Decent electronics shop/online store

Darg · 13 Oct 2011 at 01:16

Howdy all, the gf is doing a project for college which will require a fair bit of electronics work. I'm trying to help her with my rather hazy O-level tech course memories. What I don't know however is a decent place to get electronic components apart from a couple of overpriced high-street stores. Does anyone know of a decent online store or somewhere in London or Dublin to get bits and pieces?

Right now she's looking at having a few LEDs and a motor (possibly linear) with some way of upping voltage (I'm a bit hazy with the best way of doing this, a transistor apparently can work) and obviously a bunch of wire and a switch to control it. Hopefully we can get it working from a 9V battery.

So any tips for shops or help with how to up voltage in a circuit? Thanks

lee32uk · 13 Oct 2011 at 01:47

Only 3 i can think of

RS
CPC
Rapid electronics

Darg · 13 Oct 2011 at 02:53

Thanks lee. Just found a post on another forum asking a very similar question and he was pointed at a few decent ebay stores which seem to have everything we'll need, now we just need to figure out how it all goes together

PhillyDee · 13 Oct 2011 at 04:58

Sent you an email.

Dabbles · 13 Oct 2011 at 06:55

I'll add Farnell to the list above.

daz.rathbone · 13 Oct 2011 at 08:08

Farnell are good, and also run an engineering community (www.element14.com) where you might get help and advice.

CPC = Farnell, btw. It's their more "consumer electronics" subsidiery.

Good luck OP

Tealc · 13 Oct 2011 at 08:33

Bitsbox are handy for a lot of stuff.

Shadez · 13 Oct 2011 at 10:24

The main suppliers my company uses are.

RS
CPC
Farnel
Rapid
Digikey

But your best place to get components will be RS. They even have trade stores so you get go up to a counter and get what you want the same day.

King Damager · 13 Oct 2011 at 10:25

Bay is very good for LED's if you can wait for the delivery time from Hong Kong...

kd

Shadez · 13 Oct 2011 at 10:35

Darg said:
Right now she's looking at having a few LEDs and a motor (possibly linear) with some way of upping voltage (I'm a bit hazy with the best way of doing this, a transistor apparently can work) and obviously a bunch of wire and a switch to control it. Hopefully we can get it working from a 9V battery.

upping voltage?

Are you talking about making a 9v supply 12v or switching a 9v supply from a 5v source signal?

If its the second then yes you can use a transistor, although a properly rated power FET would be a much better solution. Failing that there is always the option of using a relay.

If you want to change a 9v to a 12v then you will need to use a transformer to step up the voltage.

funguST · 13 Oct 2011 at 12:42

I've always used CPC

Darg · 13 Oct 2011 at 18:48

Thanks guys, and phillydee I've sent your link onto her. Tetris key-rings

@Shadez: I have to learn all this stuff again, I was under the impression that say a 12V battery means we can power just 6 2V LEDs but I think that's completely wrong. I gotta read up on simple circuitry again, it's been over 10 years since I last learnt anything about it and that was nothing more complicated then a motor and batteries to run it.

Shadez · 14 Oct 2011 at 09:11

Darg said:
Thanks guys, and phillydee I've sent your link onto her. Tetris key-rings

@Shadez: I have to learn all this stuff again, I was under the impression that say a 12V battery means we can power just 6 2V LEDs but I think that's completely wrong. I gotta read up on simple circuitry again, it's been over 10 years since I last learnt anything about it and that was nothing more complicated then a motor and batteries to run it.

No you can power lots of 2v led's of a 12v source. Drop the voltage to 5v (using a DC\DC or a voltage regulator) then power as many as you want (remember you need a series resistor). The only effect having 2 many will just make the LED's dim.