Page 236 - 15 Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius

Appendix ■ Electronics Construction Primer 211

loads like the coil in the levitator or the motors in ■ A soldering iron
the surveillance robot. ■ Solder

This “one-way” property of diodes is also what ■ Assorted screwdrivers
allows them to rectify a signal (see the “Theory”
section of Chapter 9).
Component Boxes

When you first start designing your own projects,
Buying Components
it will take you some time to gradually build up
Thirty years ago, the electronic enthusiast living in your stock of components. Each time you are
even a small town would be likely to have the finished with a project, a few more components
choice of several radio/TV repair shops where they will find their way back to your stock.
could buy components and receive friendly advice.
It is useful to have a basic stock of components
These days, a few retail outlets still sell
so you don’t have to keep ordering things when
components, like RadioShack in the U.S. and
you just need a different-value resistor. You have
Maplin’s in the UK, but the Internet has stepped in
probably noticed that most of the projects in this
to fill the gap, making it easier and cheaper than
book tend to use values of resistors like 100 ,
ever to buy components.
1k , 10k , and so on. You actually don’t need
With international component suppliers such as that many different components to cover most of
RS and Farnell, you can fill a virtual shopping the bases for a new project.
basket online and have the components arrive in a
Boxes with compartments, which can be
day or two. Shop around, because prices vary
labeled, save a lot of time in selecting components,
considerably between suppliers for the same
especially when it comes to resistors that don’t
components.
have their values written on them.
You will find eBay to be a great source of
components. Also, if you don’t mind waiting a few
Snips and Pliers
weeks for your components to arrive, great
bargains can be had from China. You often have to Snips are for cutting, and pliers are for holding
buy large quantities, but you may find it cheaper to things still (often while you cut them).
get 50 of a component from China than 5 locally. Figure A-5 shows how you strip the insulation
That way, you have some spares for your off wire. Assuming you are right-handed, hold
component box.

Tools

When making your own projects, the following
tools will be needed as a bare minimum.
■ Multi-core wire in a few different colors;
something around 0.6mm (23 SWG) wire
diameter

■ Pliers and wire snips
■ A multimeter
Figure A-5 Snips and pliers