Beginner - where to source parts

B

beachbum

Active member
I'm about to order my first pcb from here. I've built a few BYOC pedals and they all turned out pretty swell. I was looking at the parts list for ICs and Diodes and mouser seems to have them, but there's like 6 versions of them. Any particular strategy anyone has for finding good quality parts that are affordable?

thanks
 
Tayda will have most, if not all of what's needed for most of the builds here. I use Smallbear for harder to get and out of production parts. And, typically use LoveMySwitches for switches, jacks, and knobs.
Mouser's quite overwhelming, and kind of a pain to navigate, so I only really go there if they have what the others don't, and the have alot.
 
OK, so for caps and resistors,diodes etc... if the parts list doesn't specify the kind of material used, I can pretty much go crazy with any kind?
 
SmallBear is also a great resource for components. And most, if not all, are already designated for pedal building.
 
beachbum said:
OK, so for caps and resistors,diodes etc... if the parts list doesn't specify the kind of material used, I can pretty much go crazy with any kind?
Click to expand...
That's generally the idea. But you're not going to want to replace all the film caps with ceramic discs, or try to wedge a film in a spot meant for an electrolytic. I stay away from the green chiclet caps, they're generally to wide or thick for a lot of boards to fit without cramming.
As for resistors, I usually use metal film, but will swing to wide tolerance carbon film if I don't care about precision. You'll want 1/4 watt and 1/8 watt.
Clipping diodes can be pretty much whatever you wanna try. For hard clippers, I like red and infrared 3mm LEDs. Zeners as hard clippers are also pretty nice. For the polarity protection diodes, you'll want to stick with rectifiers like the 1N4001 or 1N5817
 
Parts selection is a learning experience. Measure the footprints on the board and order accordingly. Not all vendors advertise dimensions, but some will provide that info when asked.

Be careful where you buy germanium parts & JFETs. Counterfeit devices abound. Small Bear & pedalhacker are the only reliable sources I know of for germanium. You might get lucky on eBay, but it's a gamble.

DigiKey is another good source for R's & C's. They have a HUGE inventory and stock values that you won't find at SB & Tayda. Very similar to Mouser for price, quality & selection.
 
Some points that helped me when I first got started is:
Caps -
Generally speaking pF in ceramic.
nF in Film
uF in Electrolytic (it will show if polarity required) I also like to keep all caps above 25V in case I need to power a pedal with 18V

Resistors - Metal film. Get 1/8W and 1/4W

It's a mixed bag here on whether people use sockets for ICs etc as well. (I personally do)

Have fun!
 
You can get some common resistor kits from Small Bear and they will cover most of the bases. And they will last you a while. They have 1/8 and 1/4 watt metal 1%. I usually get the Wima film caps from Tayda along with Nichicon electrolytics. Love my switches for knobs, Taiway toggles and 3PDTs.
 
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