Capacitors

[allisonlastname]

I'm putting together a shopping list for my first project (which I posted about a while back) and I've hit a stumbling block: capacitors. I can't seem to find through hole capacitors in the sizes recommended on Garth Wilson's potpourri. Should I just bite the bullet and learn to solder SMD capacitors, or is there another solution?

[GARTHWILSON]

What part of the world are you in?  In the US, you can buy the capacitors all day long at places like Jameco and Mouser; but I realize the shipping costs to other countries can be prohibitive.  The larger SMT chip capacitors like 1206 (.12"x.06") are pretty easy to solder.  The get propressively harder as you get smaller and smaller, the 0805, 0603, 0402 (which is already small enough I won't even try), 0201, 01005.

[Michael]

I purchased a bag of 100-nF (0.1-uF) caps' from this Aliexpress Vendor listing several years ago (see below) and they work fine in solderless breadboards.

Good luck on your project. Mike, K8LH

[Paganini]

If you want to pay a little more to get them faster, here's a similar thing on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/mxuteuk-Multilay ... 08B3VCK42/

Those are what you need for bypassing. If you're not sure exactly what you'll need, you can always get one of these kit type things: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09H2N3L4B/

You should probably also get some 100uF and 10uF electrolytic ones, for bulk decoupling where your power supply comes onto the board.

Those kit things are all over Amazon, and seem to be generally of decent quality. I got one of resistor packs, one of IDC cable + terminators (including the big crimper pliers thing), one PCB mounting / spacer hardware, and one of pin headers. There's a cool one with a lot of different kinds of buttons I've had my eye on but haven't pulled the trigger for yet. I would stay away from the pre-cut breadboard wire, though, if you're using breadboards.

[allisonlastname]

Thanks, those amazon listings are really helpful. I know I have a few bigger caps lying around somewhere, but I have no idea where.

Jumper wire is another thing I need. I know what I want, and I have a small amount of it currently in my possession, but I have no idea what to search for on mouser (or similar sites) to get it. It's basically solid core breadboard compatible wire with coloured insulation, and I wanna get a few big rolls of it in various colours.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

allisonlastname wrote:

Jumper wire is another thing I need. I know what I want, and I have a small amount of it currently in my possession, but I have no idea what to search for on mouser (or similar sites) to get it. It's basically solid core breadboard compatible wire with coloured insulation, and I wanna get a few big rolls of it in various colours.

Conventional, solid, 22-gauge hook-up wire should do. You don’t need anything exotic.

[cjs]

allisonlastname wrote:

Jumper wire is another thing I need. I know what I want, and I have a small amount of it currently in my possession, but I have no idea what to search for on mouser (or similar sites) to get it. It's basically solid core breadboard compatible wire with coloured insulation, and I wanna get a few big rolls of it in various colours.

You want to search for "24 AWG solid core." You'll get tons of results. (Or perhaps 22 AWG is better, but I have used 24 AWG with success for quite a while.)

If you search for "breadboard jumper wire" you may also find some of these, which I am quite fond of:

These are stranded wire with crimped pins on the ends which are more flexible. Note in particular that the pins are not 0.1" 'dupont' pins, but smaller ones (more similar to the thickness of IC legs) that don't stretch your breadboard spring contacts so much, which will prolong their useful life on cheap breadboards (and maybe even expensive ones).

These are particularly handy when you need crimp connectors on the other end, because you can crimp to stranded wire but not solid wire:

And their added flexibility just makes them easier to use in custom breakouts:

[Paganini]

allisonlastname wrote:

Jumper wire is another thing I need. I know what I want, and I have a small amount of it currently in my possession, but I have no idea what to search for on mouser (or similar sites) to get it. It's basically solid core breadboard compatible wire with coloured insulation, and I wanna get a few big rolls of it in various colours.

Like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008L3QJAS

I bought one of those last year and still have quite a bit of it left. I ran out of black though - you need a *lot* of ground jumpers when you're working on breadboards.

It might be worth noting that after reading Radical Brad's recommendations (https://www.atomiczombie.com/vulcan-74-page-1/) I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BNKN24W.

That's 1200 feet of high quality breadboard wire. Because the 23 gauge wire is thinner, the jaws on your breadboard do need to be nice and tight, though. That means you need better quality breadboards, like the Twin Industries ones that Radical Brad talks bout. They're about the same price as the BusBoard ones that Ben Eater uses, but you can't get them on Amazon. Mouser and Digikey both sell them, but Mouser is out of stock of the cool high-temp ones. I bought the last two.

Twin Industries high temp breadboards on top, BusBoard breadboards underneath

[No True Scotsman]

Examine the product listings carefully when buying wire. I once bought wire from an Ebay listing that had several different kinds of wire. I wanted 22 AWG solid core and ended up getting 30 AWG stranded wire, which is essentially a plastic jacket with a teeny wisp of wire inside. Utterly useless.

This is the best deal on wire from a US supplier on Ebay as of this writing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403473768543

Be sure to select "22 awg solid wire kit" from the dropdown menu.