The world beyond Jameco, Digi-Key and Mouser

[Joel Kolstad]

The one I might suspect is Jameco. They claim to have a gazillion
semiconductor lines, and I suspect they are not authorized
distributors for many, so who knows where they get their parts from.

Anybody have experiences?

My experience is that they historically you had no idea whatsoever where their
semiconductors came from, but they've been working hard over the past couple
of years to make themselves more attractive to "production" users who need
"traceable" inventory.

They are (generally) inexpensive, but it's still a case of you get what you
pay for: I've bought some RF connectors from them that were utter crap, and
their shrouded double-row 0.1" headers are noticeably more brittle/junkier
than nice ones from, e.g., 3M.

---Joel

 

[Joerg]

We have Farnell and RS here in the UK, both are massive operations
similar to Digi-Key.

I don't know about massive. I regularly hear complaints in the German NG
that they can't get this, that and the other thing. Digikey almost
always has it but they have to pay customs processing fees. Farnell
often brings in stock from Newark and then they charge a fee on top as well.

Last example: LM3478, a pretty common PWM chip. Farnell has no stock
except for a US transfer for an extra GBP 15.95. Pretty steep when you
just need a few. So, now you have to scoot over to the next distributor.
If you need the RoHS version you can get it a RS. If you need non-RoHS
for med gear and stuff you're outta luck. No stock. In Germany they
couldn't get it at all last week. This is like Tesco running out of bananas.

 

[Joerg]

Large place, no. But lots of small places... besides Jameco, there's All
Electronics (http://www.allelectronics.com/) and Marlin P. Jones
(http://www.mpja.com/) for lots of "general purpose" electronics (these folks
have both been around for decades). ...

Sure, but when you look under test equipment, yaaaawn ...

... For nichier applications, places like
Ocean State Electronics (http://www.oselectronics.com/) is good for RF &
robottics. ...

I do have a heart for nostalgia but this is like selling new Belvederes:
http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p10.htm

Also, they might benefit from hiring a new web designer. Well, so would
NXP ;-)

... Opening up a copy of Nuts & Volts magazine lists dozens of other
such places, and when you throw eBay into the mix, you can get just about
anything you want today far more readily than, say, 20 years ago.

Yes, but I found most of those places to be really teeny. I used some,
like SparkFun but you cannot send off a big list because their offerings
are quite limited. Ok, we have Digikey, so no problem. However, they
just don't have those specials. In Germany hobby places like Conrad are
highish in prices for parts but often they run these equipment and tools
specials and many smaller companies buy at those times.

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Sure, but when you look under test equipment, yaaaawn ...

Yeah, well, they're mostly aiming for the "hobbiest" mark, and by the time you
actually need a spectrum analyzer or a >500MHz scope, you've cut out all but a
few relatively "advanced" hobbiests. (Although I honestly think spectrum
analyzers would be a lot more popualr if undergraduates were introduced to
them in college -- they seem to think it's only RF designers who really
benefit from them, which of course is silly.)

I do have a heart for nostalgia but this is like selling new Belvederes:
http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p10.htm

Hey, I have one of those! (The SG-9000 RF generator.) Bought it years ago
while in school. The purity is really atrocious as is the leveling and I
haven't used it in ages but... umm... it was cheap? At the time the only
other SigGen I had was a DDS-based unit designed by Eric Cox, and it only went
up to 15MHz (and I didn't have anyone around to tell me what a decent used
unit would be...).

In Germany hobby places like Conrad are highish in prices for parts but
often they run these equipment and tools specials and many smaller companies
buy at those times.

Neat; that would be cool to have in the U.S.

---Joel

 

[Joerg]

Yeah, well, they're mostly aiming for the "hobbiest" mark, and by the time you
actually need a spectrum analyzer or a >500MHz scope, you've cut out all but a
few relatively "advanced" hobbiests. (Although I honestly think spectrum
analyzers would be a lot more popualr if undergraduates were introduced to
them in college -- they seem to think it's only RF designers who really
benefit from them, which of course is silly.)

True. Some recent grads don't even know what a spectrum analyzer really
is. But I was thinking more about the 100MHz Hitachi type scopes etc.
That's what hobbyists use. Some shops have them, other don't go past
multimeters with built-in "scope functions". Thing is, there simply
seems to be no one-stop shop in the US that also has the typcial bargain
transistor grab-bags on holiday sale.

Hey, I have one of those! (The SG-9000 RF generator.) Bought it years ago
while in school. The purity is really atrocious as is the leveling and I
haven't used it in ages but... umm... it was cheap? At the time the only
other SigGen I had was a DDS-based unit designed by Eric Cox, and it only went
up to 15MHz (and I didn't have anyone around to tell me what a decent used
unit would be...).




Neat; that would be cool to have in the U.S.

It was really cool at times when the Russians were in dire need of
Western currency again. Then they'd have super bargains on meters, power
supplies and so on from there. The good stuff, made for harsh use in
Siberia and so on. It was amazing, you'd get a meter for $50 and it came
with a stack of quality control sheets stamped and signed by all kinds
to people. The sad part was that we all knew that the kids our age over
there had next to nothing. Only after the wall fell could you donate stuff.

 

[tlbs101]

Allied was *the* first big electronics distributor. I think I have
their 1964 catalog. I had a "revolving credit account" with them when
I was a kid.
...

John

Ditto, here.
I remember ordering some parts from them back in the late '60s when I
was a kid, too. But after that, the minimum order 'killed' me so it
was to the local electronics parts stores for me.

Tom P.

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

Okay, so I was just snooping around trying to figure out what the
cheapest PIC is that will run the application I'm working on. In
general, it seems like, of my already memorized options, Jameco has good
prices but less selection, and Digi-Key and Mouser have the opposite
problem. A cursory search yielded Allied Electronics (alliedelec.com),
which pretty much beats all of them in terms of PICs. In particular,
their cheapest PIC in a DIP case with USART appears to be the 16F688,
coming in at $1.47. Jameco and Mouser want over a dollar more for the
same thing.

Digikey often seems to compete well on micro prices with PICs, if you
can crank up to 25 of them.

By the way, since you were talking about "cheapest PIC," I saw this on
Allied:
http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.asp?SKU=383-0389

That's 85 cents for a 28-pin device, in 1's. Digikey is a little
better, if you are buying 25. It's got 20 I/O, so that's about 4
cents per I/O pin. Not too bad.

Jon

 

[Joerg]

Ditto, here.
I remember ordering some parts from them back in the late '60s when I
was a kid, too. But after that, the minimum order 'killed' me so it
was to the local electronics parts stores for me.

And then all those started to close down :-(((

 

[[email protected]]

Okay, so I was just snooping around trying to figure out what the
cheapest PIC is that will run the application I'm working on. In
general, it seems like, of my already memorized options, Jameco has good
prices but less selection, and Digi-Key and Mouser have the opposite
problem. A cursory search yielded Allied Electronics (alliedelec.com),
which pretty much beats all of them in terms of PICs. In particular,
their cheapest PIC in a DIP case with USART appears to be the 16F688,
coming in at $1.47. Jameco and Mouser want over a dollar more for the
same thing.

If you're looking to buy PICs have you looked at Microchip Direct?
Microchip accepts personal accounts these days and more than 3/4 of
their PICs can be bought in single units.

 

[Joe Chisolm]

Okay, so I was just snooping around trying to figure out what the cheapest
PIC is that will run the application I'm working on. In general, it seems
like, of my already memorized options, Jameco has good prices but less
selection, and Digi-Key and Mouser have the opposite problem. A cursory
search yielded Allied Electronics (alliedelec.com), which pretty much
beats all of them in terms of PICs. In particular, their cheapest PIC in
a DIP case with USART appears to be the 16F688, coming in at $1.47.
Jameco and Mouser want over a dollar more for the same thing.

It sounds like a good deal, so, naturally, I'm skeptical. Has anyone ever
dealt with them? Are they legit?

Thanks
PSM

You can get them direct from MicroChip, will cost you $1.60 though.
Not sure how many you are looking to buy. I've ordered a lot (well
a couple of 100 or so) of parts directly from MicroChip.
Simple ordering, you just have to go through the create account stuff first.
try http://buy.microchip.com

 

[Robert Latest]

Brings up a question: Is there a large place where hobbyists can buy
tools and all kinds of parts, like what Conrad is for Europe?

My impression of the US (almost 20 years ago) was that they had tons more
DIY stores, with much better selection (and nicer staff to boot) than
Germany. I don't know about electronics in particular, back then I needed
some iron hardware and arts & crafts stuff, but to me the US looked like the
hobbyist's paradise.

Conrad is OK as some sort of technical supermarket, but their over-the-
counter electronics parts sale is as good as dead, and mail ordering you do
at Reichelt (or even Farnell and RS, who still are cheaper and and faster
than Conrad). Conrad's staff tends to be nice and helpful; I once had to
wait ten amusing minutes during which a salesperson tried to persuade a
customer that the thing he intended to buy wouldn't solve his problem; that
Conrad didn't stock the correct part; he even recommended that the customer
go to store XYZ, but any amount of in-depth technical consulting wouldn't
deter him and he ended up buying the thing. Forgot what it was, some
computer part I think.

It's strange, Europe has lots of large hobby suppliers but no Digikey or
Mouser. Here in the US it seems the other way around.

My impression is that Europe doesn't have good hobby suppliers, and no
Digikey or Mouser to boot.

Won't Digikey sell to hobbyists? RS and Farnell officially only sell to
businesses, but you can simply place an order, pay your bill, and never get
asked a question.

robert

 

[Robert Latest]

We have Farnell and RS here in the UK, both are massive operations
similar to Digi-Key.

Both are a wet farts compared to Digikey. I used to be an RS customer but
switched to Farnell when RS revamped their webpage into a state of complete
(albeit colorful) unuseability and subsequently found that Farnell had a
better selection.

DigiKey is paradise in comparison, but ordering from Germany is slow and
expensive.

robert

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

<snip>
Won't Digikey sell to hobbyists?
<snip>

Yes, they sell to hobbyists. That's me. And they have since kept
sending me these HUGE catalogs. I think I order about once every 15
of them, or so. Could almost heat my house using them.

Jon

 

[Fred Bartoli]

Le Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:46:38 +0000, Joerg a écrit:

I guess by now they are watching almost as much TV as people here.
Almost. Vacations are usually not spent at home but the minute they are
off on Friday, they pack and Saturday at the crack of dawn they head out
to the airport, train, travel trailer or whatever. Upon which the
autobahns will totally clog up.

How much is the average TV time a day?
Here it's said to be about 3 hours a day which is very possible, but I
find this terrific (it's about how much I spent a week).

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

<snip>
How much is the average TV time a day?
Here it's said to be about 3 hours a day which is very possible, but I
find this terrific (it's about how much I spent a week).

http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/television-rules-america.html

An average of 1,745 hrs in 2003. That's almost 5 hours a day!!!

I watch exactly zero. No TV. None. Not ever.

Jon

 

[Fred Bartoli]

Le Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:34:45 +0000, Jonathan Kirwan a écrit:

http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/television-rules-america.html

An average of 1,745 hrs in 2003. That's almost 5 hours a day!!!

Arghhh. And that's on average!

I watch exactly zero. No TV. None. Not ever.

Lucky guy

 

[Peter S. May]

By the way, since you were talking about "cheapest PIC," I saw this on
Allied:
http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.asp?SKU=383-0389

Close -- I was talking about the cheapest (DIP) PIC with a USART
peripheral. I had to go through the cheapest-first list checking
against Microchip's database app to come up with the 16F688...

 

[Peter S. May]

You can get them direct from MicroChip, will cost you $1.60 though.
Not sure how many you are looking to buy. I've ordered a lot (well
a couple of 100 or so) of parts directly from MicroChip.
Simple ordering, you just have to go through the create account stuff first.
try http://buy.microchip.com

I got my PICkit 2 from them, actually. Should have gotten it somewhere
else, in retrospect. They insist on FedEx with required signature...
meaning they will only try to deliver it when I'm at work, and when I'm
not there to sign for it, they hold onto it only to fail to deliver the
next day for the same reason. Taking the bus to their hub ate two hours
out of my day that I should have been using to mess with firmware! :-(

So, yeah...not a problem with Microchip but with stupid FedEx. Way to
fail to cater to the customer there, guys...

PSM

 

[dalai lamah]

Un bel giorno Joerg digitò:

It's strange, Europe has lots of large hobby suppliers but no Digikey or
Mouser.

Digikey has subsidiaries in various european countries:

http://dkc1.digikey.com/us/en/mkt/International.html

Of course it isn't the same thing as a "native" european supplier; you
still have to pay the non-EU freight charges, the free toll phone number
still answers in english, and for some reason several US catalog's items
are still missing. But at least the shipping costs are no longer shameful.


I used to consider Farnell totally worthless, but lately (since it started
to distribute Newark catalog) it gained several points too.

 

[neon]

Allied was once located in TORRANCE, ca. PART OF GARRET CORP. was sold to hammilton labs. it was never small it was mostly to supply aerospace industry of their needs. hey sell from screws to rubber mats you name it they have it. legit indded. I ruther think that it is the largest supplier for the industry. maybe that is why they are cheap because of volume.