A couple of months ago I got really frustrated at my lack of knowlege of electronics, and so I tried to come up with a few ideas on how to get better, one person suggested an Open University course, but they take up a lot of time which I don’t have as I am studying full time for my masters and also working part time.
I had bought (and soaked) a book called Make: Electronics which was “A hands-on primer for the new electronic enthusiast” so I though ‘Hey, why don’t I go through that?’ but then looking at the list of stuff needed I only had half of it and it would be costly to keep ordering small amounts online and what if I give up?
I knew a few other people who might be interested so I though well if I do all the leg work getting orders together and collecting money perhaps we could form our own little book club where we go through 1 section each month or so, meet up and either work together or share thoughts, chat and socialise.
Well I didn’t hold much hope but I emailed out to a few people and we are now here a few months later with the first delivery on my door step, I have kitted, labeled and checked all the parts and we shall be meeting up in the coming weeks. I am so excited I thought I would do my first blog post in nearly a year about it.
The first section is experiments 1-5 and the biggest issue I has was finding a parts list for the UK, or rather there wasn’t one so I made one, and to save any fellow Brits from having to do this I have a file attached with all the part numbers for ordering from Rapid Electronics, as I do each order I will post up to the blog with the parts lists for those sections, this isn’t necessarily a completed list nor will it ever be but it will help in finding the right stuff…
UK Parts list – Experiments 1-5 – Make: Electronics
| Part number | Description | Type | Qty | Cost | Total |
| 26-2402 | 3 amp mini blade fuses | Components | 3 | £0.12 | £0.36 |
| 65-1401 | Single turn 2K linear 0.1W potentiometer | Components | 2 | £0.70 | £1.40 |
| 13-0260 | Resistor kit | Components | 1 | £10.30 | £10.30 |
| 18-1918 | 9 volt battery | Supplies | 1 | £1.61 | £1.61 |
| 18-1904 | AA batteries | Supplies | 6 | £0.31 | £1.86 |
| 18-0105 | 9v battery clip | Supplies | 1 | £0.06 | £0.06 |
| 18-0121 | 1x AA battery holder | Supplies | 1 | £0.14 | £0.14 |
| 18-2909 | 4x AA battery holder | Supplies | 1 | £0.59 | £0.59 |
| 17-2867 | Black Alligator clips | Supplies | 3 | £0.05 | £0.15 |
| 17-2870 | Red Alligator clips | Supplies | 3 | £0.05 | £0.15 |
| 56-0250 | Red 5mm LED | LEDs | 2 | £0.09 | £0.18 |
| 56-0260 | Yellow 5mm LED | LEDs | 2 | £0.14 | £0.28 |
| 56-0255 | Green 5mm LED | LEDs | 2 | £0.09 | £0.18 |
| 55-1460 | Blue 3mm LED | LEDs | 1 | £0.57 | £0.57 |
| 55-0340 | Red 10mm LED | LEDs | 1 | £0.14 | £0.14 |
| 55-1850 | White 1.8mm LED | LEDs | 1 | £0.32 | £0.32 |
| 55-1822 | Magical mystery LED | LEDs | 1 | £0.19 | £0.19 |
| 91-2353 | Small pliers | Tools | 1 | £3.22 | £3.22 |
| 91-2355 | Wire cutters | Tools | 1 | £3.22 | £3.22 |
| 85-4079 | Multimeter | Tools | 1 | £10.87 | £10.87 |
| £35.79 |
P.s. Sorry the Parts list came out a bit ugly when I switched themes but to be honest you can deal with it by copying and pasting it over to a word processing application.