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Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Assembling Your Electronics Arsenal.........................................................

Arsenal

In This Chapter

Gathering the right tools for the job

Collecting electronic components to make projects run

Finding what you need to build what surrounds your project

Building circuits on breadboards

W

hen you meet somebody who has had a hobby for a few years, he or

she usually has a well-stocked arsenal of materials and tools for the

task at hand. Knitters have drawers full of wool; stamp collectors have tweez-

ers and scrapbooks; and electronics people have drawers full of switches,

resistors, capacitors, integrated circuits, and transistors.

In this chapter, we walk you through the typical items that you need to work

with for electronics projects. We introduce you to just about all the tools and

components and building blocks that you use in the projects in this book.

Whether you buy some now or wait until you need them, by the time you

finish this chapter, you will be familiar with the most common tools of the

electronics trade.

Tool Time ........................................................................................................

Many of the tools we want to first address are those that you find in the tool

aisle of your hardware or home improvement store — everything from the

somewhat specialized soldering iron to the ubiquitous screwdriver.