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Carl told me to get a book on reading schematics, I have done this, and its hard, but nothing I cant handle. What I would like to know now is where to buy the boards and most of the other pieces I can get at Radio Shack or they can order them, but they cant get the boards. Any help would be appreciated!!
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Radio Shack has a plug-in breadboard, 276-002. Also a pack of assorted resistors, some caps, a few generic op-amps, 9-volt battery, and a digital multimeter. With that you can learn basic DC circuit techniques, then move on to amplifiers, oscillators, filters, and some other circuits. -
Electronics Goldmine (goldmineelec.com) has cheap PCB blanks. They also have some good transistors, ICs, switches, pots and more.
Surplus Sales of Nebraska (surplussales.com) has a great selection of wire. They also have a huge selection other goodies like multiturn pots.
AllElectronics.com
Alltronics.com
BGMicro.com
These are my favorites because you can sometimes find some real bargains. The previous five are surplus dealers.
For new parts look at Digikey and Mouser, also Hosfelt. This is not a complete list by any means. I really like Digikey. Some people prefer Mouser but they have screwed me on shipping charges and are definitely not my first choice. Don't buy from them with a debit card unless you have more money than you think you'll need. Mouser's price structure does not suit me because you usually buy 25 of something before you get any price break, but they have some parts you'll have trouble finding anywhere else.
Other new parts dealers are, Jameco, MCM, Parts Express... the list goes on. If you want to pay a lot of money, shop Radio Shack.
I have a hundred names in my bookmarks but not a lot of dough, so those surplus dealers are like magnets to me.
Linear Technology Corporation will sell small quantities of their ICs at much better prices than you can find at their retail outlets. But, you will need to learn to read spec sheets before you can effectively cross-reference some of their stuff. But that's a good thing. They have some superb opamps that would cost you about double at Digikey - not to knock Digikey because they do have good prices and a very good selection.Comment
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Good advice from Carl & porkluvr!
A good book for a beginner is "Starting out in Electronic"s by Forrest C. Mims see link below, very easy to understand....
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Starte...4026805&sr=8-1
Building metal detectors is not easy because you need a bunch of skills (Electronics, Soldering, Mechnical design, PCB Fabrication, Physics, etc.)
Even when you have adaquate skills it can still be quite frustrating.
The forums here are loaded with info, Read! Read! Read!
Just my 2 cents!
Welcome to the club....
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