Hi
So im getting ready to do some reichelt shopping now. Could you tell which parts it might be a good idea to buy some spare parts off. Which parts are very sensitive to heat and stuff?
I have a sub question i might as well ask now: I have 3 SID chips, but im planning to make a 4 SID synth. Can i build it as such, and just leave the last socket empty for now?
/Carsten
Hi
So im getting ready to do some reichelt shopping now. Could you tell which parts it might be a good idea to buy some spare parts off. Which parts are very sensitive to heat and stuff?
L78xx CAN become hot, so i used a standard heatsink for them. Some reported that the MOS8580 (don’t know, if even the 6805) get very hot after a while. So you could also place a heatsink on it. (look at the small c64psu pcb at the german forum :
)
best regards…
I was thinking more like: what parts is there a risk of me overheating while soldering.
If that’s your concern, maybe you’d do well to spend the cash on some breadboard and wire and practice your soldering technique
be sure to have a temperature-controlled soldering iron and never solder longer than 2 or 3 seconds on a sensitive part. Use IC-Holders for IC’s, therefore you cannot overheat the most sensitive parts! (and can remove it easily if necessary!)
That way your money is better spent than to a large spare-part-archive 
Personally, for parts that cost a few cents or a few tens of cents, I usually buy two or three spares, just in case. You never know what might cause them to be needed, and overspending by $1 - $5 isn’t worth the hassle of having to re-order because you lost, broke, or fried something.
I also tend to keep spare sockets, fasteners, resistors, LEDs, rotary encoders, caps, knobs, buttons, etc around. It’s quite handy when you have a sudden, urgent need to make something and the parts are right there.
-Steve
yes, these are good points.
and it’s always a good idea to have:
a complete set of resistors,
breadboard PCBs to mount hardware-parts
sockets with screws (eg for DIN-buttons)
set of capacitors (esp. those 104’s)
some additional switches (like power-switches)
enough cables with connectors! don’t solder anything directly to the core… if you’re going to put all things in a case, you will have to un-solder everything -OR- if an error occurs you can’t simply switch your core-module… so think about unifying your sockets/connectors that enables you to switch modules instanteneously… it’s really worth the additional money! (says me who learned this lesson by myself : )
buy complete sets (special priced) if possible.
-> and don’t forget your health! Esp. if you’re drilling and cutting: eye-, lung- and hand-protection!
Cheers,
Michael
I should probably also mention that buying a good soldering iron is also very worthwhile. I personally use a WES51 purchased from All-Spec and it is an excellent tool, and that price is great. I would also recommend a WP25 if one doesn’t want to spend $95. And be sure to get appropriate tips with each… I personally prefer 1/32" and 1/64" conicals, but that’s a matter of taste.
Oh, and be sure to buy enough solder. This is something you want to be of good quality, and something which you don’t want to run out of. I like .25" Kester 285, but you might have to find a RoHS-compliant alternative if you are in Europe or a number of other places.
-Steve
thanks for all the feedback. Appreciate it
/carsten
Yep those two are going to the wiki very shortly
Ditto everything c0nsumer has said.
If your planning on building more than just a few things I would reccomend getting some resistors in all decades of 1, 2.2, 4.7, 5.6, 6.8, 7.5 and 8.2. 10k 50k and 100k pots tend to be useful as well, along with the aforementioned 104 (100nF, .1uF) ceramic disk capacitors
For opamps go with TL072’s (any version) and diodes should be 1n4148
If your planning on building more than just a few things I would reccomend getting some resistors in all decades of 1, 2.2, 4.7, 5.6, 6.8, 7.5 and 8.2. 10k 50k and 100k pots tend to be useful as well, along with the aforementioned 104 (100nF, .1uF) ceramic disk capacitors
For resistor assortments: Digikey part RS125-ND. (See lower right of this cat page.)
Just for the newbies: You definitely don’t need all this stuff for a midibox This list is more of a general set of handy parts to have around… They’re actually more related to synth DIY than MIDIBox, in most cases. You won’t need any of these extra parts unless you are doing experiments and designing and building stuff, or planning a world takeover
For carsten: We’ve gone off-topic and hijacked this thread, sorry dude! Is there anything else you needed to know?
For everyone else: This is a good list, keep em coming!
Just for the newbies: You definitely don’t need all this stuff for a midibox
Of course. That said, though, I wouldn’t want to spend a couple hundred dollars and a many hours planning out a MIDIbox (of whatever flavor) and not have somewhat decent tools and supporting hardware for the assembly. So, one probably would want to spend a little more…
Of course, DIY electronics aren’t about doing something for cheap…
-Steve
Actually you don’t need anything I listed to build a midibox, save perhaps the 10k resistors and 104 caps. ;D
I wouldn’t want to spend a couple hundred dollars and a many hours planning out a MIDIbox (of whatever flavor) and not have somewhat decent tools and supporting hardware for the assembly. So, one probably would want to spend a little more…
Of course, DIY electronics aren’t about doing something for cheap…
…And that was some more wise words from c0nsumer
For carsten: We’ve gone off-topic and hijacked this thread, sorry dude! Is there anything else you needed to know?
No no, thats fine