I imagine every electrical engineer has their own list of "comfortable" parts that they use all the time
ours are like... TIP122, IRF540, (2N/MMBT)(3904/3906/2222), UJ3N120065K3S (look, SiC high-voltage JFETs are useful things, i don't care how weird or moderately-expensive they are), IXD_614, 5-1634503-1, stackpole RNF series resistors, probably a few others that don't come to mind immediately
-F
we actually don't have any diodes on the list at the moment because the real common ones like the 1n4148 or 1n400x aren't remotely suitable for the kinds of work we do and what we would need them for
-F
if you do any EE work, even just as a hobby, I'd like to know what yours are!
-F
@Felthry integrated li-ion chargers and boost/buck drivers but as like, a class of component.
5mm WS2812 5mm LED.
The idea of using external microUSB as power supply, maybe.
@starkatt Huh, I suppose those switching regulator chips are pretty similar in operation, at least if you get the good ones with LT part numbers (TI's ones might be too, never used them though)
we don't have any real experience with li-ion stuff though, or those particular LEDs--when we need LEDs, we tend to use whatever's cheapest in the right color from a reasonably good manufacturer (Kingbright, usually)
-F
@Felthry Kingbright has a super cool line of pastel LEDs!
@starkatt Haven't ever played with those! The only situations we've ended up using LEDs in is for indicators or, in one experimental thing we ended up not using, photovoltaic cells (LEDs make reasonably good ones, actually, for their size, though the lens can mess things up)
-F
@starkatt and of course for those applications we usually get cheap ones in red or green or yellow
-F
@starkatt I suppose if we're counting classes of parts, we'd also have to say PCB-mount DC-DC converter modules, just because our job focuses more on "make the thing work" than "make the thing work cheaply", so spending a few dollars extra to get a guaranteed good working DC-DC converter (usually with good input-to-output isolation too!! that's hard to do yourself!!) that requires only like four pins soldered is worth it
-F
@starkatt although that one time we needed to find an LED that would have reasonable brightness with 40 μA through it was definitely not just a "buy the cheapest one" situation
-F