There wont be any need for you to lay out a PCB for years or atleast months, it just isn't the right path to take at the beginning. With a PCB, if you make the board and solder the bits in and then discover that it dosn't work you've not only wasted the board theres a good chance you'll destroy the components trying to remove them, with a breadboard you just pull them out and put them back in the tray. If you decide you want a more permanent version of your circuit you can buy stripboard and build it that way. PCBs are only required when you have to make the circuit very small, have to deal with high frequencies or are going to be making thousands, even then it is possible to make a smaller circuit without using a board. Designing and making PCBs is not one of the first steps in electronics. Gas soldering irons are pretty awkward in my experience. Moriquendi
Ive already done a recomendation list on the first page! As to rapid i cant help because i havent seen a catalog in nearly 3 years.
What tools are essential for electronics. Don't i need like solder wire clippers etc. Rapid have a website google it.
My maplins sudjestion. GT66W GCSE component pack £21.26( good first start set) FD32K Sliver plated plugblock pack (breadboard) £10.67 70-4046 RR50E decision maker kit £4.99 or 70-4034 RP03D Running microbug kit £9.99 (cool little robot that doesn't use microchips) Modded PC PSU (nice cheep multi output tester supply)Easy to use as bench PSU. FY69A 25 watt soldering set £21.26 Keep an eye out for N78AR ls20 Soldering station because these often go in the sales very cheep although they only cost £31.14 RAPID codes are red. Well straite off i recomend getting 70-1258 Teach-In kit 4 and The magazine i mentioned 3 times and you should be ready to go all for the pricly sum of £50 ( man i wish this was around when i started 12 years ago. Oh and youll aways need some of theese Blue LEDS BTW your first project will need a 12v psu and some pc fans
Because LED's are cool and blue is the coolest color Seriously, LED's are important today, you can do a lot of stuff with them. If you're good you can even use them for short range wireless communication. But as we are in a PC casemodding scene here, you'll probably need them just for lighting your case.
Everyone needs a blue led. the fan is needed (scavenge one prefered) to make a fume extractionsystem, very handy if the iron/solder/pcd is slighly dirty.
A fingernail /toenail clipper is a nice addition to an electronics toolkit. You can use it to trim wires and leads after soldering. It's also a good makeshift wire stripper. I don't know if they're still in circulation, but Heathkit used to have good instructional books with accompanying lab kits. When I got my associates in electronics in the late 1980's, I was lucky to have instructors that worked in Heath-Zenith's training department.
go ebay for leds i have bought about 1500 leds off "top_speicherkarte24" and they do great deal if you want bulk (not that they are selling at the moment ) , and that includes the fact that i payed more to transfer the money into their bank than i spent on the leds (from Australia to Germany) where as its probely much cheaper it u live in Europe otherwise you can get some pretty good deals on 50+ leds from other people
