In this post I thought of listing down some of the essential tools & items for electronics hobbyists & amateurs who are getting started. All of these items can be purchased on ebay.com & amazon.com.
In Sri Lanka, some of these items can be purchased from many of the electronics parts shops on First Cross Street, Pettah. I go to the following places regularly.
1. Prince Electronics, Vikrama Plaza
2. Micro Electronics - they have most of the parts but the place is crowded most of the time
3. eVision, Sun Shine Plaza
List of Items
1. Solder
Always use a high quality solder with flux core. This is essential for good quality soldering.
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High quality flux core solder with flux core
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Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
2. Wire Cutter
For cutting out extra leads from electronics parts & circuit wire
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| Wire cutter |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
3. Desoldering wick
Essential for reworking & removing extra solder
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| Desoldering wick |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
4. Glue Gun
Helps attach boards to project boxes, and keep wires & parts from moving etc.
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Glue gun
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Where to buy: Arpico or ebay
5. Isopropyl Alcohol
For cleaning circuit boards
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| Isopropyl alcohol |
Where to buy: Any Pharmacy
6. Wire Stripper
Essential for stripping & cutting circuit wire
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| Wire stripper |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
7. Soldering Flux
Use when extra flux is needed
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| Flux |
Where to buy: ebay
8. Small nose pliers
Used for bending component ends
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| Small nose pliers |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
9. Lighter
Used for heating heat shrinks
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| Lighter |
Where to buy: Arpico
10. Component boxes
Essential for storing small electronic components
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| Electronic components box/pill box |
Where to buy: Arpico
11. Solder Sucker
Used during rework & removing extra solder
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| Solder sucker |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
12. Dot board
Used for quickly building simple & moderately complex circuits & prototypes
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| Dot board |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
13. Auto-ranging Digital Multimeter
An essential item for an electronics hobbyist. More about the Extech EX330 meter I use can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoeUgMFLyAw
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| Extech EX-330 auto-ranging digital multimeter |
Where to buy: Amazon (
Extech EX330 Autoranging Mini Multimeter with Built In Thermometer with Type K Remote Probe)
14. Helping Hands
Essential for ease of keeping the work pieces & boards still while soldering & testing
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| Soldering helping hands |
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| Soldering helping hands in action |
Where to buy: Pettah, Prince Electronics, 1st Cross Street or ebay (
3.5x&12X 3rd Helping Hand Clip LED Magnifying Soldering Iron Stand Len Magnifier)
15. Circuit wire & Jumper wire
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| Circuit wire |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street
16. Tweezers
Essential for picking up & properly placing small electronic components. Make sure that the tweezers are non-magnetic.
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| Tweezers |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
17. Breadboard/protoboard
Used for quick prototyping of electronic circuits. The jumpers were created using jumper wire & the small leads from IC bases.
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| Breadboard/proto-board |
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| Breadboard/proto-board |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
18. Soldering station
A good temperature controlled soldering station is essential for high quality & pain free soldering. The Hakko FX-888 is highly recommended.
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| Hakko FX-888 soldering station |
Where to buy: Amazon (
ESD-Safe Soldering Station with FX-8801 Soldering Iron and T18-D16 Tip, 70W / 120VAC)
19. Super Glue
Sometimes useful for keeping wires & components such as ICs in place until soldered.
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| Super glue |
Where to buy: Arpico or any hardware item store
20. Aligator clips/crocodile clips
Useful during prototyping & testing. I bought the clips, and soldered the wires onto them.
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| Aligator clips/leads |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
21. More plastic containers
You can never have too many plastic containers :)
Useful for storing stuff
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| Plastic container with drawers |
Where to buy: LadyJ, Borella
22. Soldering iron cleaner - steel wool
Essential for keeping the soldering iron tip clean for good quality soldering
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| Soldering iron cleaner |
Where to buy: ebay
23. Soldering iron cleaner - wet sponge
Essential for keeping the soldering iron tip clean for good quality soldering
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| Soldering iron sponge |
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| Soldering iron sponges |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
24. Steel ruler
For measuring & creating boards
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| Steel ruler |
Where to buy: Arpico
25. 220V to 110V Converter
Useful in Sri Lanka if you are using tools designed for 110V.
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| 220V to 110V converter |
Where to buy: ebay
26. Stripboard/veroboard
Good for quick prototyping (without having to use PCBs) with less wires because of the copper strips that run the length of the board. Tracks will have to be cut where required to separate out connections.
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| Stripboard/veroboard |
Where to buy: Pettah, 1st Cross Street or ebay
27. Schematic & PCB Designer Software
I use the free version of
Eagle CAD & highly recommend it.
To quickly learn how to use Eagle CAD, view the video tutorial series starting at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG0O9LKH-_E
28. Mini hacksaw
Useful for sawing veroboards or copper clad boards.
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| Mini-hacksaw |
Where to buy: Most pavement hawkers in Pettah have this for sale
29. Mini file
Used for filing sharp solder joints & edges of boards
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| Mini-file |
Where to buy: Most pavement hawkers in Pettah have this for sale
30. Small exhaust fan
Helps remove the solder fumes, which can be injurious to health if inhaled over long periods of time.
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| The exhaust fan I hacked up using the power supply fan & old soldering iron holder |
Where to buy: Most pavement hawkers in 1st Cross St, Pettah, have these
31. Baby Vice
Used for holding boards while sawing & filing
Where to buy: Arpico
32. Veroboard track cutter
Used for cutting tracks in veroboards
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| Track cutter created using a 4mm drill bit & wooden handle |
Where to buy: Most hardware stores will have 4mm drill bits. A handle can be carved out of an old broomstick.
33. Anti-static brush
Used for cleaning lose solder, extra flux or filings from the boards.
Where to buy: ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/290762666253?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649)
