Tools for Electronics

Basic Hand Tools

These are the tools that you will use day in and day out when building circuits. From left to right they are the wire cutters, needle-nose pliers, and wire strippers. Below those tools is a soldering iron (called a "pencil iron" because of its shape) for melting solder (not shown) to make good connections.

Remember that using a soldering iron can burn you, and if it falls on to something flammable it can catch that on fire. So only use it under adult supervision!

A Good Power Supply

When ever you build an electronic circuit you will need to power it. Generally integrated circuits require a steady 5 volts, and there are no batteries that produce 5 volts.

For this reason you need a power supply. Available from places like Jameco (Burlingame CA) and Fry's, they come in fancy multi-voltage adjustable versions and simple ones like this one. If you get only one voltage get 5V, if you get a fancy one, get one that does three voltages, two adjustable and one fixed at 5 volts. That is the voltage you will most often use.

A Digital Multimeter

Of course when you build circuits you won't know why they aren't working if you can't figure them out. A good multi-meter will let you measure voltage, current, and resistance. An even better meter will let you read capacitance, frequency, and inductance. Some can even test transistors for you. Generally I suggest you don't skimp on your meter since it will be a constant companion during debugging, and if you don't like it, you'll really hate it after a few hours or days or weeks. 

A Digital Logic Probe

The best thing you could get would be an oscilloscope. However even the cheap ones are several hundred dollars. Further they are harder to learn how to use. A good logic probe will go a long way toward finding out what is going on in your circuits. One light tells  you if a logic 1 or a logic 0 is on a pin or circuit, the other flashes to tell you that the signal is changing (called a clock). 

Many a microprocessor has been debugged with only a logic probe and digital multimeter. 

Clip Leads

Not a tool per se, but clip leads are essential for getting access to your circuit for your tools. 

You will use clip leads to connect your power supply to the breadboard, your probe tips to ground references, and even to connect motors to circuits. All in all a good selection of clip leads is definitely part of my toolbox..