. Which, in all honesty, is perfectly fine for 90% of applications. As for the capacitors, I haven't really looked for a good assortment of those -- I know hobby engineering has a kit, but I placed an order there like 3 months ago and haven't gotten anything yet -- they haven't charged me though so who knows, I've given up on them. You are correct that you can swap out capacitors as long as they have the same capacitance and voltage rating. Basically, for large capacitors you're going to need an electrolytic type, smaller capacitors can be ceramic, and typically always are.

[R.O.B. 2.0]

I don't feel like playing around with programming so I make Beam Type stuff.

You can do nearly anything with just electronics.

[Rand alThor]

You can do nearly anything with just electronics.

Yeah, that's what I thought I had to do to make a robot, hardwire it with logic gates (I knew the bare-bones basics back then), until I came to this site and found the errors of my ways

So what about capacitor values? anyone know about them?

Thanks for the resistor assortment reference, BTW.

I could only find like 7000 piece sets, and that's why they cost so much.

[emmannuel]

I don't feel like playing around with programming so I make Beam Type stuff.

You can do nearly anything with just electronics.

Beam stuff seems pretty fun but I'm not that good at electronics
I really want to take a class on analog circuits I feel that would really help me out if I wanted to do Beam stuff.

On the other hand I'm a pretty "good" programmer...

[javafiend]

If you just want to get a decent assortment of resistors, capacitors and general electronic goodies, then do what I did and get a de-soldering iron.  Ask friends and neighbors for broken/unused electronics and start tearing them apart (gently of course).  I have about 100 resistors of various values as well as loads of capacitors, switches, connectors, etc.  On top of the "disposable" parts you salvage you will always have your de-soldering iron.

There is a certain amount of satisfaction gained from every desoldered component.

[dsheller]

The above is an example of when you have more time than money.  I've gotten past that stage in my life, so I just fork over the cash for passives pretty readily.

[ArcMan]

When it comes to stocking your shop, ebay is your friend.  You can find large component collections very cheap.

[javafiend]

The above is an example of when you have more time than money.  I've gotten past that stage in my life, so I just fork over the cash for passives pretty readily.

Time and money are definitely at a premium in my house.  Sometimes acquiring the components for a hobby can become a hobby in itself.

[Admin]

You can do nearly anything with just electronics.

Try robot mapping, using GPS, computer vision, making a robot arm, etc =P
(unfortunately/fortunately programming is required for more advanced robots)