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I recently just finished my Eagle schematic for a simple robot that moves and plan to order the parts and the PCB soon. Unfortunately with the soldering iron, helping hands, lights, solder, parts, and PCB all add up to $125.

Is this a lot of money? Or is my perspective not correct because I'm 14, entering high school, and have no sustainable income?

I've ordered all my stuff from adafruit.com, is there a cheaper option?

Chris Stratton
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IronApe
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    Only if you get hooked.. :-) – m.Alin Aug 21 '14 at 15:28
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    That doesn't seem a lot including an initial tools purchase, but the next project may cost less. There can a high tradeoff of time vs. cost - cheap or limited tools, component salvage, etc can save you some money, but it's rarely cost effective in a future professional setting where your time has value. You'll have to evaluate that tradeoff for your current place in life. Also, you'll find that many purchases in retrospect were unwise investments, but that takes experience to anticipate, and no one ever stops making bad guesses. – Chris Stratton Aug 21 '14 at 15:34
  • I have a little suggestion for you if you can, try buying from local store. Find some local store and compare the difference. My personal experience is astonishing. However, in some cases buying online is better. So, do both. – Amit Hasan Aug 21 '14 at 16:40
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    My experience is 'raw' electronic parts and simple PCBs from China, e.g. eBay, aliexpress, etc. are much cheaper than local (UK) stores. However, bulkier items like soldering irons, and tools are comparable prices. Adafruit is relatively expensive for small parts like resistors, transistors, LEDs etc. However, adafruit provides tutorials, accurate datasheets, and some support, which may be invaluable while you are learning. They also develop working kits and boards, which is expensive. IMHO, try to buy from them when it makes sense because they do try to create new projects. – gbulmer Aug 21 '14 at 17:55
  • No, electronics is not an expensive hobby. Sailing and horseback riding are expensive hobbies. – Nick Alexeev Aug 22 '14 at 17:42

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Tools can get pretty pricey in this area, ranging from a simple $5 soldering iron, all they way up to more than I will probably ever make in my existence.

Getting all of that for $125 isn't too bad, and will be a one time cost until you decide to upgrade to better tools. They should serve you well for your purposes for sometime until you can get real income. I would say since you are 14 and have no sustainable income, you might want to be very careful when purchasing parts to make sure you get the right ones on the first order.

Electronics has a different purchasing structure than, say, a grocery store, where the more you buy, they just add up linearly. When you buy your components from a good distributor, like digi-key.com, you could get a single capacitor for say $0.60 OR you could get 100 capacitors for $5.00 because the price per component would go down as you buy more.

Adafruit is a good website, although I wouldn't recommend them for basic components. They have really nice breakout boards and are great for getting started on a project quickly. For basic discrete components though, I would go somewhere like digi-key, mouser, farnell, etc.. These are really reputable distributors and have a wide selection of many components.

Funkyguy
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  • Unfortunately, we don't allow "what should I buy" questions here. That's particularly unfortunate in the case of something like digikey, where the variety of options can be overwhelming to the unfamiliar. – Chris Stratton Aug 21 '14 at 15:36
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    Speaking of pricing, there are some parts you can never have enough of, such as 10k resistors, or .1uF caps. OP didn't mention whether this project is surface mount or through hole, but if it's surface mount, it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy reels of those two parts. They'll get used. – Matt Young Aug 21 '14 at 15:37
  • Or ammo packs for through-hole. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Aug 21 '14 at 15:37
  • @ChrisStratton Right, I wasn't suggesting a "what should I buy" , more so insinuating that OP can ask a subjective question regarding the application which could shed light on component selection. I'll make that a little clearer in my post. EDIT: I just removed the line instead – Funkyguy Aug 21 '14 at 15:40
  • @MattYoung, that was precisely my first order -- a reel of 10k, and a reel of .1uF. – Simon Richter Aug 21 '14 at 16:01
  • @MattYoung Mine as well. A reel of 10K and a reel of 0-ohm which I haven't touched yet – Funkyguy Aug 21 '14 at 16:03
  • Does anyone salvage electronic parts from old electronic components, if so, how? – IronApe Aug 21 '14 at 16:21
  • @IronApe Yea, that is a common practice among hobbyists. It depends on the part you want to remove, but generally one will use either a soldering iron with a desoldering pump or desoldering braid, or they'll use a hot air rework station. Tweezers are also helpful. – Funkyguy Aug 21 '14 at 16:35
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Several years ago, during a move from one house to another, I gave away about $5,000US worth of electronic stuff I'd collected over the course of the previous probably two or so decades.

You CAN start on what I think of as a shoestring and stay there, or you CAN go sky-wild and dump vast sums into it (in some cases shaking doubly vast sums of money back out of it), or anything in between those.

In your case... let me put it this way: $125US wouldn't fill my pickup's fuel tank twice. It wouldn't buy more than a couple dozen hamburgers at the local diner. If I accidentally dropped that much money on the ground, I wouldn't be horribly upset about never finding it again. When you establish your own personal resource supply, you'll look back at that initial investment you've made & think that it's pretty minor.

And in exchange for your investment... you get real hands-on experience, which is more valuable than money. You gain better understanding of things, you gain the ability to design new things that've never existed before, you get exercise for previously unexercised parts of your imagining brain, you grow healthier. Just... don't try to build an artificial girlfriend. THAT's not healthy. 8)

TDHofstetter
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This is great! Hey, you may spend a bit of money now, but think about turning your avocation into your vocation. It could pay off big time. (And let's you look forward to going to work.)

Parts sources: I use to take apart all sorts of electronics junk to scavenge the pieces parts out of them. That's a little harder today with all the surface mount, but still doable.

There are several parts distributors, Digikey, Mouser, Newark (if you are in the US). There may be a minimum order.

If you live in/near a big city there maybe a maker space/ group that you could go visit.
You also may find a nice technology teacher at the high school that you can hook up with.

Good luck and have fun!

George Herold
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