I loathe RS Components !

[Tony Williams]

In article <uri351lg852vccnn4uhqbj2hvpfkl4asbv@4ax.com>,
nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:

RS are getting to be real dick heads if you ask me.
[snip story]
Anyway fuck em, when I can't avoid buying from them I'll stick to
using the credit card in future.

We had the opposite experience in the early 80's.

I'd been in business for about 6 years, and received
big job from a customer who was reliable, but could be
a little slow in paying. On an order that size there
could be cash flow problems.

I discussed the problem with the RS rep, who got his
account manager involved. They looked at our books
and came back agreeing to allow us extended credit,
(over 90 days), provided I kept them informed about
what was happening.

Over the next year we did have a few cash flow events,
but not a sqawk from Radiospares. Couldn't have done
the job without them, and have used them ever since.

--
Tony Williams.

 

[Paul Burke]

Pooh Bear wrote:

RS Components ( UK ) *isn't* Radio Shack ( USA ) ! They're a broad line
distributor of a huge range of electronic, electrical and related parts - from
well known manufacturers.

Yes, but they USED to hide the provenance of many of their lines- ICs in
particular. Then we discovered that the PCB cleaner (it would probably
have been something awful then, polytetrahydrofluorochloronitrophenyl
benzoic acid or something) removed the paint, revealing the true part
number underneath.

They also did a line in expensive strain gauge amplifiers, which we used
until someone blew one up. Opening it up, we found a 741 inside...

Paul Burke

 

[Frithiof Andreas Jensen]

Pardon my ignorance:

Is New Zeeland entirely cleansed of electronics suppliers? Someone like
"Toko" or "Panasonic" should be closer to home, no?

 

[Andy]

Paul Burke wrote:

In the UK, you can tell the age of an engineer by how they refer to RS-
if they say "Radiospares" you know it's time to count the rings.

Paul Burke

In France, they are called Radiospares as of today. My choice of parts
suppliers ("prototype" work) has reduced to essentially them and
Farnell. 1.5-2 years ago there was still a small shop in the town down
here where a slightly bizarre gentleman was offering a selection of
popular parts - very useful in case of saturday morning sudden shortage
of LM317 or such, but now it's all gone...

 

[Mike Diack]

"Frithiof Andreas Jensen" <frithiof.jensen@die_spammer_die.ericsson.com>
wrote in news:d2u4sh$is1$1@newstree.wise.edt.ericsson.se:

Pardon my ignorance:

Is New Zeeland entirely cleansed of electronics suppliers? Someone like
"Toko" or "Panasonic" should be closer to home, no?

More or less. In the "good old days", when there were 5 or 6 colour
television factories in Auckland (a ridiculous situation for a country
which then had a population of less than 2 million people, caused by the
strict import controls of the time) there were dozens of component
suppliers warehousing locally). They have all gone. We do have all the
majors here (Arrow, Memec, Avnet etc), but they are merely sales reps for
Australian/South East Asian warehouses. As long as one can meet the MOQs
(sometimes a tube of semis, sometimes 1000s) then we are reasonably well
served, but the situation is fairly dire for transformers as our long
established makers stick to the high volume stuff like fluro ballasts. We
do not have the equivalent of Mouser/Digikey and while we can import from
them, the postage can get nasty. Hence we are stuck with RS and Farnell.
Example : RS charge $19.50 for an AT89C2051 (25 up), but bought from the
REAL distys I pay less than $3 in similar quantities. Unfortunately with
transformers I do not have that choice.
M

 

[Pooh Bear]

Tony Williams wrote:

In article <4251D329.8FD7913F@hotmail.com>,
Pooh Bear <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

There's a certain BoF around here (and I shall remain
anonymous) who remembers when the RS catalogue was
one thin little A5 booklet.

I actually still have one somewhere in my 'archive'. It was
*definitely* Radiospares back then.

With a good proportion of the catalogue being
actual replacement components for radios and tv's.

Indeed. It still had toobs in it IIRC ! Of course they're back in there
now again too, at least they are in Farnell's catalogue.


Graham

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Mike Diack
<moby@kcbbs.gen.middleearth> wrote (in
<Xns9630569E817E6mobykcbbsgennz@203.96.92.12&gt about 'I loathe RS
Components !', on Tue, 5 Apr 2005:

the situation is fairly dire for transformers as our long established
makers stick to the high volume stuff like fluro ballasts.

Buy a coil winder on Ebay and make your fortune.
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
There are two sides to every question, except
'What is a Moebius strip?'
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

 

[Rich Grise]

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:30:50 +0000, Mike Diack wrote:

"Frithiof Andreas Jensen" <frithiof.jensen@die_spammer_die.ericsson.com
wrote in news:d2u4sh$is1$1@newstree.wise.edt.ericsson.se:

Pardon my ignorance:

Is New Zeeland entirely cleansed of electronics suppliers? Someone like
"Toko" or "Panasonic" should be closer to home, no?



More or less. In the "good old days", when there were 5 or 6 colour
television factories in Auckland (a ridiculous situation for a country
which then had a population of less than 2 million people, caused by the
strict import controls of the time) there were dozens of component
suppliers warehousing locally). They have all gone. We do have all the
majors here (Arrow, Memec, Avnet etc), but they are merely sales reps for
Australian/South East Asian warehouses. As long as one can meet the MOQs
(sometimes a tube of semis, sometimes 1000s) then we are reasonably well
served, but the situation is fairly dire for transformers as our long
established makers stick to the high volume stuff like fluro ballasts. We
do not have the equivalent of Mouser/Digikey and while we can import from
them, the postage can get nasty. Hence we are stuck with RS and Farnell.
Example : RS charge $19.50 for an AT89C2051 (25 up), but bought from the
REAL distys I pay less than $3 in similar quantities. Unfortunately with
transformers I do not have that choice. M

Maybe somebody should start up a transformer factory.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[Roger Hamlett]

"Andy" <andy@nodomain.nod> wrote in message
news:4252d287$0$25015$8fcfb975@news.wanadoo.fr...

Paul Burke wrote:

In the UK, you can tell the age of an engineer by how they refer to RS-
if they say "Radiospares" you know it's time to count the rings.

Paul Burke
What is annoying though, is that in their desire to spread into other

fields, they have to a large extent lost track of their origins. The range
of electronic parts seems to shrink in each catalogue, instead of
expanding as it used to do, and the features that made them useful to the
design engineer (most parts available, data sheets available for most
components, when a part existed, the 'support' parts for it were also
stocked, and keeping fairly 'up to date' with new developments), have
largely disappeared... :-(

Best Wishes

 

[Frithiof Andreas Jensen]

"Mike Diack" <moby@kcbbs.gen.middleearth> wrote in message
news:Xns9630569E817E6mobykcbbsgennz@203.96.92.12...

Unfortunately with
transformers I do not have that choice.

Hmmm - Maybe I should go and set up a Transformer Shop in NZ for my early
retirement ;-)

Or to get the oportunity explore the unique landscape - which one has only
seen on DVD.

Transformers are simple, undemanding, devices not stress-inducing and
annoying work like the bastard IPv6 software I do now.

 

[Barry Lennox]

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:30:50 GMT, Mike Diack
<moby@kcbbs.gen.middleearth> wrote:

"Frithiof Andreas Jensen" <frithiof.jensen@die_spammer_die.ericsson.com
wrote in news:d2u4sh$is1$1@newstree.wise.edt.ericsson.se:

Pardon my ignorance:

Is New Zeeland entirely cleansed of electronics suppliers? Someone like
"Toko" or "Panasonic" should be closer to home, no?



More or less. In the "good old days", when there were 5 or 6 colour
television factories in Auckland (a ridiculous situation for a country
which then had a population of less than 2 million people, caused by the
strict import controls of the time) there were dozens of component
suppliers warehousing locally). They have all gone. We do have all the
majors here (Arrow, Memec, Avnet etc), but they are merely sales reps for
Australian/South East Asian warehouses. As long as one can meet the MOQs
(sometimes a tube of semis, sometimes 1000s) then we are reasonably well
served, but the situation is fairly dire for transformers as our long
established makers stick to the high volume stuff like fluro ballasts. We
do not have the equivalent of Mouser/Digikey and while we can import from
them, the postage can get nasty. Hence we are stuck with RS and Farnell.
Example : RS charge $19.50 for an AT89C2051 (25 up), but bought from the
REAL distys I pay less than $3 in similar quantities. Unfortunately with
transformers I do not have that choice.

Have you tried transformer manufacturers? There's a couple in Auckland
and Christchurch I have used, and I'm sure there's others as well. Not
that cheap compared with Jameco and Digikey and the like, but I'm sure
they would be cheaper than RS.

Barry Lennox

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Mike Diack
<moby@kcbbs.gen.middleearth> wrote (in
<Xns962DF21C88146mobykcbbsgennz@203.96.92.12&gt about 'I loathe RS
Components !', on Sun, 3 Apr 2005:

In the last RS catalog, they had a whole raft of new little
transformers (3.2,5,10,16,25,32 VA, in an assortment of useful
voltages) at quite a reasonable price (less than NZD10 for the little
ones), so like a bloody idiot, I designed them into a whole bunch of
small volume things that I make and sell (things like DMX
splitters,crossovers,video projector remotes etc etc). 2005 catalog
comes out - across the board massive price increases on these parts,
even though the NZ dollar has been galloping ahead of the country of
origin (UK & Germany). These bandits seem to have a "ratchet" mechanism
on their prices as well - things that appeared in their catalog when 1
NZD was USD0.40 have become **MORE** expensive when 1 NZD is now USD
0.72. Why are they so greedy ?.

Because they get away with it.

Once you know a certain transformer spec. can be produced in a certain
size, you can look for other suppliers. Doesn't anyone make transformers
in NZ? Can you convince them to make the sort you want and sell them to
you and others (so as to get the volume up)?
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
There are two sides to every question, except
'What is a Moebius strip?'
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

 

[Luhan Monat]

Mike Diack wrote:

In the last RS catalog, they had a whole raft of new little transformers
(3.2,5,10,16,25,32 VA, in an assortment of useful voltages) at quite a
reasonable price (less than NZD10 for the little ones), so like a bloody
idiot, I designed them into a whole bunch of small volume things that I
make and sell (things like DMX splitters,crossovers,video projector remotes
etc etc). 2005 catalog comes out - across the board massive price increases
on these parts, even though the NZ dollar has been galloping ahead of the
country of origin (UK & Germany). These bandits seem to have a "ratchet"
mechanism on their prices as well - things that appeared in their catalog
when 1 NZD was USD0.40 have become **MORE** expensive when 1 NZD is now USD
0.72. Why are they so greedy ?.
M

Uh, er, who designs with parts for Radio Shack???


--
Luhan Monat (luhanis 'at' yahoo 'dot' com)
"The future is not what it used to be..."
http://members.cox.net/berniekm

 

[Larry Brasfield]

"Luhan Monat" <x@y.z> wrote in message
news:_F14e.980$Ut1.163@fed1read01...

Luhan Monat wrote:

Mike Diack wrote:

In the last RS catalog, they had a whole raft of new little transformers (3.2,5,10,16,25,32 VA, in an assortment of useful
voltages) at quite a reasonable price (less than NZD10 for the little ones), so like a bloody idiot, I designed them into a
whole bunch of small volume things that I make and sell (things like DMX splitters,crossovers,video projector remotes etc etc).
2005 catalog comes out - across the board massive price increases on these parts, even though the NZ dollar has been galloping
ahead of the country of origin (UK & Germany). These bandits seem to have a "ratchet" mechanism on their prices as well - things
that appeared in their catalog when 1 NZD was USD0.40 have become **MORE** expensive when 1 NZD is now USD 0.72. Why are they so
greedy ?.
M


Uh, er, who designs with parts for Radio Shack???


..... from Radio Shack ????

Look at the "Bandgap Design" thread where somebody hopes
to build a moderately wide temperature range, 1% reference
using the assorted nameless BJTs available at Radio Shack.

--
--Larry Brasfield
email: donotspam_larry_brasfield@hotmail.com
Above views may belong only to me.

 

[Frithiof Andreas Jensen]

<bigcat@meeow.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1112735414.496003.251050@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

As for RS, dont think I've ever bought from them. Lots of data,
thorough tech specs, but one look at the prices and the show's over.
They make no attempt at competition.

I think "their game" is more to profit from engineers desparate need to
shortcut the purchasing department when building prototypes - you must know
the drill: You can only draw from a list of Authorised Devices, but to get
them Autorised you will need to test them and write long declarations on why
you cannot use any of the Authorised items, but to do *that*, you need to
Order Some Unorthorized stuff to test.

All this, while sensible enough, is irrelevant to both Managers and the
Salespeople who forget to put the QA procedures, which they always rant
about in the brochures, in the schedule ...

RS might be feeling pressure: some of the big distributers have wisened up
and just a phone call will get you the bits.