Driver to drive?

[Albert van der Horst]

In article <3d5301ad-1199-4319-a789-910492a123d5@googlegroups.com>,
Phil Hobbs <pcdhobbs@gmail.com> wrote:

Unvetted ones would pay even more, given it's a simple matter to make an
extremely powerful explosive from it!

But not so simple to survive handling the resulting product in any quantity. Fulminate of mercury is touchy stuff, almost in the nitrogen triiodide class.

A simple calculation reveals that normal explosives (TNT) pack
more punch. Fulminate is used for detonation, and may be hard
to come by.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Groetjes Albert
--
Albert van der Horst, UTRECHT,THE NETHERLANDS
Economic growth -- being exponential -- ultimately falters.
albert@spe&ar&c.xs4all.nl &=n http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst

 

[Albert van der Horst]

In article <gdgl2ct0ikctktbf158uq30pu7c31pjt0q@4ax.com>,
<upsidedown@downunder.com> wrote:

On Mon, 14 Nov 2016 20:40:32 -0800 (PST), sideley@yahoo.com wrote:

Ok, i see that there are people in here.

I am running a led fixture made out of a fluorescent fixture and a MC PCB: 8 1W leds are soldered to a MCPPCB which is glued to the aluminium shade by means of a glue and thermal paste. See photos for your reference.

The 8 leds are mounted into 2 series of 4 leds.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=690081&d=1479100005

When the leds are supplied with a 175mA current, the temperature on the aluminum shade (right at the back of the PCB) is about 35°C while the ambiant temp is about 30°C. But when supplied with 350mA, the nominal current, the temperature would raise up to roughly 60°C, which is way to hot.

In my opinion, the heat is partly because those leds are cheap and ineffcient. My question is if i replaced them with better quality chip leds with proven efficiency of about say 130lm/W, and run them at 350mA Would i still need to add over radiators to this homemade fixture ?

Look carefully at the LED specifications. The life time for those "1
W" LEDs are usually claimed at 150 or 175 mA, dropping rapidly at 300
or 350 mA.

The 130 lm/W is claimed at 150 mA or similar, but may drop to 100 lm/W
at 350 mA.

Run the LEDs at 1/2 maximum power and compensate the loss of absolute
brightness by doubling the number of LEDs. This will also simplify
thermal design, since the internal junction temperature rise relative
to heatsink is also halved.

There may be an other advantage. Running LEDs at maximum capacity
requires almost constant current supplies, mostly approximate
constant voltage with feedback, being careful not to surpass maximum
peek voltage.
This contrast with the practice in LED displays where duty cycles of 1:10
are common. Apparently low power leds have a much larger peek to continuous
ratio, but I never came accross an article drawing attention to that.
However if you feed the LED a sawtooth, the average voltage is halved.
A sawtooth is easily generated, because it is the natural decay of
current supplied by a loaded inductance coil, assuming the voltage
over the led is approximately constant, which is of course the LED
voltage.

P.S. I've build the circuit at
https://www.circuitsonline.net/schakelingen/122/lichteffecten/witte-led-op-15-v.html
It works, but the intensity and the frequency depends on the quality of the
transistors. Non-descript vintage silicon NPN fares much worse than the
BC547C (BC547A does fine).
The scope reveals that the LED only lights up about 1/3 of the time at a
frequency of about 50 Khz.

I would like to try the circuit with germanium transistors (I've still
a lot of those) and see how low it would go. What changes to the
components would be required? I don't understand the circuit well enough
to experiment fruitfully.

Groetjes Albert
--
Albert van der Horst, UTRECHT,THE NETHERLANDS
Economic growth -- being exponential -- ultimately falters.
albert@spe&ar&c.xs4all.nl &=n http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst

 

[David Eather]

On Tue, 07 Feb 2017 12:43:36 +1000, David Eather <eather@tpg.com.au> wrote:

I just received a couple of samples from buydisplay.com - high contrast
2004 lcd displays. Very nice displays with a promise to be available for
8 more years. They arrived in a custom made box, fully packed with
static dissipative foam and the displays themselves in sealed anti
static bags. All very nice and reassuring. The company also offers some
sort of tech support if needed (I assume it is rather limited but even
that would be much better than the normal 'dead' email link

--
Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

 

On Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 10:32:42 PM UTC+11, olds...@tubes.com wrote:

What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.

I have been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

Newark might work.

http://www.newark.com/

The Farnell/element 14 business model does seem happy to ship small quantities.

I've not bought stuff from Newark in the US, but the Australian branch seemed happy to ship a small order. In the Netherlands they will only deal with businesses that are registered with the local chamber of commerce (Kamer van Koophandel) which doesn't take much doing.

Newark does have pretty comprehensive catalog. The UK and Dutch organisations were well aware that selling small quantities of stuff to be used in development could be a precursor to much larger production orders, and equally aware that most of the time it wasn't.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

Il giorno martedĂŹ 21 febbraio 2017 12:32:42 UTC+1, olds...@tubes.com ha scritto:

What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.

I have been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

digikey has a shipping cost estimator:
http://www.digikey.com/ordering/shipping/shipcostestimator

and if I remember correctly over 50 or 60$ the shipping is free.

Bye Jack

 

[Wanderer]

On Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 6:32:42 AM UTC-5, olds...@tubes.com wrote:

What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.

I have been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

Thanks

I have these links bookmarked

https://www.sparkfun.com/
http://www.jameco.com/
http://www.goldmine-elec.com/
http://www.surplusshed.com/
https://www.adafruit.com/

But I mostly use ebay and I always check the North America Only box, because I hate the Chinese "maybe/someday" shipping policy. It's not fair to the rest of the world. I've had stuff shipped from England with no problems.

 

[Wanderer]

On Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 7:04:11 AM UTC-5, Don Y wrote:

On 2/21/2017 4:32 AM, oldschool@tubes.com wrote:
What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.

I have been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

The interactive "selection guide" at digikey makes short work of
finding the item(s) you seek. Successively refine your selection
until you have a very small number of items meeting your criteria
from which to choose.

You *might* be able to do this over dialup (19-56K) but it will be
a much nicer experience if you have a high(er)-speed connection.

IIRC, DK no longer has a minimum order amount.

And, if you "prepay" for your order (i.e., mail a check or money order
to them with a PRINTED order form), shipping is free. The downside is
that you then have to add the transit time of your USPS-mailed order
form to the arrival time of your order.

[I'll leave it to you to verify this policy is still in place. ISTR
it no longer applies to *battery* purchases (I used to exploit the
loophole to buy batteries without having to pay to ship all that
LEAD!)]

The other small hitch is figuring out the appropriate tax amount
to include in your PRE-payment. So, you either go through all
the motions of doing an on-line order -- transcribing all of the
pricing information to your paper order form -- and see what
it tells you as tax amount (I can't recall *if* it will do this).
*Or*, you have to telephone the order, get the same pricing info
and ask the operator for the tax amount/total-including-tax and
not place the order AT THAT TIME.

[If you do this, tell the operator what you are doing. He/she will
leave the order "in the system" and give you a reference number
for that "document". You can then reference that on your order
form to save the effort of having your printed order form transcribed
into the system when it arrives. Of course, you can't change items
or quantities after that...]

The digikey order form says it's free shipping if a check or money order is included.
www.digikey.com/US2011/order.pdf

 

[Don Y]

On 2/21/2017 4:32 AM, oldschool@tubes.com wrote:

What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.

I have been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

The interactive "selection guide" at digikey makes short work of
finding the item(s) you seek. Successively refine your selection
until you have a very small number of items meeting your criteria
from which to choose.

You *might* be able to do this over dialup (19-56K) but it will be
a much nicer experience if you have a high(er)-speed connection.

IIRC, DK no longer has a minimum order amount.

And, if you "prepay" for your order (i.e., mail a check or money order
to them with a PRINTED order form), shipping is free. The downside is
that you then have to add the transit time of your USPS-mailed order
form to the arrival time of your order.

[I'll leave it to you to verify this policy is still in place. ISTR
it no longer applies to *battery* purchases (I used to exploit the
loophole to buy batteries without having to pay to ship all that
LEAD!)]

The other small hitch is figuring out the appropriate tax amount
to include in your PRE-payment. So, you either go through all
the motions of doing an on-line order -- transcribing all of the
pricing information to your paper order form -- and see what
it tells you as tax amount (I can't recall *if* it will do this).
*Or*, you have to telephone the order, get the same pricing info
and ask the operator for the tax amount/total-including-tax and
not place the order AT THAT TIME.

[If you do this, tell the operator what you are doing. He/she will
leave the order "in the system" and give you a reference number
for that "document". You can then reference that on your order
form to save the effort of having your printed order form transcribed
into the system when it arrives. Of course, you can't change items
or quantities after that...]

 

[Pimpom]

On 2/21/2017 5:16 PM, bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:

On Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 10:32:42 PM UTC+11, olds...@tubes.com wrote:
What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.

I have been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

Newark might work.

http://www.newark.com/

The Farnell/element 14 business model does seem happy to ship small quantities.

I've not bought stuff from Newark in the US, but the Australian branch seemed happy to ship a small order. In the Netherlands they will only deal with businesses that are registered with the local chamber of commerce (Kamer van Koophandel) which doesn't take much doing.

Farnell/element14 require a tax registration here in India too.
The difference here is that registration takes some doing and the
concerned government agency demands reports of anything bought
from outside the state AND quarterly reports of sales, stock,
etc. Not worth the hassle for a hobbyist or a pro who's not
engaged in direct trade.

Besides, their prices are unbelievable - anywhere from 5 to 50
times those at brick-and-mortar shops.

OP, you could try the Chinese version of eBay www.aliexpress.com.
If you're not in a hurry, most items are available with free
shipping.

 

[dcaster@krl.org]

On Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 9:01:15 AM UTC-5, Pimpom wrote:

times those at brick-and-mortar shops.

you could try the Chinese version of eBay www.aliexpress.com.
If you're not in a hurry, most items are available with free
shipping.

I buy stuff off Ebay and Aliexpress. Mostly stock items, so the long delay is not important. The shipping times vary a lot. Some things show up inside of a week, and other things take well over a month. It is worth checking both Ebay and Ally, Ally usually has the best price, but not always.

Dan

 

[Kamen Lilov]

huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

The antique tube equipment requirement is going to be a tough one. Probably you will want to do EBay, at a great expense of money and time, or just rebuild your network of people who share a similar interest.

If you want generic parts, however, you really need to consider Aliexpress.

I read a lot of opinions how Chinese sellers did not understand what they were selling, how it was of dubious quality, and other failures of their moral character.

Yet, when I look at the numbers, Aliexpress sellers will send me a pack of 5 CPLDs (or similar) for $14 when Digikey will gladly take my $40 for one, yes you read that correctly, ONE piece of that same silicon.

Good customer service? Yes. Shorter shipping times? Yes. English speaaking reps on the phone? Yes, all good things.

But hey, buddy, when someone in Asia is asking for a 30% markup, and someone at Digikey asks me for a 5000% markup because they have six assistants and their immediate family as salaried employees... Sorry buddy, I'm going Far East.

Just to be clear, I do purchasing for an important electronics custom shop in my area and we do tens of ths of dollars per month on small quantities (dozens of passives, tens of simple chips, <10 on complex silicon) and yes, it is economical. As in "twenty times less expensive"

Digikey and Farnell need to learn that milking small shops only works up to a point. Then people wake up and go to the manufacturer. Or to someone in China who's just purchased ten reels of 5000 chips each and is selling small quantities for a small profit, instead of at twenty times cost.

 

On Wednesday, 22 February 2017 00:39:56 UTC, Kamen Lilov wrote:

huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

The antique tube equipment requirement is going to be a tough one. Probably you will want to do EBay, at a great expense of money and time, or just rebuild your network of people who share a similar interest.

If you want generic parts, however, you really need to consider Aliexpress.

I read a lot of opinions how Chinese sellers did not understand what they were selling, how it was of dubious quality, and other failures of their moral character.

Yet, when I look at the numbers, Aliexpress sellers will send me a pack of 5 CPLDs (or similar) for $14 when Digikey will gladly take my $40 for one, yes you read that correctly, ONE piece of that same silicon.

Good customer service? Yes. Shorter shipping times? Yes. English speaaking reps on the phone? Yes, all good things.

But hey, buddy, when someone in Asia is asking for a 30% markup, and someone at Digikey asks me for a 5000% markup because they have six assistants and their immediate family as salaried employees... Sorry buddy, I'm going Far East.

Just to be clear, I do purchasing for an important electronics custom shop in my area and we do tens of ths of dollars per month on small quantities (dozens of passives, tens of simple chips, <10 on complex silicon) and yes, it is economical. As in "twenty times less expensive"

Digikey and Farnell need to learn that milking small shops only works up to a point. Then people wake up and go to the manufacturer. Or to someone in China who's just purchased ten reels of 5000 chips each and is selling small quantities for a small profit, instead of at twenty times cost.

It depends what market you're in. I don't mind cheaply sourced simple parts, ie ones one can easily tell if they malfunction. But if you're building mil spec etc, you don't buy from random suppliers. And building equipment with 10k parts requires much more reliable parts than if it had only 10 parts for the same rate of faulty product. These days I design for the bottom of the market, and design so stuff should work with floor sweepings, field updiggings and toilet unblockings. Probably some look down at me for it, but I far prefer it. I always disliked the gross inefficiency and endless restrictions I had to work with at the other end of the market.


NT

 

[Jon Elson]

jack4747@gmail.com wrote:

digikey has a shipping cost estimator:
http://www.digikey.com/ordering/shipping/shipcostestimator

and if I remember correctly over 50 or 60$ the shipping is free.

No way! I've made $2000 orders with them on open account, and they still
charge for shipping. Maybe they give you a break for a credit card order,
but I doubt it. They even charge to ship backordered items, which Mouser
will cover for free.

Jon

 

[rickman]

On 2/21/2017 7:04 AM, Don Y wrote:

On 2/21/2017 4:32 AM, oldschool@tubes.com wrote:
What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I don't know of any minimums on Digikey or Mouser. I've bought $15
worth of stuff before. I tend not to place small orders with them
because of the shipping charges though. I tend to buy from eBay for
onesy-twosey or buy larger quantities from eBay of the stuff I expect to
use over some time.

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.

I don't find eBay a pain at all. But if you are using dialup, I expect
everything on the web is a pain. Until a couple-three years ago my only
choice at this location was to go to a country store that had wi-fi and
order the food (mostly yuck) and use their internet. I can't imagine
using dialup with hardly anything on the Internet these days. Many site
will appear to lock up as the graphic and ghost pages load.

I have been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

The interactive "selection guide" at digikey makes short work of
finding the item(s) you seek. Successively refine your selection
until you have a very small number of items meeting your criteria
from which to choose.

*Sometimes*, it depends on the item. It has been more than once that
they just plain don't do a good job of categorizing the properties I
wish to optimize.

Another nice thing about Digikey is they will ship via USPS Priority
which is faster than ground as well as cheaper. I get things in two day
that way and smaller shipments are under $6 if I remember.

--

Rick C

 

[Dave Platt]

In article <63596e17-2cd0-4e4c-9b0d-ab661c71e274@googlegroups.com>,
<bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I don't believe that either Mouser or Digi-Key has a minimum order
these days.

You're going to end up paying a few dollars for even the smallest
shipment, but that's likely to be the case for any of the major
distributors. From what I've seen, both Mouser and Digi-Key shipping
fees are pretty much "market rate", and you can make your own choice
about shipping format (trading off speed and cost).

If you want super-cheap shipping, "ePacket from China" seems to be the
common choice... reportedly these are subsidized shipments, and they
can take a long time to arrive (sent by container ship from China to
the US and then dropped into the USPS system).

One big advantage to the big distributors such as Mouser and Digi-Key
and Allied and Newark is that your chance of being sold
counterfeit/recycled/relabeled parts is small. The risk is a good
deal higher if you order from an eBay seller, from China, etc.

 

[rickman]

On 2/21/2017 3:15 PM, Jon Elson wrote:

oldschool@tubes.com wrote:

What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I buy a lot of stuff from Digi-Key. They do have a minimum order, but it is
not that bad. These days, if you buy a few chips as well as passives, you
are pretty likely to go above their minimum (I think it is still $25).
Their single-piece prices are not really steep.

Mouser is also pretty good.

I don't see a minimum order. I added one surface mount resistor for
$0.10 and I got as far as giving them a credit card number without any
complaint. They have 1st class USPS shipping for $3.39 for orders up to
14 ounces.

--

Rick C

 

[rickman]

On 2/21/2017 4:20 PM, Dave Platt wrote:

In article <63596e17-2cd0-4e4c-9b0d-ab661c71e274@googlegroups.com>,
bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home).

I don't believe that either Mouser or Digi-Key has a minimum order
these days.

You're going to end up paying a few dollars for even the smallest
shipment, but that's likely to be the case for any of the major
distributors. From what I've seen, both Mouser and Digi-Key shipping
fees are pretty much "market rate", and you can make your own choice
about shipping format (trading off speed and cost).

I haven't shipped anything from the other online vendors, but Digikey
and Mouser don't tack on overhead to the shipping charges (shipping
*and* handling). Other companies charge the shipping cost plus
something for them to offset the cost of packing and handling the order.

If you want super-cheap shipping, "ePacket from China" seems to be the
common choice... reportedly these are subsidized shipments, and they
can take a long time to arrive (sent by container ship from China to
the US and then dropped into the USPS system).

"Long time" is usually 2 to 3 weeks in my experience. Sometimes it can
be longer and sometimes they just disappear.

One big advantage to the big distributors such as Mouser and Digi-Key
and Allied and Newark is that your chance of being sold
counterfeit/recycled/relabeled parts is small. The risk is a good
deal higher if you order from an eBay seller, from China, etc.

One part I was using went EOL and only one distributor had any
inventory, which they had bought in anticipation of being able to charge
big bucks. The "gray" market on Aliexpress is less than half the price,
but I have no idea if these are real parts or counterfeits. The legit
parts were made in an offshore fab and it is very likely they ran some
extra which they sold on the gray market, but it's also possible some
third tier fabs in china are making clones that won't work nearly as
well. Even the back door parts made at the legit fab likely have not
been fully qualified over temp and voltage. They would have little
incentive to reject anything.

--

Rick C

 

Il giorno mercoledĂŹ 22 febbraio 2017 09:14:07 UTC+1, John Devereux ha scritto:

Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu> writes:

jack4747@gmail.com wrote:


digikey has a shipping cost estimator:
http://www.digikey.com/ordering/shipping/shipcostestimator

and if I remember correctly over 50 or 60$ the shipping is free.
No way! I've made $2000 orders with them on open account, and they still
charge for shipping. Maybe they give you a break for a credit card order,
but I doubt it. They even charge to ship backordered items, which Mouser
will cover for free.

Strange, for internationally shipped orders (to UK) shipping is free if
the order value is above $50.

all Europe is like this AFAIK.

Bye Jack

 

[whit3rd]

On Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 12:35:47 AM UTC-8, Martin Brown wrote:

On 22/02/2017 04:47, rickman wrote:
I've been fighting computer problems the last few days.

Before you do anything drastic boot the thing from a Linux live CD ...

Check that you aren't dealing with a hardware fault first!

Yes, seriously, do NOT attempt software rework until you look
(at the minimum) at a memory test.

 

On Wednesday, 22 February 2017 09:16:50 UTC, rickman wrote:

Once I am happy with the state of this damh machine and I get a new SSD
for it, I will copy the current system over to the SSD and I plan to
make it a dual boot with Linux. Maybe I'll get used to Linux enough
that I'll say goodbye to Windows for good.

The main problem with linux is it's in the hands of kids, and most distros have some key problem. But I still wouldn't go back to windows.


NT