I get most of my electronics parts from two sources... One is local, the other international... The local source is more expensive, the non-local takes a lot more time. There can be a difference in what is available, but anything that both have I decide on is based on a speed vs cost question - do I want it quickly, or cheaply? For a lot of things at the moment, I go the cheap option, and just have to put up with waiting three weeks.
However, going that route has its problems - when you buy something, you need to make sure you get everything for it... I just received my order from before Christmas - lots of fun goodies (more below), which included (importantly) some non-polarised header sockets...
Except - I forgot to also order the pins for them. The pins being what the wire attaches to to make contact with (and hence use of) any header pins you want to actually use. So another order is required... I will fake it, most of the boards come with both socket and pins, so I'll use the sockets for the moment.
As for the parts that I got - a small I2C real time clock, some PIR sensors, logic level converters... Not anything to get excited about, but all make for useful things for a robot to have... I also realised the other day that it would be awfully useful for a robot to have an on-board logging system, particularly when a lot of data could need to be analysed, a view reinforced by one book I've been reading on the pitfalls and problems with robots. Actually getting to anything to work can be an interesting challenge of course, but that's the interesting thing about putting together this sort of a project...
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