Arduino Cookbook

Appendix A. Electronic Components

If you are just starting out with electronic components, you may want to purchase a beginner’s starter kit that contains the basic components needed for many of the recipes in this book. These usually include the most common resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes, LEDs, and switches.

Here are some popular choices:

Maker Shed Arduino starter kit

http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MSGSA

Starter Kit for Arduino-Flex (SKU: DEV-09952)

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9952

Adafruit Starter Pack for Arduino-1.0 (product ID #68)

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=68

Oomlout Starter Kit for Arduino (ARDX)

http://oomlout.co.uk/arduino-experimentation-kit-ardx-p-183.html

Seeeduino Catalyst Pack

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/super-seeeduino-catalyst-pack-p-257.html

You can also purchase the individual components for your project, as shown in Figure A-1. The following sections provide an overview of common electronic components—part numbers can be found on this book’s website.

Figure A-1. Schematic representation of common components

A.1. Capacitor

Capacitors store an electrical charge for a short time and are used in digital circuits to filter (smooth out) dips and spikes in electrical signals. The most commonly used capacitor is the nonpolarized ceramic capacitor; for example, a 100nF ...