Main page and three sub-pages with material properties and online resources:
Fun Materials>>

www.hardwaresource.com

Here's my research into mobile development for Interactive Environment class.
http://users.design.ucla.edu/~yunsil/IEResearch/mobileDevelopment.pdf

Here is my comprehensive list of actuators for the DESMA 256 - Interactive Environments course:
http://users.dma.ucla.edu/~datadreamer/256/actuators.html

In it you will find information on motors, shape memory alloys, light bulbs, electroluminescent semiconductors, speakers, heating and cooling devices, relays, and transistors.

Foam Sales
1005 W Isabel St, Burbank
533-F7
(818) 558-5717
M-F 8-4:30
student discount

Glass Garden
3511 W 6th St
(213) 368-9220

Hasting Plastics
1704 Colorado, SM
671-F1
(310) 829-3449
M-Sat 8-5:30

Solter
12016 W. Pico Bl.
632-B6
(310) 473-5115
M-F 8-5:30

Plasticmart
2101 Pico Pl.
671-F3
(310) 451-1701
M-Sat 9-5:30

John Cameron Supply
11500 W Washington Blvd
672-F2
(310) 390-9035
M-F 8-5
precision equipment, scales, squares, and bits student discount

Ames Industrial Supply Co.
4516 Brazil St
564-C5
(818) 240-9313

Bobco-Metal
2000 S Alameda
674-G3
(213) 748-5171
M-F 7:30-4:30; Sat 7:30-12
metal distributor

Broadway Sheet Metal
1748 21th St, SM
671-G1
(310) 829-3416

Don G. Jennes Company
1420 Lawrence St
634-G7
(213) 748-4229

Industrial Metal Supply
3303 N.San Fernando Blvd. Burbank
533-G7
(818) 848-4439
M-F 7-5 Sat 8-2
student discount

Los Angeles Children's Museum
310 Main St
634-F4
(213) 687-8800
recycled materials sold in bulk

M&K Metal
14108 S Western Ave Gardena
733-H1
(310) 327-9011
M-F 8-4:30; Sat 8:30-1

Fisher Lumber
1601 14th St SM
671-F1
310 395-0956
M-F 7-5:30; Sat 8-5; Sun 9-4
Lumber, hardware, building supplies

Fernando's Lumber
5836 S Los Angeles
674-D6
(323) 234-7993
M-F 7:30-4
A real lumber store, without the hardware/ home improvement stuff, student discount

Geib Lumber Company
2275 E 49th St
674-H4
(323) 588-2161

Loveday Lumber
500 N Ford Blvd
635-F5
(323) 269-9591

House of Hardwood
2143 Pontius, West LA
632-A4
(310) 479-4196
M-F 7:30-5; Sat 8-noon
Hardwoods, specialty woods, veneers, 24 planers, 35 sanders

MacBeathe Hardwood
7653 Telegraph Rd Montebello

I wrote this little document for my Interactive Media seminar at SCI-Arc over the summer. It tries to explain in really basic terms what switches, relays, and transistors do, and how they are kind of similar to eachother. (3 page PDF)

Microcontrollers for beginners, using the Arduino platform (bring yours!)

More Arduino resources

These five tutorials do a good job introducing
1. Blink an LED with Arduino
2. Reading a button
3. Read a variable resistor
4. Read a button and send to a PC and here is a super simple Processing program to receive

This is a totally awesome website that includes lots of tutorials for hacks into various controllers (from RC cars to old video game console joysticks). The motivation for the website is to make these games and devices more accessible to people with severe learning and/or physical disabilities. It's a great resource for people who are simply interested in how interfaces condition behavior, reinforce ideas of the normal, and exclude other types of experience, or new ways of experiencing technology.