Free sample 5mm LEDs, caps & breadboard? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: flipper
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 02:55:36 am
content: Hello.Does anyone know where I may get free sample 5mm LEDs & breadboard? I am broke right now, literally NO income, and if anyone knows of a source where I may procure 5mm LEDs, electrolytic caps & a breadboard, I'd be grateful to know.Thank you.

author: Andy Chee
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 04:04:54 am
content: Free LEDs & caps should be easy to find in e-waste.As for a breadboard, you might have to drop into your local ham radio club, to see if there's anything amongst hoarded deceased estate junk that they're always trying to get rid of.

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 11:52:38 am
content: Try to find e-waste sites, ask for friends/neighbors for broken stuff, etc. You will find much larger variety of components than just LEDs and capacitors. All you need is soldering iron to desolder parts you need.I started taking things apart from, what... 4-5 years old? I didn't even have a soldering iron, just tried to find components with long enough legs so that they could be snapped off with side cutters and still somehow connected by wrapping a wire into the remaining piece of leg. I had collections of resistors, ceramic capacitors etc. which I knew what they are called and what they kinda-sorta do but of course no skills to build any actual circuits out of them yet.I really got into buyingnew components(and soldering, at the same time) at age 8 or so, so it was many years by just cutting off components from scrapped PCBs from whatever old electronics.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 12:29:39 pm
content: Do you live near or can you get to a nearby hackspace? Many times they are happy to donate components to people who are wanting to get into engineering, and if not, you can always work on projects there. The hackspace I'm at is entirely voluntary on their monthly fee (I pay because I can afford it), and the one I was at before had a 50% off rate for those on benefits, low income etc.

author: Xena E
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 10:51:14 pm
content: How broke is broke?Plug in breadboards are under £3 each at Rapid electronics last time I looked. (If you want to torture yourself with such crap.)Aliex / Temu, does packs of nice matrix boards for little money too.Perma Proto boards (adafruit rip offs) are available on the Ebay for under £1 each in small quantities post free from UK sellers. (assuming your flag is your home not just your heritage.)I assume through hole LEDs. I don't have but...Work has just had a chuck out of TH electrolytic caps (out of date stock) small value low voltage, low end stuff. Probably 99% OK.As others have said, there's no shame in recycling junk stuff.Can you be more specific what you need?X

author: flipper
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 11:50:49 pm
content: Quote from: Xena E on November 18, 2024, 10:51:14 pmBroke = literally no income or benefits (a long, tedious saga). Yes absolutely THT LEDs, and I’d not known caps had “use by” dates like Tins of tuna 😁Yea my home is England, born and bred.Thank you.

author: Xena E
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2024, 12:13:27 am
content: Quote from: flipper on November 18, 2024, 11:50:49 pmStandard stock electrolytic caps in work place stores do have a notional 3year use by mandated on them, probably OK if kept in good storage for ten times that, but they do deteriorate, and then there's ISO quality assurances ...Again, say what you are looking for, if I can get it and you are willing to pay the postage, or collect, they're yours.X

author: flipper
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2024, 12:22:48 am
content: Quote from: Xena E on November 19, 2024, 12:13:27 amI’ll message you. Thank you so much.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2024, 02:48:18 am
content: Agree with the others that e-waste is full of perfectly good components, free for the price of your labour in extracting them. Much of the stuff that gets shipped to China gets salvaged in the same way.