Electronics On a Budget

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A little work and ingenuity can let a hobbyist have fun on even the most meager of bankrolls � John Adams

Reprinted with permission from Popular Electronics Magazine, September 1995 issue.
� Copyright Gernsback Publications, Inc., 1995.

This article was written by me in 1995 and published soon after. It was my first "in print" project and I would like to share it with you.

Sometimes there is a stigma attached to the words "cheap or frugal". Maybe a better expression would be a "smart shopper."
In any event, words matter little when you have a hobby that is dear to you, but only a limited budget on which to support it.
Electronics is no exception. Fortunately, there are many ways to save money in electronics, yet still achieve the desired results.
Let�s take a look at how you could support your hobby on a budget.

Where to Save. Take a look at Fig.1 to get an idea in which a hobbyist could economize. You�ll notice five main areas in
which to find tremendous savings if you are willing to search for deals.

FIGURE 1: By being resourceful, you could save money in virtually all important areas of your electronics hobby.

Test Equipment. On the top of the list of important items to speed your projects along, and the first place to save, is in the area of test equipment. That does not mean you should not stock your workbench with the tools you need; instead you should work at getting what you need at the least possible cost. Here�s how to go about it:
   The best way to save your pennies is to visit a garage sale in your neighborhood. I was completely surprised at some of the test equipment and old gadgets I found just in a 2-mile radius of my home. Many of the devices might not operate but do contain parts that would normally run you hundreds of dollars in electronic stores if you purchased them new. Look for items that might contain reusable parts such as socketed ICs, induction coils, transistors, capacitors, voltage regulators, amplifiers,etc. After performing electronics surgery for a while you�ll get a feeling for what devices contain what parts.
   The best place to look isn�t always in Yard Sale ads that list specific items you might need. The solution is to wander around one Saturday and see if you could find the elusive computer monitor propping up a couch or the frequency counter that�s buried under an 8-track deck. That way, you�re sure to pick it up cheap; just don�t let-on to any value it might contain.
   What about test gear that is rarely if ever found in a garage or yard sale, such as an oscilloscope? Believe it or not, often the best place to find a deal on an oscilloscope or other piece of test gear is to go to electronic repair shops and simply ask them if they have an old unit that they might want to sell you.
   Talk to the head technician, as he or she is the one likely to say "We should get rid of this old 20-MHz model as we now have a 100-MHz unit with Auto Setting and a hundred-and-twenty bells and whistles." It also helps to tell them you are starting out in electronics and that you are desperately in need of cheap equipment to learn on.
   As an example of how little you might have to pay for a simple scope, I once bought a 15-MHz dual-trace portable unit for $40 (and I�m not even a good haggler). It had been sitting on a shelf for five years and was only used twice in that period.
   Another way to save on test equipment is simply to build it yourself either from scratch or from kits offered by companies. I still use my father�s original multimeter that he built as a project for school 20 years ago.
   Electronics magazines such as this one, are geared to help the smart shopper. They frequently publish articles on building simple test equipment. One word of advice about that � it is usually a good idea to get a pre-etched board if one is available. However, unless some components are particularly difficult to find, don�t be afraid to scrounge up your own parts.

Tools and Accessories. My grandfather used to tell me "always use the right tool for the right job." I remember receiving an hour lecture after trying to cut a wire with a pair of scissors. I now have nine different kinds of wire cutters. The lesson here is: Always have a large variety of tools to use while assembling you projects. However, you should practice your thriftiness while searching for new tools for the right job.
   Swapmeets are my favorite place to pick up tools. Most have a tool-bin booth located somewhere in their mazes. Pliers, solder guns, solder, electrical tape, etc., could be found for extremely low prices. You might also find kits that contain hard-to-find tools that are useful in electronics. Those would include dentistry or surgical items (clamps, scalpels, mirrors, drill bits, etc.).
   Pawn shops sometimes have a "miscellaneous tool bin" where you could locate all sorts of tools and weird gadgets. You will also, on occasion, see oscilloscopes and DMMs for sale. Beware of items that are not clearly priced and left to the whim of the dealer, though.

Old PC boards could yeild dozens or even hundreds of reuseable parts. All you need to get them is a desoldering tool and a chip puller.

Parts. Recycling is the key word in these days of "earth consciousness," so why not follow along. Electronics components are very durable, and in most cases could be used over and over again. There is always a healthy supply of broken gadgets that contain good ICs, capacitors, coils, motors, and hundreds of other do-dads to keep yourself supplied. All it takes is a little desoldering to get to them. You�ll be helping the environment as well as saving big bucks.
   If you walked into an electronics retailer and bought two 10-uF capacitors, it could easily run you as much as $1. For that dollar, you could have gone to a yard sale and bought an old radio that contained several of the capacitors and a hundred other parts to boot. You might need to take a few screws out and do some desoldering, but who cares when you�re saving money.
   The best place to find devices to gut for parts are yard sales and thrift stores. Another option when looking for old parts is to go to TV/VCR repair shops and ask them if they have any "throw aways." I have picked up $500 VCRs that are loaded with parts, for free. Just use the same method mentioned earlier; tell them you are studying VCR repair and need help. You might have to pull the entire recorder apart to get the parts you need, but there will always be a healthy selection of resistors, capacitors, motors, LED displays, etc.
   If auctions are held in your area, frequent them while building up a parts base. Old TVs, computers, and who knows what else, could be obtained for pennies on the dollar. Try to find the equipment that is not functioning and make a "lot bid" (several items together) if it�s not sold by the end of the auction.
   Switches (particularly pushbuttons) and LEDs offer the greatest savings using those resources. I once bought an old videogame system that had a huge selection of pushbutton switches, a power supply, socketed IC�s and a good case enclosure with keypads for the scant price of $1.50! The unit�s power supply alone costs that much in a store.
   Try as you might, however, scrounging won�t turn up all the parts you need. When that happens, it�s time to use the old postal system. In the back of this magazine are several parts houses that sell surplus or bulk parts at unbelievably low prices. Keep a look out for firms that offer reasonable of free shipping with a minimum order and stock up. Even if you have to buy new or in single quantities, mail order is usually less expensive than buying from local, non-hobbyist friendly distributors.

Books and Magazines. It has always been my opinion that the most valuable tool man has is the written word, whether writing it himself or reading the views of others. The subject of electronics is no exception.
   Electronics books are not always expensive to obtain. Of course, the cheapest way to obtain what you�re looking for is to borrow them from your local library. I have found countless electronic books at our five local libraries, some that I have not been able to find anywhere else. University libraries are even better. And don�t forget the occasional "book sale" that almost every library holds to raise funds. In addition to disposing of old stock, many of those sales feature books and magazines that were donated to the library specifically for resale. At one such recent sale, I purchased a set of five Intel data books for a mere $2 each; a 1000% savings!
   Another source of cheap books is used-book stores (although you should not even bother with the ones that sell mostly paperbacks). Further, check out the remainder or close-out sections of new-book stores. You could often pick up textbooks there for $3 to $5. Keep an eye out for other older electronics and science books as they are sometime more useful than current popular texts.
   Another source for books is your local college or university. I�ve made friends with the staff at the electrical engineering department, and they have been more than willing to lend me any books I needed to aid in my self-studies.
   Magazines like Popular Electronics are still my favorite source of information. They contain up-to-date information and give you a chance to find out what others are working on. All-in-all, magazines will always be the largest and cheapest single source of helpful data on a number of different subjects. They�re well worth the few dollars a month they cost.

Computers. Many of you might be involved with electronics, and not computers, but the reality is the two of them go hand-in-hand. Computer hardware is available more and more through the methods outlined earlier. For example, I once paid $2 a piece for four 1-MEG SIMMs. Believe it or not, someone had been using them for keychains! To this day, they are still in
my computer system, and working perfectly!

(AUTHOR�S NOTE: In 1995 when I wrote this article a retail 1 MEG SIMM was about $40 to $50. Quite a difference compared to a 32 MEG SIMM now retailing for $30-$40.)

The deal of the century! These SIMMs were being used as a key chain yet were perfectly usable

Motherboards and hard drives were once big ticket items. Now that they have come down in price, people are upgrading. That leaves all the older, unappreciated items left floating around, which means they could be picked up at rock-bottom prices. If your needs are more basic, and you don�t intend to experiment with multimedia or anything else that needs top-of-the-line equipment, older gear could be perfectly useable. A 386 40MHz motherboard could run you as little as $50, and a 386/16 costs about $25! Five years ago, those boards ran for $1000 and more. Talk about depreciation!

Saving Money With Microcontrollers. When I first started into electronics I was buying one IC after another. I would end up using 10 to 20 digital ICs for one simple project. If you figure an average price of $1.20 per IC, it could add up to $24 just for the logic chips, let alone the additional parts.
   But that was then; I have now discovered the "future" of electronics: the microcontroller. That tiny marvel is essentially a complete computer on a single chip. Using software commands, the microcontroller could be made to function like a circuit consisting of as many as 30 discrete ICs. Add a few support components, and Voila!, you have a project that would otherwise be out of reach in terms of complexity and cost for the average hobbyist.
   Of course, to use microprocessors you have to make an initial investment of both money and time. The money part comes from the fact that you need to buy a programmer to use them; one could easily set you back $100, or even more. The time investment is in learning assembly language, which for me represented a huge hurdle. But it was all worth it; you could easily save enough in a project or two to justify the expense of the programmer.

   We�ve shown you various ways to keep your hobby going on a budget, and not be considered too much of a cheapskate! Of course, these are just some ideas to get you started. As you become more resourceful, you are sure to find many others.

JOHN ADAMS � electronics@pobox.com

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