Ladyada from Adafruit Industries put together a great kit for getting started with electronics. This kit has everything you need.
Working with substandard equipment is a terrible way to learn electronics: a lot of frustration with too little success. The right tool set will keep you progressing without the stressing.
This toolbox contains carefully selected hand tools that will last you for many many years.
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30W adjustable temperature soldering iron (Model XY258) - with a temperature control on the side and indicator LED so you can go from standard to lead-free to silver solder. Comes with a 1/16" tip which is good for through hole and some larger surface mount assembly. Note this iron is 120V ONLY, not for use in 220V countries
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Soldering stand - a real stand with sponge and double spring prevents your iron from 'rolling away' or burning a hole in the table. Essential for your safety.
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Solder, rosin-core, 0.031" diameter, 1/4 lb (100g) spool - Standard 60/40 solder for electronics work. Most toolkits give you a tiny bit, but this spool will last you for months and you won't run out in the middle of your project
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Solder sucker - Strangely enough, that's the technical term for this desoldering vacuum tool. Useful in cleaning up mistakes, every electrical engineer has one of these on their desk.
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Solder wick/braid 5ft spool - Used along with the solder sucker to clean up soldering messes. Wick really comes in handy when soldering or desoldering surface-mount parts. Even if you don't have the best iron for SMT work, a bit of wick will fix it up.
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Panavise Jr - PCB holder and general purpose 360 degree mini-vise. I use mine every day, they are the best thing for holding your circuit board steady, and the soft jaws are not conductive so you can do power tests at the same time.
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Digital Multimeter - Model 9205B+ is a good-all-around basic multimeter. Has a continuity tester, DC/AC voltage and current, resistance, transistor and diode/LED test. Runs on a 9V battery.
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Diagonal cutters - the best diagonal cutters, these are comfortable to use and have strong nippers for perfect trimming of wires and leads. I've used my pair every day for years.
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Wire strippers- We've upgraded our basic 'adjustable' wire strippers to these multi-sized wire strippers. They include: 22-30 AWG strippers, wire cutters, 'plier' tips, and a wire loop. Ground blades for precision cutting. Spring return, comfy molded handles and a closing-lock.
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Micro needle-nose pliers - for bending, forming, holding, squeezing and plying all of those little components.
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Solid-core wire, 22AWG, 25ft spools - Three spools! In black, red and yellow. Perfect for bread-boarding and wiring.
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Half size solderless breadboard - for prototyping your next project, these breadboards can snap together to expand
- Bonus! 5V power supply parts pack - DC power jack, protection diode, 7805 1Amp 5V regulator, two 25V and 6V bypass capacitors, two 0.1uF ceramic capacitors, red and green indicator LEDs and matching resistors. All the parts necessary to power up your first electronics project from a wall adapter or batteries.
