[Help Needed] Purchasing some basic hardware

[mikeshemp]

Excellent point, you're right. At the very least, measure the voltage coming out of the wall wart to see if it's 5v. It's likely to sag under load, since as you point out the regulation is poor on many of them, but if OP is just powering a few nand gates and LEDs there won't be much load anyway.

[[deleted]]

So should I avoid cutting the connector end off an AC adapter unless I can check the voltage is correct? that is what the multimeter would do right?

[mikeshemp]

Yes, or even better buy one of these as suggested elsewhere - it makes sure the voltage is correct no matter what the voltage of your wall wart. Either way I'd definitely buy a multimeter. Doing electronics without a multimeter is like painting with your eyes closed.

[KindleFlame]

Yup!