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Robert G. Dennis, Ph.D. |
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Finding the parts and
information you need is often more time consuming than actually designing
and testing your Ideas. This is my list of information resources.
In any category, I typically start my search at the top (most useful resources
in general) and work my way down. This is why the entries in each
category are not alphabetical.
Bob's Home Page Current ResearchMuscle Mechanics Lab (U of M) Biomechatronics Group @ MIT
McMaster-Carr Supply Company Unbelievable selection of industrial materials, tools, and supplies. Single most useful source.
Owens & Minor Vast selection of medical supplies
Fisher Excellent selection of biological and biomedical equipment, supplies and disposables.
VWR Excellent selection of biological and biomedical equipment, supplies and disposables.
Thomas Scientific laboratory equipment and supplies
World Precision Instruments Lots of odd stuff for the lab; adhesives and RTV, instruments, sensors and data acquisition, sales!
Daigger Discount laboratory supplies.
Grainger Large selection of low-cost, industrial grade supplies, including large motors and solenoids, and pumps.
Cole-Parmer General instruments and lab supplies
Pall Corporation General lab supplies, filters, funnels, membranes
Harvard Apparatus Laboratory instrumentation, pumps, sensors, etc...
Herbach & Rademan Great general supplier, new and used electromechanical components.
Discount Tools Very nice selection of inexpensive tools with significant academic discounts.
McMaster-Carr Supply Company Excellent selection of tools. So popular that UPS ground delivery is equivalent to overnight.
Carr-Lane good selection of component parts for jigs and fixtures
American Carbide excellent prices and selection on carbide machine tools, even for small quantities.
MSC Industrial Supply Very inexpensive machine tools and gages.
J&L Industrial Supply General machine tools and gauging.
Production Tool Supply Cutting and grinding tools.
Center for Neural Communication Technology (CNCT) (University of Michigan) Implantable neural electrode arrays.
F. W. Bell magnetic and electronic sensors, Hall effect sensors, high precision
Wilcoxon Research Vibration sensors, vibration generators and shakers
BioPac Systems, Inc. Electrodes for EMG, etc. Try the EL503 general electrodes (inexpensive and disposable)
Rattus et al. (aka Kent Scientific) Physiologic sensor and data acquisition systems.
Harvard Apparatus Laboratory instrumentation
Measurement Specialties Incorporated Accelerometers, piezo, pressure
Cole-Parmer General instruments and lab supplies
Transducer Techniques load cells for force and torque
Sensotec Load cells, accelerometers, LVDTs, torque transducers.
Load Cell Central (take a wild guess what they sell)...5% academic discount
Renishaw Linear and rotary encoders.
US Digital really cool and inexpensive linear and rotary encoder elements that you can build into larger assemblies
Mitutoyo Excellent gauges, calipers, digital micrometers (many available through McMaster-Carr)
Motorola Pressure sensors.
Davis Instruments Miscelaneous sensors.
Mechmesin Force & Torque measurement, sensors & instrumentation
Sunshine Sensors inexpensive but very good quality load cells for mid-range loads (kgf)
Singer Instruments (LVDT, inclinometers, painless injectors, force transducers, ...
Figaro Gas sensors
Electrovac Gas sensors
Analytical Industries Inc. Medical-grade gas sensors
Melles Griot Excellent, reasonably priced optics and optical components, custom fab, superb catalog.
Thorlabs, Inc. Reasonable prices, excellent selection, fast delivery
Edmund Industrial Optics Decent selection of extremely low cost optical components.
Newport anti-vibration tables, lasers, optical fixturing and positioning.
Sigma Huge inventory of chemicals of all types. Recent additions to their product line specifically for cell culture.
Dow Huge supplier of industrial chemicals of all kinds.
Dow Corning Silastic type A and other cool stuff, if you can talk them into selling it to you. Need NOT be a plastic Surgeon to buy.
ICN Pharmaceuticals
Gibco BRL (Life Technologies) Excellent selection of media, growth factors, and other supplies for cell culturists.
Sigma Huge inventory of chemicals of all types. Recent additions to their product line specifically for cell culture.
Clonetics Cell lines and media
BioWhitaker Cell lines & media
Worthington High quality tissue dissociation products. Collagenases, general enzymes, etc.
Gibco BRL (Life Technologies) Excellent selection of media, growth factors, and other supplies for cell culturists.
Ambion RNA.
BD Biosciences Antibodies, etc...
Chemicon Molecular biology, antibodies, etc...
Dako Immunocytochemistry, antibodies, flow cytometry, clinical chemistry...
Santa Cruz Biotechnology Antibodies
Upstate Biotechnology Cell signalling, drug discovery.
Vector Laboratories (Novocastra Distributor) Immunostaining, , in situ hybridization, neurotracing, ELISAs, flow cytometry,...
Zymed Antibodies.
ATCC American Type Culture Collection: Cell lines, media, hybridomas, mycoplasma detection kits, ...
Clonetics Cell lines and media
BioWhitaker Cell lines & media
Printed Circuit Boards:
expressPCB
Free design and layout software (very easy to use), order PC boards on
line, two-sided 1/16" FR-4 boards only
must have credit card, quick turn around time (Hint: use MiniBoards when
possible, otherwise Standard)
PCBexpress Multi-layer boards, more sophisticated software, reasonable prices.
Newark Electronics Enormous inventory, prices are a bit high, good place to find power supplies, connectors, etc.
Arrow Electronics Large supplier of components and computer products.
Avnet Marshall Decent supplier, good price and availability info.
Electronet.com Huge index of electronic manufacturers.
EEM Online Electronic Engineers Master Catalog. Huge list of manufacturers of all kinds.
Microchip
Inexpensive, easy to use, and highly versatile microcontrollers.
Buy them from DigiKey.
Also get the PicStart programmer
to program the devices (DigiKey),
and the CCS PCW compiler
from Custom Computer Services, to
program the devices using an optimizing C compiler.
B & B Electronics Superb selection of inexpensive interface products, such as serial converters and even USB data acquisition systems!
Dallas Semiconductor Great line of unique components, including NV SRAM, timekeeping, digital potentiometers, ...
National Semiconductor Basic logic and linear ICs, regulators, op-amps, comparators. Some hybrid products.
Fairchild (spin off of National Semiconductor) Logic (tiny logic chips, extremely cool), analog, mixed signal, interface, ...
Apex Microtech Unbelievable op amps. Powerful enough to drive DC motors, SONAR, even welders! Long lead times. $$$
Panasonic Generally excellent electro-optical and electro-mechanical components, etc...
Analog Devices Superior IC components for analog and mixed signals, data conversion, DSP, RF, and power management.
Burr Brown Excellent mixed signal and analog IC's. Product line appears to be competitive with Analog Devices, many similar devices.
Motorola Excellent semiconductor ICs and some sensors as well. ...digital DNA??? does not compute...
Maxim Great stuff! All kinds of special function ICs, free samples! Order direct on-line or from DigiKey)
Teccor Great selection of SCRs, Rectifiers, Triacs, and Diacs, logic level controls for many.
International Rectifier Excellent HEXFETS, motor drives, etc.
Allegro Source and motor drivers, hall effect sensors, power management and conversion.
Texas Instruments DSP, analog, and mixed signal semiconductors.
AMD NV memory including a good selection of FLASH memory, embedded processors, processors.
Emulation Technology Vast array of interconnect solutions and adapters for ICs and prototyping.
Bourns Linear and rotary pots.
Power One Power supplies, programmable output (see p/n: LH 1901-2R, or the H1000 series)
Swampworks MFG Remote control radios at very reasonable prices!
Herbach & Rademan Great general supplier, new and used electromechanical components.
MicroMo Good line of very small motors and gearheads.
Clippard Instrument Laboratories Pneumatic and Hydraulic actuators & valves
All Electronics Very inexpensive motors, etc.
Mendelson Electronics Company assortment os motors and related stuff, plus random odds and ends.
MicroGroup Miniature Luer fittings and valves, stainless steel
The Lee Company Solenoid valves and miniature pumps
Aurora Scientific precision servo motor systems for muscle physiology research
Maxon Precision Motors Precision motor drives and systems.
solenoid-valves.net List of solenoid valve manufacturers with descriptions of products
Pacific Scientific Motors and controllers.
Load-Cells.org Good resource for force transducers, miniature load cells, etc. Lots of manufacturer links.
Control Engineering Online Search for electromechanical OEM.
Grainger Large selection of low-cost, industrial grade supplies, including motors and solenoids.
Futek Miniature load cells.
Images SI Inc. robotics, holography, sensors, UFO detectors, other miscellaneous cool & wierd stuff.
West Coast Magnetics power and RF magnetics, RF inductors, power inductors, current transformers,chokes, switch mode and 60 Hz transformers
Filters:
Meissner
Filtration Company
Universal
Air Filter
Qosina
Camfil
Farr
Pall
Syringe Filters
McMaster-Carr Supply Company Excellent selection of many materials at very reasonable prices. Pre-cut to usable sizes.
Small Parts, Inc. Just like it sounds, lots of small parts (mechanical components).
Carr-Lane good selection of component parts for jigs and fixtures
Kerk Motion Products Miniature ACME lead screws & nuts (available through McMaster Carr), screw rails, spline shafts
NSK Miniature ball screws
Stock
Drive Products Enormous selection of standard drive
components, excellent prices and availability, good catalog.
Cross reference
for gears, etc.
Berg Precision mechanical components; gears, bearings, pulley drives, shaft adapters, etc.
Apple Rubber Products excellent selection of small, and *very* small o-rings: microring
Globe Gear Big selection of, well, you guessed it, gears!
Bearingsupply.com Precision bearings.
Linear Bearings Just like it sounds...with lots of links
Boca Bearings well, bearings. Lots of them
National Precision Bearing More precision bearings.
Timken Precision Bearings (MPB) Yet more precision bearings.
Reid Tool Supply Co. Threaded fasteners, clamps, handles, custom tooling.
Servometer Bellows shaft couplings
Accurate Screw Machine Co. All types of threaded fasteners, spacers, handles, etc.
Thomas Register Huge database of over 150,000 Original Equipment Manufacturers, links to catalogs and CAD drawings.
IC Master Huge database of many IC manufacturers. Find or identify parts by logo, find equivalent parts from other manufacturers....
Electronet.com Links to home pages for pretty much every electronics manufacturer.
EEM Online Electronic Engineers Master Catalog. Huge list of manufacturers of all kinds.
Medical Design Technology (magazine) Wide range of medical related OEM products and advertising.
EE Product News (magazine) Great source for manufacturers of new electronic stuff, and some free samples.
Access Business Online Company Profiles Lots of stuff unrelated to Biohacking, but useful enough to find a manufacturer anyway.
Orthotics and Prosthetics equipment and supplies Web page containing links to many suppliers of materials for building prosthetic devices
Power-Supplies.net Good set of links to manufacturers of power supplies.
National Instruments Graphical software and data acquisition boards. Powerful programming language if you can ever figure it out.
Rattus et al. (aka Kent Scientific) Physiologic sensor and data acquisition systems.
B&B Electronics
Fine Science Tools Great selection of surgical tools, low-cost student versions.
Ethicon Suture, hemostats, surgical adhesives
Henry Schein Veterinary, dental, and medical supplies
Roboz Surgical instruments
ASSI (Accurate Surgical) Surgical and scientific instruments
Rattus et al. (aka Kent Scientific) Organ perfusion systems and surgical instruments.
World Precision Instruments Lots of odd stuff for the lab; adhesives and RTV, instruments, sensors and data acquisition,...
Materiel Services University of Michigan only, surgical supplies.
Custom Computer Services An excellent, low cost C compiler for the PIC16CXX series of microcontrollers.
theByte Factory Superb selection of software and development hardware for Microchip Microcontrollers and the PICC (CCS) compiler
MatLab/Simulink Outstanding software for matrix and vector calculations, symbolic computation, modeling, signal processing. Student version no longer has limited matrix size (Windows version 5.3 ++).
Agilent Technologies (a spin off of HP) Oscilloscopes, function generators, Bench top multimeters, handheld multimeters, power supplies, DNA microarrays...
Metric Test large supply of electronics bench test equipment.
Techni-Tool Electronic assembly and test equipment.
Jenson Electronic assembly and test equipment.
ThermoForma (was Forma Scientific) Biological safety cabinets, incubators, etc. Top quality stuff.
TestEquity Sales of Tektronix, HP (Agilent), Fluke, and other pretty decent test equipment manufacturers.
iStat Portable Clinical Analyzer System.
Abaxis, Inc. Blood analyzers, VetScan.
Beckman Coulter cell counting systems, centrifuges, DNA sequencers, robotics, workstations, blood (and other body fluid) analyzers.
Sanders Prototype, Inc. 3-d rapid prototyping systems.
MatWeb Web-based source for materilas information and data
McMaster-Carr Supply Company Excellent selection of many materials at very reasonable prices. Pre-cut to usable sizes.
Tico Titanium, Inc. Industrial Titanium Products
Titanium Joe Too cool to describe in words
ASAP Source Aluminum, steel, and Plastics. Excellent local source (if you happen to be in Ann Arbor, MI)
OnLine Metals.com Reasonable selection of commonly used metals
Small Parts, Inc. Just like it sounds, lots of small parts (mechanical components).
PEL Supply Company Excellent selection of products for use in orthotic and prosthetic devices
OnLine Metals.com Great for small orders of metals commonly used for research instrumentation prototyping. Metals cut to order.
Goodfellow Laboratory grade metals and ceramics, high purity, great selection, $$$$$
Carpenter Manufacturer of specialty steels, low expansion and special stainless steel alloys.
Alro Steel and other metals, plastics.
Continental Steel & Tube Company Aluminum, stainless steel, titanium,...
Schott Makers of Zerodur low expansion glass, just in case you decide to build a laser gyroscope or x-ray telescope, or whatever ...
Timken Steel.
AIN Plastics General plastics.
Commercial Plastics & Supply Corp. Lots of plastic products, including Prosthetic and Orthotic products.
Wale Apparatus Company Glass and glassworking.
Orthotics and Prosthetics equipment and supplies Web page containing links to many suppliers of materials for building prosthetic devices
Wale Apparatus Company Glass fixture manufacturing.
Unified
Machine General machine shop support, prototyping,
etc.
McMaster-Carr Supply Company Just about everything.
Small Parts, Inc. Just like it sounds, lots of small parts (mechanical components).
Orthotics and Prosthetics equipment and supplies Web page containing links to many suppliers of materials for building prosthetic devices
Core references that I find indispensable:
The Art of Electronics (Horowitz and Hill, Cambridge Univ. Press, ISBN: 0-521-37095-7)
Machinery's Handbook (Industrial Press, ISBN: 0-8311-1155-0)
Noise Reduction Techniques in Electronic Systems (Ott, Wiley Interscience, ISBN: 0-471-85068-3)
Controlling the World with your PC (Bergsman, Hightext Publications, ISBN: 1-878707-15-9). Hook up to your printer port.
The Radio Amateur's Handbook (American Radio Relay League, )
Optical Electronics (Yariv, Saunders, ISBN: 0-03-047444-2)
Optics (Hecht, Addison Wiley, ISBN: 0-201-11609-X)
Medical Instrumentation (Webster, Houghtin Mifflin, ISBN: 0-395-25411-6)
Merck Index
Mark's Handbook (McGraw-Hill, ISBN: 0-07-004123-7)
Mechanical Engineering Design (Shigley & Mischke, McGraw-Hill, ISBN: 0-07-056889-5)
Building Scientific Apparatus (Moore, Davis, Coplan, Addison Wesley, ISBN: 0-201-05532-5)
Elements of Materials Science Engineering (Van Vlack, Addison Wesley, ISBN: 0-201-08090-7)
Biomechanics (Y.C. Fung, Springer Verlag, ISBN: 0-387-97947-6)
Basic Biomechanics of the Musculoskeletal System (Nordin & Frankel, Lea & Febiger, ISBN: 0-8121-1227-X)
Physiology (Berne and Levy, Mosby, ISBN: 0-8016-1697-2)
Biomechanics and motor control of human movement (Winter, Wiley Interscience, ISBN: 0-471-50908-6)
Melles Griot Optics Guide 5 (request catalog from Melles Griot)
IC Master Huge database of many (most, all?) IC manufacturers. Find equivalent parts. You need to register to use it.
Bob's Home Page Muscle Mechanics Lab (U of M) Biomechatronics Group @ MIT
If you feel strongly that something should be added to or deleted from
these lists, please feel free to contact me at:
bdennis@ai.mit.edu
or bobden@umich.edu