Check out this octopart search engine for electronic parts. It seems to searching mouser, digikey, and other major electronic part companies for stuff. The creator dropped out of school to make this so everyone please take a look! P.S. I couldn’t find any Make controllers, Cublocs, or any controllers that are not being sold through the major suppliers… (maybe they can add them…)
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What are relays? You need relays for various DC/AC devices. Even your car has 30-40 relays on it for your head lamps, tail lights, turn signals, and etc…
Here’s an example of making a Party Light using a CUSB22R that has relays on-board. You have couple options:
For small to medium apps requiring up to 5A at 250VAC or 5A at 30VDC, you can try relay4 board or
Here’s a cool DIY on how to make your MP3 Player that fits in a Altoid can from MIT.
It uses a PIC microcontroller, STA MP3 decoder, DAC, Compact Flash as memory card, and a USB interface from FDTI, which is kinda good combination of chips I would say
The Minty MP3 player can be built from parts that are sold at Ye Olde Traditional electronics distributor (digikey/mouser/newark). Half of the parts can be sampled for free, for a minimal total cost
