In this article I look at a kit called the 30PCS 74HCxx Series NAND Gates Logic IC Kit and discover if its good value and should you buy it
Lets see an image of the kit that I received, you can see I have used a couple of the individual chips
74hcxx kit
Parts
Here is a list of parts in the kit
The prices are the quoted prices for 1 on the RS components site in pounds, some of these can only be bought in quantities of 5 or more
You may be able to find better deals shopping around
| SN74HC00N 1PCS | Quad 2-Input NAND Logic Gate, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.714 |
| SN74HC02N 1PCS | Quad 2-Input NOR Logic Gate, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.77 |
| SN74HC04N 1PCS | Hex Inverter, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.83 |
| SN74HC05N 1PCS | Hex Inverter, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.347 |
| SN74HC08N 1PCS | Quad 2-Input AND Logic Gate, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.659 |
| SN74HC10N 1PCS | Triple 3-Input NAND Logic Gate, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.859 |
| SN74HC14N 1PCS | Hex Schmitt Trigger Inverter, 14-Pin PDIP | 1.303 |
| SN74HC21N 1PCS | Dual 4-Input AND Logic Gate | 0.382 |
| SN74HC30N 1PCS | 8-Input NAND Gate 14-PDIP | |
| SN74HC32N 1PCS | Quad 2-Input OR Logic Gate, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.714 |
| SN74HC74N 1PCS | Dual D Type Flip Flop IC, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.649 |
| SN74HC125N 1PCS | Quad-Channel Buffer & Line Driver, 3-State, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.382 |
| SN74HC126N 1PCS | Quad Tri-State Bus | 0.53 |
| SN74HC132N 1PCS | Quad 2-Input NANDSchmitt Trigger Logic Gate, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.79 |
| SN74HC138N 1PCS | Decoder, 16-Pin PDIP | 0.73 |
| SN74HC139N 1PCS | Decoder, 16-Pin PDIP | 0.706 |
| MC74HC157AN 1PCS | Multiplexer Quad | 0.563 |
| SN74HC163N 1PCS | 4-stage Surface Mount Binary Counter HC, 16-Pin | 0.302 |
| SN74HC164N 1PCS | 8-stage Through Hole Shift Register HC, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.55 |
| SN74HC165N 1PCS | 8-stage Through Hole Shift Register HC, 16-Pin PDIP | 0.679 |
| SN74HC174N 1PCS | D-Type Flip-Flop | 0.75 |
| SN74HC244N 1PCS | Octal-Channel Buffer & Line Driver, 3-State, 20-Pin PDIP | 0.89 |
| SN74HC245N 1PCS | 1 Bus Transceiver, 8-Bit Non-Inverting CMOS, 20-Pin PDIP | 0.857 |
| SN74HC273N 1PCS | Octal D Type Flip Flop IC, 20-Pin PDIP | 0.997 |
| SN74HC373N 1PCS | 8bit-Bit Latch, Transparent D Type, 3 State, 20-Pin PDIP | 0.95 |
| SN74HC374N 1PCS | Octal Edge-Triggered D-Type Flip-Flops With 3-State Outputs | 0.65 |
| SN74HC393N 1PCS | 4-stage Through Hole Binary Counter HC, 14-Pin PDIP | 0.349 |
| SN74HC573N 1PCS | 8bit-Bit Latch, Transparent D Type, 3 State, 20-Pin PDIP | 1.061 |
| SN74HC574N 1PCS | Octal D Type Flip Flop IC, 3-State, 20-Pin PDIP | 0.858 |
| SN74HC595N 1PCS | 8-stage Through Hole Shift Register HC, 16-Pin PDIP | 0.86 |
| £20.681 |
Prices
Originally bough these on Aliexpress but couldn’t find them there but here are 3 sources and the prices when I visited the website
| Amazon COM | $22 |
| Amazon UK | £21 |
| Ebay | $29 |
I did originally find this cheaper, about £15 plus shipping with other items – not really a big improvement.
Summary
An interesting one this, the initial impressions are the kit looks like great value. Is it actually great value, I would say the answer is no
You get an interesting range of 74HC ICs but even with a site like mine where I plan to use these for various tutorials its hard to justify buying this kit versus simply buying what you need.
You can see from the UK prices I would basically have to use all of these to break even, the only saving being the actual time to search and buy individual parts.
In future projects which I will document on this site, I was able to use six but again I needed 5 x SN74HC00N. So this kit is limited use again.
Not recommended, buy the parts you need