Electronic circuits

Breadboards

Solderless breadboards allow us to make circuits allowing easy replacement of parts and very quick connections, but require adapters for surface mount devices. They're great for children and anyone who wants to avoid melting heavy metals or wire-wrapping posts.

Components

See also the electronic parts wish list.

Micro-controllers

Picaxe chips allow easy programming in a free compiler from Rev-Ed. 8051 is a long-standing set of chips. I bought a programmer from the now-defunct Iguana Labs that works with Windows. I learned assembly language to program these.

Capacitors

I only recently discovered how simple it is to identify the capacitance of small capacitors, there being a code similar to the resistor code, but in picoFarads. Thus, if I see 102 on a capacitor, I know that the capacitance is 1.0 nanoFarad.

PV cells

I have several interesting PV cells that I haven't investigated.

Rechargeable batteries

Rechargeable NiMH 9 volt batteries are great for experimenting.