Quote:
Originally Posted by 73eldo
How about some details on how and where to find the parts?
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Yeah, that's a good call. Unfortunately, this was the first time I did anything with small circuitry so I might not be the best source of information. Maybe someone else will chime in. Then again, I suppose if I got it done even though I had no experience there might be something I can offer. I was intimidated by some of the vernacular used when describing the circuitry (ohms, watts, minimum gain, etc.) No need to worry about any of that stuff though. Keep reading.
Believe it or not, I was able to get every single needed item from Amazon. Don't be too worried about paying $3 to have them send you a 10 cent resistor. They sell all of this stuff in bulk with free shipping (no prime needed). I think I paid something like $7 for a bag of 100 resistors and another $7 for a bag of 100 transistors. I looked at it this way, plenty of spares for the inevitable screw ups. I simply searched for "2N2222 NPN Transistor" and got a lot of hits. Don't worry about the "minimum gain" talked about in the one diagram. Research shows that 2N2222 NPNs are are the same. I did the same search with "4.7 ohm 1/4 watt resistor" and again, a lot of hits.
Next, I got some small 2" x 2" circuit boards (Amazon has a ton of sizes available, get small ones, they all be trimmed with a razor blade though). I then got something called a circuit board "project box" which is a plastic box a to put everything in when done. These have pre-cut holes on the sides to allow the wiring out. Some silicon when done will make them weather tight. Again, both the circuit boards and the project boxes will come in bulk so you'll get a lot of them for cheap. Heck, while I was at it I even got a new soldering iron rather than using the ancient one I inherited from my dad. Again, this is not a ton of money. Not including the new soldering iron I spent all of about $25 in parts (to include a ton of spare pieces) and $30 for a decent quality HEI. Better, with all the spare parts I was able to solder a few of these together to have a little stash ready for future conversions.
Last thing, there are some "how to" videos online pertaining to soldering circuit boards and such. I watched a few of these to get a feel for what needs done. There isn't much to it.