When I was shopping for some goodies at All Electronics I came across a circuit card they were selling for $1. Description indicated that the board included two voltage regulators, a crystal and assorted parts. I like to scrounge and look up the parts used in consumer electronics so I purchased one of these […]

While working on a variable current load for some power supply testing I discovered that I had no medium size (T0-220) power transistors. I needed one to act as the pass element controlling load current. I did a quick look in my box of old electronic gadgets for scrounging and found several candidates which would […]

How-to identify and locate information for electronics components you can recycle from discarded gadgets. Brandon gives us example pictures and descriptions for most types of electronics components to help you stock up your home electronics lab. This is a must read for new electronics hobbyist.
This article was submitted by Brandon Uhlig as part of the […]

I have scrounged up several LCD displays and wanted to use one with the Arduino. At the very least I wanted to test the displays. For future projects with the Arduino having a LCD display could be very handy so for this reason it is a good first project as well.

Unfortunately interfacing an LCD uses […]

How to build a simple TTL to RS232 adaptor for your microcontroller projects. You should be able to scrounge all the parts you need or buy them at your local Radio Shack. In this article I explain how the adaptor works and provide many links to more information you need to know as a microcontroller […]

The new electronics hobby parts giveaway at uC Hobby features the Arduino board and kits from Modern Device Company. The Arduino is an open-source microcontroller hardware and software environment closely related to the Wiring and Processing open-source initiatives. The microcontroller is an Atmel Atmega 168 AVR.
Update: You can get a very nice, breadboard compatible serial […]

I wanted to see how few parts I could use, from what I had on hand, to build this clicking blinking LED device based on a 555 chip.
This article was submitted by Lee Bornifield as part of the “Hobby parts for articles ” program. Write something of interest to electronic hobbyist and receive parts for […]

As a college student, money has always been tight, so finding ways of getting electronic parts for cheap or even free have been a necessity. There have been four main ways I have gone about doing this.
This article was submitted by Craig Houston as part of the uC Hobby “Hobby parts for articles” program. Craig […]