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CS/E 181 Senior Design Project Resources

Ideas for projects and methods

• List of ideas
• Past years: 2008
• Instructables, a DIY site
• Make 'Zine, an online DIY magazine
• Curious Inventor has a few nice guides.

Parts and Supplies

Local

• Mar Vac Electronics, Costa Mesa
  • Nearby; retail components and tools
• Action Electronics, Santa Ana (also a place next door)
  • Nearby, good selection, some retail some surplus
• Radio Shack, obviously
• Fry's Electronics has more than you might think (prototype boards, parts)
• Orvac Electronics, Fullerton
• All Electronics, Van Nuys (LA)
  • A bit of a hike, but tons of interesting stuff; surplus
• Let me know if you know of others...

Online

• Digikey
• Mouser
• SparkFun -- eclectic selection of surplus parts, adapter & interface boards, etc.

Design and Fabrication

• Wikipedia's list of schematic capture programs
  • KiCad, an open source design program
  • Eagle, an inexpensive design program with a limited free version
    • Schematic capture instructable for Eagle
    • Making library parts instructable for Eagle
    • PCB layout instructable for Eagle
• PCB Fabrication suppliers
  • AP Circuits
  • BatchPCB
  • These and many others are listed here...