Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Analog Devices: No samples anymore?

J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Just curious: Looked at a few AD parts lately and there is no link to
get samples anymore. Always says "We're Sorry. There are no samples
available for part number you have requested".

Did they do away with that? No problem for my office since I can just
order at Digikey. But at clients that can mean delays because there one
must often order through a formal purchase request.
 
J

John Devereux

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Just curious: Looked at a few AD parts lately and there is no link to
get samples anymore. Always says "We're Sorry. There are no samples
available for part number you have requested".

Did they do away with that? No problem for my office since I can just
order at Digikey. But at clients that can mean delays because there one
must often order through a formal purchase request.

I have not had a problem in general, got one a few days ago. I seem to
recall seeing there were sometimes not samples for some old parts, some
very expensive parts, or things like DIP packages.

But looking at any random part page should show lots of sample buttons.

Oh, it seems to go through their "myAnalog" system, possibly you have
something blocked, are not "registered" or some such thing?
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
John said:
I have not had a problem in general, got one a few days ago. I seem to
recall seeing there were sometimes not samples for some old parts, some
very expensive parts, or things like DIP packages.

But looking at any random part page should show lots of sample buttons.

Oh, it seems to go through their "myAnalog" system, possibly you have
something blocked, are not "registered" or some such thing?

I did register. But it could be, as John Larkin said, that they do not
offer samples of their more fancy parts unless you are related to Warren
Buffett. I was looking at AD8302 and AD603, for example.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
John said:
Some parts are hard to get samples of. I had to go to great lengths to
prove I was worthy of evaluating one of their ADN-series laser
drivers.

Yeah, many companies still think in the medieval concept of accounts,
can't understand that a lone consultant can make a 1/2 million revenue
decision for or against them with the stroke of a drafting pen, or mouse.

At clients this can be very annoying, especially with big ones that have
a certain level of bureaucracy in the purchasing systems. Samples can
bypass that completely and not being able to sample can easily add a week.
 
N

Nico Coesel

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Just curious: Looked at a few AD parts lately and there is no link to
get samples anymore. Always says "We're Sorry. There are no samples
available for part number you have requested".

Did they do away with that? No problem for my office since I can just
order at Digikey. But at clients that can mean delays because there one
must often order through a formal purchase request.

Which is why one of the first things I do in a company is become
friends with someone in the purchase department. You need more than
engineers on your team :)
 
J

John Devereux

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
I did register. But it could be, as John Larkin said, that they do not
offer samples of their more fancy parts unless you are related to Warren
Buffett. I was looking at AD8302 and AD603, for example.

Peculiar, no samples available for those.

RF parts.

They must think if you make phones or base stations, you will have your
own on-site ADI rep already. Or perhaps Bad People want them.

Yet it appears to be no problem getting a $78 DAC, for example. Strange.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nico said:
Which is why one of the first things I do in a company is become
friends with someone in the purchase department. You need more than
engineers on your team :)

Dangerous. When I did this with the marketing department at my first
employer it resulted in ... well ... how should I say ... we are still
married :)
 
J

Jon Kirwan

Jan 1, 1970
0
Dangerous. When I did this with the marketing department at my first
employer it resulted in ... well ... how should I say ... we are still
married :)

I see. You can no longer be trusted anywhere near marketing
departments. ;)

Jon
 
N

Nico Coesel

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Yeah, many companies still think in the medieval concept of accounts,
can't understand that a lone consultant can make a 1/2 million revenue
decision for or against them with the stroke of a drafting pen, or mouse.

At clients this can be very annoying, especially with big ones that have
a certain level of bureaucracy in the purchasing systems. Samples can
bypass that completely and not being able to sample can easily add a week.

TI finally fixed my 'account' for ordering samples. Unfortunately for
them they already lost the design at hand to LT.

BTW you could order the devices yourself from a next-day-delivery
company (like Farnell, Digikey? RS, etc) have them delivered to your
client and bill them as material.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nico said:
TI finally fixed my 'account' for ordering samples. Unfortunately for
them they already lost the design at hand to LT.

BTW you could order the devices yourself from a next-day-delivery
company (like Farnell, Digikey? RS, etc) have them delivered to your
client and bill them as material.

At big companies that doesn't really work. Big truck backs up to loading
dock, 250 packages pour out the back, guy at the loading dock looks.
"Joerg Who? Yo, Leroy, take this one back, ain't nobody by that name
working here".

I could send it to someone else's name. That would promise to be some
real fun when a tax auditor checks my records. All the red flags would
go up in his eyes.

And even then it doesn't always work. Once I needed an Infineon part.
Could only get a full reel at the distributor. Infineon didn't care,
even after I told them to charge my credit card with whatever costs they
incur. So their part got designed out. Old American wisdom: "If you
don't take care of your customer, someone else will". And someone else
did :)
 
Just curious: Looked at a few AD parts lately and there is no link to
get samples anymore. Always says "We're Sorry. There are no samples
available for part number you have requested".

Did they do away with that? No problem for my office since I can just
order at Digikey. But at clients that can mean delays because there one
must often order through a formal purchase request.

I just email the appropriate FAE and samples[*] magically show up.
Lunch included, quite often. ;-)

[*] Often as many as the PPoE used to buy for the life of some
products.
 
N

Nico Coesel

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
At big companies that doesn't really work. Big truck backs up to loading
dock, 250 packages pour out the back, guy at the loading dock looks.
"Joerg Who? Yo, Leroy, take this one back, ain't nobody by that name
working here".

Usually unknown stuff gets trapped in the mail room. Getting to know
those people is on my list as well.
I could send it to someone else's name. That would promise to be some
real fun when a tax auditor checks my records. All the red flags would
go up in his eyes.

For a few dollars? Besides, the bill is in your company's name, only
the delivery address is different. Ofcourse you have it send to your
contact in the company or the secretary of the department.
And even then it doesn't always work. Once I needed an Infineon part.
Could only get a full reel at the distributor. Infineon didn't care,
even after I told them to charge my credit card with whatever costs they
incur. So their part got designed out. Old American wisdom: "If you
don't take care of your customer, someone else will". And someone else
did :)

I think you can translate that into any language :)
 
S

Spehro Pefhany

Jan 1, 1970
0
I could send it to someone else's name. That would promise to be some
real fun when a tax auditor checks my records. All the red flags would
go up in his eyes.

I do this from time-to-time. There are absolutely no red flags.

The supplier invoice says this:-

Supplier company: Industrial type company
Invoice number: XXXX Date: XXX
Ship to: Name at client industrial type company
Billing address: My company
(.. description of industrial type stuff.. )

And, of course, the supplier invoice number/date and exact amount is
referenced when charged on the client invoice. No big deal.

The potential problem comes in if the client company requires an
additional P.O. for such things (maybe over some amount), in which
case it's usually easier for them to go buy it themselves (but not
easy). Otherwise it could delay payment on the whole invoice if their
accounting folks can't handle it expeditiously. That happens a maximum
of one time, and preferably zero times.

There's weird suspicious-looking stuff sometimes... like the brushes
we bought from a beauty shop wholesaler.. but it's always double well
documented in such cases, because it might be difficult to remember
the purpose of a one-off small-value purchase a couple years hence.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
 
Which is why one of the first things I do in a company is become
friends with someone in the purchase department. You need more than
engineers on your team :)

Our purchasing is essentially filling out an online form. Stuff falls
out of the sky a few days later. Occasionally there is a need to prod
the process, but not often. To expedite, simply mark the "need by"
date as the next date. The only problem is that they will *only* deal
with companies that are on the "approved list". Buying anything else
is easier when done out-of-pocket.

At the other end, I have become friendly with the shipping/receiving
people. I do a bit of shipping and it helps being on good terms with
the shipping people when I have to get something out after the
deadline (which is all too often).
 
Just curious: Looked at a few AD parts lately and there is no link to
get samples anymore. Always says "We're Sorry. There are no samples
available for part number you have requested".

Did they do away with that? No problem for my office since I can just
order at Digikey. But at clients that can mean delays because there one
must often order through a formal purchase request.

I just email the appropriate FAE and samples[*] magically show up.
Lunch included, quite often. ;-)

[*] Often as many as the PPoE used to buy for the life of some
products.

I got 3500 samples of the MAX9691. But I deserved them.

You *earned* them. Of course a sane person wouldn't have designed
them in. ;-) Since we were talking about ADI, I got 100 of the
largest Sharcs from them a while back, along with a few trays of
unreleased ADCs and DACs. ;-) I imagine it would be no problem to
get a few hundred FPGAs, if I had a project that needed them (more
like one that could justify the cost). It's all about what business
you're in and what business they want to be in.
 
Just curious: Looked at a few AD parts lately and there is no link to
get samples anymore. Always says "We're Sorry. There are no samples
available for part number you have requested".

Did they do away with that? No problem for my office since I can just
order at Digikey. But at clients that can mean delays because there one
must often order through a formal purchase request.

I just email the appropriate FAE and samples[*] magically show up.
Lunch included, quite often. ;-)

[*] Often as many as the PPoE used to buy for the life of some
products.


They don't like Jeorg because he blows up all the samples, then
brages about it on Usenet. :)

Ouch! ;-)
 
Q

qrk

Jan 1, 1970
0
Just curious: Looked at a few AD parts lately and there is no link to
get samples anymore. Always says "We're Sorry. There are no samples
available for part number you have requested".

Did they do away with that? No problem for my office since I can just
order at Digikey. But at clients that can mean delays because there one
must often order through a formal purchase request.

Talk to your AD rep. Ours has been very helpful over the past years.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Spehro said:
I do this from time-to-time. There are absolutely no red flags.

You are in Canada, very different game. The recent topper: A couple has
given their usual tithes to church and the church issued the usual
year-end receipt. Because there was no explicit statement that only
"intangible religious services" were rendered in return the IRS
disallowed the whole (very large) deduction. AFAIR they also did not
allow a retroactive fix.

The supplier invoice says this:-

Supplier company: Industrial type company
Invoice number: XXXX Date: XXX
Ship to: Name at client industrial type company
Billing address: My company
(.. description of industrial type stuff.. )

And then it's plumbing materials to a large electronics business ->
auditor raises eyebrow -> poof -> denied.

And, of course, the supplier invoice number/date and exact amount is
referenced when charged on the client invoice. No big deal.

The potential problem comes in if the client company requires an
additional P.O. for such things (maybe over some amount), in which
case it's usually easier for them to go buy it themselves (but not
easy). Otherwise it could delay payment on the whole invoice if their
accounting folks can't handle it expeditiously. That happens a maximum
of one time, and preferably zero times.

There's weird suspicious-looking stuff sometimes... like the brushes
we bought from a beauty shop wholesaler.. but it's always double well
documented in such cases, because it might be difficult to remember
the purpose of a one-off small-value purchase a couple years hence.

Out here it all has to be quadruple-well documented and if they do not
like one wee item such as a "wrong" name for shippimng destination you
might be out a lot of money. I prefer not to risk that.
 
Top