[atribecalledqst]

Non-EE here, but I went through a bit of the lab course as a hobbyist.

Unfortunately a lot of the parts on the lab course's list are end of life now, and it's not always clear what you can substitute them with. There aren't always replacement parts with the exact same specs on digikey. I did source a couple parts through eBay.

Additionally, there are parts that aren't in the BOM that are used in the lab course. An early one has you doing a test against a black box with something inside it, and the book only tells you later what was supposed to be inside it. I think there's a basic control theory chapter at some point, and there are parts in that chapter that weren't in the BOM.

Ultimately, I got frustrated with the book continuing to ask me to use stuff I didn't know I was supposed to have, and gave up. It got annoying having to get partially through a chapter, order something, wait for it to arrive, then continue. Maybe I would have stuck with it if I'd checked up-front what I was expected to have for all the chapters, and got EVERYTHING in advance. (but again I think it's going to get harder and harder to actually buy what's in the BOM as time goes on)