resistors ,capacitors ,leds is bulk worth it?

[mhein68]

Hi all,
   As my limited  ??? knowledge grow I find needing resistors ect.. Now I have seen on Ebay and places like All Electronics http://www.allelectronics.com/index.html and Electronic GoldMine http://www.goldmine-elec.com that sell like a bulk bag of 1000 resistors(or capacitors or LEDS)  that you would have to sort through... Is it worth the work or just order what you need at the time for a project? Just wondering what everybodies opinion was??? Thanks! 8)

[gadget-evilusions]

I tend to order 100 packs of what I need from Jameco. No way would i want to sort thru 1000's of resistors.

[Bill P]

If you go to the Parallax website, http://www.parallax.com and look at documentation, you will find all the workbooks for their controllers.  In the back of the books, you will find a parts listing for the various projects.  Some time ago, Jon put out list of resistors and capacitors that are about the only ones used for the Props.  Most all radio shack stores sell 1/2-watt resistors in packs of 5.  Also LED's and capacitors.  I personally would not waste my time sorting through a bag of 1000. 

Bill P

[JonnyMac]

I agree with the group -- get what you need at low-cost places like All Electronics, etc. 

My "magic" list of resistors is:
-- 220
-- 470
-- 1K
-- 4.7K
-- 10K

Of course, I use other values but find that these do what I need most of the time.

[mhein68]

Thanks all for the reply. Jon I copied the resistors you listed where do I find that other  list of most used resitors and capitors in props?? Thanks a bunch!

[menehune]

I checked my parallax books and in their tutorials they use:

10k 1/2W multi turn pot,
100k pot,

1uF electrolytic cap
10uF 35v electrolytic cap,
3300uF electrolytic cap (used in a servo experiment)

0.1 uF cap,
0.01 uF 50V poly cap,
0.22 uF 50V poly cap,
100pF cap

If I remember correctly, the 0.1uF caps were used in 555 timer circuits, the 0.01uF were used in IR receivers (beam break, line following, etc)
The 3300uF cap was used when a servo was being driven from batteries.  If you are driving large motors from the same power supply the prop is connected to, I would add a power supply filter cap to the Prop's power lead to filter any power dips/motor noise. 
RC cars use three 0.1uf filter caps across the car's motor terminals to filter out motor noise from the ESC.

Unless you will be interfacing temperature sensors to the Prop, I don't think you need any caps.

[mhein68]

Thanks Jon again! The only reason I bring up capacitors was somewhere in real early post I saw a schematic for wickLED's.. I believe a 330 uf? It is helpful to have a list of need supplies to stock up on!

[menehune]

I'm not Jon ;) but yes, the WickLED modules use 330uF, 16V electrolytic capacitors.

[JonnyMac]

Any large value will do: 220, 330, 470 -- they're all common values.  Just make sure that the voltage rating is greater than the source voltage at V+.