From: Don Kuenz <mail@crcomp.net>
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Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2020 11:38:06 -0800
Subject: [EE]:: What do you wish you had known before you started with
	Electronics.
Thread-Topic: [EE]:: What do you wish you had known before you started with
	Electronics.
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=20
BillW wrote:

> There was always a "thing" about "build up your parts stash."  I'm going
> to say: use some restraint.
> I disassembled trash, dumpster-dived at companies where I worked, bought
> from surplus houses and eBay and similar when something that looked used
> went on sale, utilized various vendors' "free sample" programs, and saved
> stuff.
>
> Now, 40-odd years later, I have a pretty huge stash of possibly non-worki=
ng,
> mostly obsolete, not-very useful components, ranging from various passive
> components in odd values (might have been more useful in analog or radio)=
 to
> microcontrollers that I probably don't really want to use (anyone want so=
me
> OTP PIC16C57 chips?  Maybe some Fairchild ACE controllers?  4-bit OTP Tos=
hiba
> parts?) to several-generations-old FPGA chips theoretically worth $1000 e=
ach.
> LEDs in various colors that were painfully bright in their day, but no lo=
nger
> impressive.  A wide variety of AC, DC, Stepper, and three-phase motors an=
d a
> collection of fans.  Undocumented displays.  Wire Wrap panels.  AC Transf=
ormers.
> Bleh.  It doesn't help that the world went all SMT, and tech moves fast..=
..
>
> I feel like a hoarder (I probably AM a hoarder.)  The worst part is that =
the
> quantities are wrong; I sort-of bought with the idea that "I'll use a lot=
 of
> these; maybe I'll make a general-purpose project that I can sell."  So I
> generally have way more than "personal use" quantities, but not really "p=
roduction
> quantities", and of types that I probably couldn't even buy more of.  And=
 I
> realized at some point that I have very little interest in selling anythi=
ng.
> At best I'd like to publish designs that other people can build (which me=
ans -
> no obsolete unobtainium parts!)
>=20
> Sigh.  It's never been a financial problem, but I wish I had spent more
> money on fewer, but more immediately usable parts, kits, and projects.
>
> Things that HAVE proven useful:  1k resistors.  10k resistors.  3mm
> indicator LEDs.  "Bypass caps" of various sizes.  A  quantity of general
> purpose transistors.  "Free samples" that I can use nearly immediately.
> A bench top power supply and several cheap multimeters.

It took me awhile to understand that it's OK to own and operate more
than one multimeter at a time.

My stash was properly weeded out about ten years ago. And now it's
regularly policed to eliminate obsolete junk.

This guy's stash is therapeutic in the sense that it makes me feel that
my own packrat behavior isn't extreme at all:=20

EEVblog #737 - World's Biggest Collection Of Electronics Components
https://youtu.be/x8nbHYOc8ns?t=3D740

--=20
Don Kuenz KB7RPU
There was a young lady named Bright Whose speed was far faster than light;
She set out one day In a relative way And returned on the previous night.

--=20
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