[OT] RadioShack declares bankruptcy

[Phil Hobbs]

On 3/15/2015 2:56 AM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:

With DigiKey, you need to do the search on whatever quantity you expect to
use. Prices in onsies reflect the cost of paying a zit-faced kid to clip
it off and put it in a bag (and maybe a some deep strategy aimed at
suckering you into the expensive parts). The prices in 100ea quantities
(of resistors at least) seem to reflect the reel pricing far more
accurately.

I generally order little resistors and bypass caps by the 100 or even
500. More expensive stuff (10u ceramics, tantalums, current-sense
resistors, etc.) I'll order in smaller quantities.


I've bought boxes of 100 reels of surface mount components on Ebay. A
nice mix of the common resistors, capacitors and some inductors. The
last box had a full reel of MMBT2222ALT1 and some microwave power
transistors. Most of the reels were full reels.

On a tangentially related topic, a very large number of TO-92 parts have
been discontinued, and are (briefly) available for cheap on Arrow. I
got a couple of thousand MBT5179s and a bunch of other stuff for one or
two or three cents apiece, so that I can keep doing dead bug protos for
the rest of my career. Other dead-bug fans might wish to take notice.

(2N3904s and 2N7000s will be available for a long time to come, I
expect, but all the RF parts and are going away, as well as JFETs and
small signal MOSFETs and such.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 3/15/2015 2:56 AM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:

With DigiKey, you need to do the search on whatever quantity you expect to
use. Prices in onsies reflect the cost of paying a zit-faced kid to clip
it off and put it in a bag (and maybe a some deep strategy aimed at
suckering you into the expensive parts). The prices in 100ea quantities
(of resistors at least) seem to reflect the reel pricing far more
accurately.

I generally order little resistors and bypass caps by the 100 or even
500. More expensive stuff (10u ceramics, tantalums, current-sense
resistors, etc.) I'll order in smaller quantities.


I've bought boxes of 100 reels of surface mount components on Ebay. A
nice mix of the common resistors, capacitors and some inductors. The
last box had a full reel of MMBT2222ALT1 and some microwave power
transistors. Most of the reels were full reels.



On a tangentially related topic, a very large number of TO-92 parts have
been discontinued, and are (briefly) available for cheap on Arrow. I
got a couple of thousand MBT5179s and a bunch of other stuff for one or
two or three cents apiece, so that I can keep doing dead bug protos for
the rest of my career. Other dead-bug fans might wish to take notice.

(2N3904s and 2N7000s will be available for a long time to come, I
expect, but all the RF parts and are going away, as well as JFETs and
small signal MOSFETs and such.)

I bought 67 reels recently, for $37. That included four mostly full
reels of 10 uF SMD Tantalums, which were worth more than what I paid for
the entire lot.


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 03/16/2015 02:07 PM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 3/15/2015 2:56 AM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:

With DigiKey, you need to do the search on whatever quantity you expect to
use. Prices in onsies reflect the cost of paying a zit-faced kid to clip
it off and put it in a bag (and maybe a some deep strategy aimed at
suckering you into the expensive parts). The prices in 100ea quantities
(of resistors at least) seem to reflect the reel pricing far more
accurately.

I generally order little resistors and bypass caps by the 100 or even
500. More expensive stuff (10u ceramics, tantalums, current-sense
resistors, etc.) I'll order in smaller quantities.


I've bought boxes of 100 reels of surface mount components on Ebay. A
nice mix of the common resistors, capacitors and some inductors. The
last box had a full reel of MMBT2222ALT1 and some microwave power
transistors. Most of the reels were full reels.



On a tangentially related topic, a very large number of TO-92 parts have
been discontinued, and are (briefly) available for cheap on Arrow. I
got a couple of thousand MBT5179s and a bunch of other stuff for one or
two or three cents apiece, so that I can keep doing dead bug protos for
the rest of my career. Other dead-bug fans might wish to take notice.

(2N3904s and 2N7000s will be available for a long time to come, I
expect, but all the RF parts and are going away, as well as JFETs and
small signal MOSFETs and such.)


I bought 67 reels recently, for $37. That included four mostly full
reels of 10 uF SMD Tantalums, which were worth more than what I paid for
the entire lot.

Nice score.

Most of my PCB protos are done on the customer's nickel, so I just get
stuff from Digikey.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Phil Hobbs wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

I bought 67 reels recently, for $37. That included four mostly full
reels of 10 uF SMD Tantalums, which were worth more than what I paid for
the entire lot.

Nice score.

Most of my PCB protos are done on the customer's nickel, so I just get
stuff from Digikey.

That works, if your still able to work. This is for my own projects,
and some stuff will be traded to others for other parts I need.


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.