Toolbox
Robert G. Dennis, Ph.D.

    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.
 
General Supplies
Machine Tools
Sensors
Optics/electro-optical
Chemicals
Enzymes & Antibodies
Culture Media & Supplies
Electro-mechanical
OEM Search
 Surgical Instruments
Electronics
Mechanism Components
 Test & Fab Equipment
 Services
Software
 Metals-Plastics-Ceramics
 Tissues, Cells, DNA...
Data Acquisition
 Reference Materials
 Miscellaneous

Bob's Home Page   Current ResearchMuscle Mechanics Lab (U of M)     Biomechatronics Group @ MIT




GENERAL LABORATORY SUPPLIES

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.

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MACHINE TOOLS

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.

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SENSORS

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

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OPTICS & ELECTRO-OPTICAL

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.

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CHEMICALS

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

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CULTURE MEDIA & SUPPLIES

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

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ENZYMES & ANTIBODIES

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.

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TISSUES, CELLS, DNA...

ATCC   American Type Culture Collection:  Cell lines, media, hybridomas, mycoplasma detection kits, ...

Clonetics  Cell lines and media

BioWhitaker  Cell lines & media

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ELECTRONICS

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.



Component Distributors:
DigiKey  Superlative selection of components, good prices, excellent availability and delivery.

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.



Manufacturers: (get data sheets directly from the web; in some cases order parts directly, or get free samples)
IC Master  Huge database of many IC manufacturers.  Find or identify parts by logo, find equivalent parts from other manufacturers....

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.



Specialty:
Cooner wire  Specialty wire and cable, including electrode wire for implantable devices.

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.

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ELECTRO-MECHANICAL / FILTERS

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

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MECHANISM COMPONENTS

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.

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OEM SEARCH

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.

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DATA ACQUISITION

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

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SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS AND SUPPLIES

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.

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SOFTWARE

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 ++).

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TEST & FAB EQUIPMENT

 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.

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METALS-PLASTICS-CERAMICS

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

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SERVICES

Wale Apparatus Company  Glass fixture manufacturing.

Unified Machine  General machine shop support, prototyping, etc.
 
 

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MISCELLANEOUS

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

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REFERENCE MATERIALS

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.

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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