I have a Netduino Plus and I am trying to put together a shopping list to one of my usual vendors for digital "glue" parts I can use with it. I am experienced in electronics but I haven't bought IC's (other than regulators) in a while.
This is a difficult question, but what digital chips are people using? I'm not referring to specialized chips, such as an RTC (that is on my shopping list for other reasons) but to the glue chips I need to make things work with a microcontroller. (I have several other boards, including some MSP430 boards so my question is applicable to these too.)
(I'm not considering analog or RF chips for the moment; I have plenty of 555's and 741's; they're like mice!)
As an example, I am looking at an 74LS595 shift register so I can use a few surplus Hitachi-based LCD's I have without the hassle of finding enough pins to directly drive it from the Netduino. Is the 595 tolerant in the modern 3.3V logic environment?
I know, too, that I will probably use chips like the 4066 switches, so those are on the list.
Another example: What is a good binary/BCD 7-segment driver for use these days?
It's been years since anyone could just run down the catalog of Mouser or Digi-Key and get 2 of everything with a 74/74LS or 4000 prefix and I don't expect to be able to do the same. I'd just hate unpacking my order and finding another neat project on the net that I must have but didn't order in the box.
Best Answer
OK, this is what I wound up ordering from two vendors. This isn't a plug; these are just two that I usually order from.
From SparkFun:
From Mouser:
The SA612 seems like an odd choice for general tinkering; I'm a ham radio operator, though. I did decide to get the temperature sensor; we have a 600 dollar IT environment monitor at work and it is tempting to replicate that with a 59 dollar dev board for my personal server. The battery holders are related to the RTC I'm planning to use, and I've gotten an assortment of 74LS logic so I can interface an LCD (Hitachi-based) and some seven-segment displays I have. The GPS parts are for the specific module (EM406A) I got from SparkFun.
To broaden this for other experimenters, I'd also recommend the following things I have in my parts bins:
The Maker Shed has a nice starter kit for $120 with an option to get it with your choice of Arduino, Netdunio or Netduino Plus, which covers many of the items on my list.