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I'm just getting into electronics as a hobbyist. When I want to make a project (say from MAKE magazine) I find I don't know enough to easily choose between the hundreds or thousands of available matching parts when ordering the components. Sometimes when the resistor I ordered arrives, I'm surprised by what it looks like.

Are there any rules of thumb to follow for a hobbyist like myself that can make choosing parts easier? Or perhaps some "blessed" list of parts I can choose from somewhere online that would be a good default when I just need some generic capacitor, resistor, etc?

I usually use octopart to find components. This similar question about SMT components was great, but I don't think I'll be using those anytime soon. Also this OT question about which components to always have on hand looks like it will help me as well.

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This question will probably be closed (shopping questions generally aren't welcome here unfortunately), so I'll start a chat conversation with you about suggested parts. – SimpleCoder Apr 15 '12 at 1:55
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ah, my bad; the question about SMT parts seemed well-reeived so I figured it would be good. feel free to close. Thanks for the suggestions! – jberryman Apr 15 '12 at 2:06
Yeah, they kept it around because it has "historical significance", but it shouldn't be used "as evidence that you can ask similar questions here" :\. Chat, however, is unregulated, as evidenced by the discussion on beer a few days ago :) – SimpleCoder Apr 15 '12 at 2:09
@SimpleCoder - thanks for taking this to chat! I've added a post notice to the SMT question. – Kevin Vermeer Apr 15 '12 at 2:31
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closed as off topic by Kevin Vermeer Apr 15 '12 at 2:30

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