Hi all! Some questions...

[Entropy Struct]

On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Stopp,Gene wrote:
> 1. A temperature-controlled soldering iron
> 2. A Digital Multi-Meter (DMM)
> 3. A bench power supply
> 4. An oscilloscope
> 5. One of those white plastice prototyping boards that you stick parts
> and wires into
> 6. A couple parts cabinets filled with components

Wow, I'm thrillingly short on this list of essentials... heheh.. What I
would stress which isn't on this list is  having a nice, clean workspace.
Right now I'm working out of my dorm room and it's hell. Most of the time
when something goes wrong it's a problem with the cramped space and one
part getting mixed up with another. (I used to have a nice basement
space... I have friends who work out of garages, too.) 

> You can get a perfectly decent DMM at Radio Shack. You may not use it
> all the time, but it will really come in handy for mundane tasks like
> checking resistors and pots and things like that.

I got a new DMM at radioshack to replace mine which died the other week
for 39.95 and it's pretty nice... does everything you would expect,
altho a capacitance setting would be nice. Their "top model" is around
$120, and IMO isn't too much of an improvement over the one I bought. 

Also: Although RS is somewhat cheesy, you can get a 3 year warrantee for 
10$ during which they will replace the broken unit *without question*. It
seems useless at the time, but friends of mine buy a pair of headphones
there which they return over the 3-year span for a new pair... ad
infinidum, you get the idea. DMM's are the type of thing which are lible
to get crushed, dropped, stepped on, etc. 

> The prototyping board is the best way that I can think of to learn about
> designing your own synthesizer circuits. The parts of course are needed
> to stick into the prototyping board.
> Hang out behind a computer store and watch the dumpsters. I have several
> *working* motherboards that have come to me this way, all the way up to
> Pentiums! 

Hey, also hang around junkyards and other such places... I've gotten a
couple gems at a local place such as a pretty large white proto-board (the
kind which you refer to above) for $2 and misc. parts for literally
pennies. You can find really nice stuff at these places if you have a good
eye. Oftentimes they don't know what they're selling... I remember I
picked up a few fastpath 4 appletalk to ethernet converters for $5 a pop
at this same place... ended up selling them a year later for, well, a lot
more. 

Big computer/technie flea markets are also goldmines. If you're up for
desoldering parts from junk and then testing them, that's another easy way
to get parts, although IMO in most cases it's more trouble than it's
worth, except in the case of jacks and knobs/pots. 

I think my setup is as follows: 

weller iron: 	$20
DMM: 		$50
power supply:	$100
+ the cost of misc parts, protoboard, etc... yes, this *is* a shabby
setup, but it allows me to at least fool around. It's much cheaper to buy
lots of parts at once which you know you'll need in the future, and
although it seems silly to buy 50 opamps when you only need 4, you'll
eventually run through 'em. (easy example: resistors are $.09 from mouser
in quantities of <100, and $.02 100<. Do the math...) 

Another thing to add would be some vectorboard... the stuff is a little
pricey but it's much nicer than dealing with breadboard w/out solder pads
on it. 

Well, that's my take on it..
Andrew