Here, you'll find sources for obsolete, old, and out-dated electronics components. “Old” and “outout-dated”
are in the eyes of the beholder, and many of the sources listed here are dealers in surplus components that are still in production and use today. The listings that fol-low are good sources for hard-to-find parts that no one else seems to carry anymore. Most offer an online search database so you can quickly find parts you need.
SEE ALSO:
Distributor/Wholesaler-Industrial Electronics: Not everything they carry is new Retail-Surplus Electronics: Additional
sources for older components
America II Corp. 203909
2600 118th Ave. North St. Petersburg, FL 33716 USA
(727) 573-0900 (727) 572-9696 (800) 767-2637 sales@aiie.americaii.com http://www.americaii.com/Specializes in both prime (new) semiconductors and other electronics components, as well as excess inven-tory (surplus).
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American Microsemiconductor 202905 P.O. Box 104
133 Kings Rd.
Madison, NJ 07940 USA
(973) 377-9566 (973) 377-3078 info@americanmicrosemi.com http://www.americanmicrosemi.com/Scavenging Parts
Among the best sources for obsolete parts are garage sale discards. Here is just a short list of the electronic and mechanical items you'll want to be on the lookout for and the primary robot-building components they have inside:
• VCRsare perhaps the best single source for parts, and they are in plentiful supply. You'll find motors, switches, LEDs, cable harnesses, and IR receiver modules on many models.
• CD playershave optical systems you can gut out if your
robot uses a specialty vision system. Inside you'll find a laser diode, focusing lenses, miniature multicell photodiode arrays, diffraction gratings, and beam splitters, plus microminiature motors and a precision leadscrew-positioning device.
• Fax machinescontain numerous motors, gears, miniature leaf switches, and other mechanical parts.
• Mice, printers, old scanners, disk drives, and other discarded computer peripherals contain valuable optical and mechanical parts.
• Mechanical toys, especially those that are motorized, can be used either for parts or a robot base.
Old VCRs are among the best sources for parts.
American Microsemiconductor specializes in obsolete and discontinued parts-diodes, transistors, triacs, SCRs, and integrated circuits. Many of their products are intended for quantity purchases by manufacturers who need a replacement source of old or discontinued parts, but smaller quantities are available as well.
Not all products carried by American Semiconductor are old or outdated or no longer needed. A good por-tion is actually still sold by other retailers and is still made by one or more manufacturers.
Also found on the Web site are some sweet and simple tutorials on common semiconductors: transistors, diodes, zeners, MOSFETs, and others.
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Midcom (UK) Ltd. 203428
Unit B Rigby Close Warwick CV346TH
UK
+44 (0) 1926 420772 +44 (0) 1926 420095 http://www.midcom-uk.com/Specializes in obsolete and military components: capac-itors, connectors, diodes, resistors, semiconductors, etc.
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Zygo Systems Limited/Chips2Ship 203429 The Old Forge
Nuneham Courtenay Oxford
OX44 9NX UK
+44 (0) 1865 343951 salesi@chips2ship.com http://www.chips2ship.com/Supplies obsolete ICs, transistors, diodes, and other components.
SEE ALSO:
http://www.factorydirect.co.uk/
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@ Electronics-PCB-Design
This section contains software for designing printed cir-cuit boards (PCBs). The design process may include creating the schematic and layout out the PCB. The more advanced PCB layout tools generate industry standard files for automated manufacture of PCBs.Most of the products that follow are for professionals, or at least very serious amateurs, and their cost reflects this.
See also the following section, Electronics-PCB-Production.
Altium Limited/CircuitMaker 203722 12A Rodborough Rd.
Frenchs Forest NSW 2086
Australia
Web site of American Microsemiconductor.
Lansdale Semiconductor http://www.lansdale.com/
Obsolete ICs - “today’s technology, tomorrow”
Metco Electronics
http://www.metcoelectronics.com/
Specializes in “vintage” components, for repair of antique electronics
Online Technology Exchange http://www.onlinetechx.com/
Clearing house for obsolete, discontinued, and hard-to-find ICs
+61 2 9975 7710 +61 2 9975 7720 http://www.microcode.com/Publishers of the CircuitMaker 2000 Virtual Electronics Lab software, allowing you to design, simulate, and
out-put printed circuit board designs. Student versions and demos are available for download.
SEE ALSO:
http://www.protel.com/
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Breadboard Your Circuits!
Prior to soldering together any electronic circuit, you should test it with a solderless breadboard. This allows you to con-firm that circuit works, and it lets you experiment before you commit it to a permanent circuit board. Solderless bread-boards consist of a series of holes with internal contacts spaced one-tenth of an inch apart, just the right spacing for ICs. You plug in ICs, resistors, capacitors, transistors, and 20- or 22-gauge wire in the proper contact holes to create your circuit.
Solderless breadboards come in many sizes. For the most flexibility, get a double-width board, one that can
accommodate at least 10 ICs. A typical double-width model is shown in the figure. Smaller boards can be used for simple projects; circuits with a high number of components require bigger boards. While you're buying a breadboard, purchase a set of prestripped wires. The wires come in a variety of lengths and are already stripped and bent for use in breadboards. The set costs $5 to $7, but you can bet the price is well worth it.
Tips to Reduce Static
Static shock—like the kind you get after scuffling your feet on the carpet and touching a doorknob—can destroy sensitive electronic circuits. Poof! There goes weeks of work on your latest robot. Here are some simple steps to minimize static.
• Wear low-static clothing and shoes. Wear natural fabrics, such as cotton or wool. Avoid wearing polyester and acetate clothing.
• Use an antistatic wrist strap. The wrist strap grounds you at all times and prevents static buildup.
• Before touching the robot, discharge the static.Go ahead: Touch the doorknob (or other metal) before picking up the robot.
• Avoid playing with your robots on nylon carpets.Nylon builds up a static charge in most everything. Wood, title, or linoleum floors are better. So are polypropylene (Olefin) car-pets, which don't build up as much static.
• If possible, avoid the use of acrylic plastic for the body of the robot. Of all plastics, acrylics tend to build up the most static charge. If you want to use plastic, opt for ABS, PVC, or styrene.
• During construction of the robot, ground your soldering iron. A grounded iron not only helps prevent damage from electrostatic discharge, but it lessens the chance of a bad shock, should you accidentally touch a live wire.
• Use component sockets. When building your projects that use ICs, install sockets first.
This reduces the chance of damaging static when soldering, but it also makes it easier to replace zapped ICs!
A typical electronics breadboard. They come in various sizes and styles.
Altium Limited / Protel 202839 soft-ware. Intended for the electronics professional, the software supports numerous advanced features: multi-sheet, hierarchical schematic entry; mixed-mode simu-lation; PLD design; rules-driven board layout; shape-based autorouting; signal integrity simulation;
integrated document management; and design team collaboration.
SEE ALSO:
http://www.altium.com/
CadSoft Computer GmbH 202527 Hofmark 2
Home page for EAGLE Layout Editor. Freeware “lite”
version available. Worldwide distributors.
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Douglas Electronics Inc. 203655 2777 Alvarado St.
San Leandro, CA 94577 USA
(510) 483-8770 (510) 483-6453 info@douglas.com http://www.douglas.com/Pro-level PCB design software for Macintosh and Windows.
The company also sells stock breadboards in various shapes and sizes (such as PC/104 and PC PCI), as well as Miniboard and Handy Board PCBs.
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ECD, Inc./PCBexpress 202205 13626 S. Freeman Rd.
Mulino, OR 97042 USA
(503) 829-9108 (503) 829-5482 http://www.pcbexpress.com/ECD (Electronic Controls Design) provides PCB pro-duction in small quantities or large.
PCBexpress is designed to give you the lowest prices for your small-quantity circuit board needs. Options are limited to facilitate the short production runs.
SEE ALSO PCBPRO:
http://www.pcbpro.com/
ECD, Inc./PCBpro 202203
13626 S. Freeman Rd.
Mulino, OR 97042 USA
(503) 829-9108 (503) 829-5482 http://www.pcbpro.comECD (Electronic Controls Design) provides PCB pro-duction in small quantities or large.
PCBpro offers large quantities of boards and a variety of lead times suited for production runs. Options are available for board thickness, copper weight, number of layers, gold fingers, and testing.
SEE ALSO PCBEXPRESS:
http://www.pcbexress.com/
ExpressPCB/Engineering Express 202356
support@expresspcb.com http://www.expresspcb.com/Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
http://www.orcad.com/
Makers of Orcad PCB layout software
Custom (and proprietary) PCB layout software for cre-ating short-run PCB boards through ExpressPCB serv-ice. Free downloadable PCB layout program for Windows PC.
Note two different entities: ExpressPCB and PCB Express.
Ivex Design International, Inc. 202303 P.O. Box 7156
Beaverton, OR 97007 USA
(503) 848-6520 (503) 848-7552 info@ivex.com http://www.ivex.com/Makers of the WinDraft, WinBoard, Ivex Spice circuit board software. Together these programs are used to design the schematic, test it, and produce a circuit board layout. The board layout uses industry standard output files so that you can have it machine produced.
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@ Electronics-PCB-Production
This section contains sources for companies that pro-duce printed circuit boards (PCBs) using standard automation files you provide to them. These automa-tion files are prepared using compatible PCB design software (see the previous section, Electronics-PCB-Design). The majority of the companies listed here will produce short runs of PCBs-two or three boards-for a minimum setup fee. The more boards you order, the less each board costs, because it is the setup fee that represents the single largest cost in short-run PCB pro-duction.
Also listed here are materials for producing your own PCBs in your workshop, typically using a laser or ink-jet printer to prepare PCB artwork on transfer film.
AP Circuits 204182
Unit 3, 1112- 40th Ave. NE Calgary, AB
Printed circuit boards by mail. Small quantities or large.
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Basic Soldering Guide, The 203184 http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm Guide to soldering: how to solder, types of iron, desol-dering, troubleshooting.
Cimarron Technology, Inc. 204200 1611 S. Utica
PMB 276 Tulsa, OK 74104 USA
(918) 747-3874 (918) 747-4849 browndog@cimarrontechnology.com http://www.cimarrontechnology.com/Cimarron sells a line of surface mount adapters for pro-totyping and breadboarding. You solder the surface mount IC or other component on the adapter board, then plug the board into a standard breadboard.
Products include:
• SO8 to 8-pin DIP adapter
• SOT-23 to 6-pin DIP adapter
• Narrow/wide SO to 28-pin DIP adapter
The company also sells some unique “ProtBlock” pre-made circuits mounted on miniature boards. The (sur-face-mounted) components are not included, so that you can design your own circuit using the parts and val-ues that best fit your needs. One interesting product is the amplifier module using a common 8-pin op-amp IC.