Getting electronic components

[irving2008]

AHHGGGG. Just spent the best part of an hour selecting parts and then when I finally make it to the invoice page the site crashes......"Closed for essential maintainence" apparently. So I'm not going to get those parts for the weekend now

unusual for it be down now... well you may be lucky, depends on the size of the parcel... I have ordered at 7pm and they've come next day, or 9am and its taken 2 days - they guarantee same day dispatch if ordered by 8pm but they cant control the post office unless you pay for expidited delivery.

Strangely the parts ordered at 1:30am always seem to take longer to come than the ones ordered at 8am!

[tribbles]

If you're talking about Farnell, then they tend to have a habit of doing essential maintenance at about this time in the evening.

However, I think you should still have your shopping cart present when it's back up and running.

But I'm a little perplexed why you don't think you'll get them until after the weekend? They're normally next day, and you need to order by 8pm for any chance for that to happen (although I don't trust it on a Thursday, and I like to get my order in by 5:30 just in case [and 7pm on other days]).

[Ross77]

If you're talking about Farnell, then they tend to have a habit of doing essential maintenance at about this time in the evening.

However, I think you should still have your shopping cart present when it's back up and running.

But I'm a little perplexed why you don't think you'll get them until after the weekend? They're normally next day, and you need to order by 8pm for any chance for that to happen (although I don't trust it on a Thursday, and I like to get my order in by 5:30 just in case [and 7pm on other days]).

Phew just tried again and as you said it remembered the cart. With regard to the postage time, I live out in the sticks so its usually takes an extra day. So If I couldnt place the order until late tommorow night it then it wouldnd have got processed till thursday, in which case it would probably be monday delivery. Hopefully I should get it friday now

Forgot about the dreaded VAT tho. Its suprising how the price builds up. I was only ordering 20p/50p parts, but then there are min quanties for some bits or multiples of 5 etc. £40 order in total, Would have been cheaper to to order one of Roys kits......:heehee:

[irving2008]

Phew just tried again and as you said it remembered the cart. With regard to the postage time, I live out in the sticks so its usually takes an extra day. So If I couldnt place the order until late tommorow night it then it wouldnd have got processed till thursday, in which case it would probably be monday delivery. Hopefully I should get it friday now

Forgot about the dreaded VAT tho. Its suprising how the price builds up. I was only ordering 20p/50p parts, but then there are min quanties for some bits or multiples of 5 etc. £40 order in total, Would have been cheaper to to order one of Roys kits......:heehee:

but the bits always come in handy! oh well, off to order some TO220 heatsinks... the 317 regs on these PMINMO boards get a mite hot at 2W with no heatsink

[Ross77]

but the bits always come in handy!

They sure do. should have to enougth to build 10 boards. £15 of that was for a logic probe.

the 317 regs on these PMINMO boards get a mite hot at 2W with no heatsink

Do you not need one on the output chip as well? How are the PMINMO boards? I nearly bought a couple the other day, but I really wanted something with the dual output chips to get 4amps, dont like running things at max power.......

[Ross77]

10/10 for Farnell. Everything arrived today, all present and correct :clap:

USP must be more effecient than Royal Mail.......The nice delivery person even left them in one of the out buildings as it wouldnt go through the letter box. Its so annoying when they take it back to the main depot, often miles away, because ur not in.

I will definatley be using them again. Cheers everyone

[tribbles]

Sorry - forgot to mention they use UPS (so delivery aspects would've been different).

Since I live about 0.7 miles away from my office, the UPS guy will take it to the office if he can't get me at home (although most of the time I get it delivered to the office anyway).

Mind you, my local postie also does this if it's a recorded delivery or something.

[Ross77]

Mind you, my local postie also does this if it's a recorded delivery or something.

Yeah dont get me wrong the local postie is great. but for some reason most internet deliveries seem to go to the main depot 20 miles away, Then they leave a note saying I can pick it up form them or that they can leave it at the local sorting office 2miles away.... Hmmm I wonder which option would be best :whistling:

[irving2008]

They sure do. should have to enougth to build 10 boards. £15 of that was for a logic probe.



Do you not need one on the output chip as well? How are the PMINMO boards? I nearly bought a couple the other day, but I really wanted something with the dual output chips to get 4amps, dont like running things at max power.......

Yes I do, i have a piece of 20mm finned ali 150mm x 100mm that three will be bolted to.. But for testing with the current set for 0.5A the L298 needs no heatsink, but the total draw on the 5v rail by the L297/L298 combo is 100mA so at 36v supply (26v into the 317) the 317 gets too hot to touch.. it actually verges on the temp limiter after a while and the 5v drops out. So a small heatsink is needed.

The boards are really excellent quality, recommended.

Incidentally the thing that looks like a clothes peg on the top LH corner of my base board in the second pic above is in fact.... a clothes peg... screwed down, with a length of 16awg wire (otherwise known as a cut down coat hanger) taped to the top and bent over at the end with a filed and flattened point. Its used for holding SMD devices against the board while they are soldered (Phil likes using SMD decoupling capacitors for on his boards)...

[Ross77]

Incidentally the thing that looks like a clothes peg on the top LH corner of my base board in the second pic above is in fact.... a clothes peg... screwed down, with a length of 16awg wire (otherwise known as a cut down coat hanger) taped to the top and bent over at the end with a filed and flattened point. Its used for holding SMD devices against the board while they are soldered (Phil likes using SMD decoupling capacitors for on his boards)...

What a good idea. I was going to ask how you got on with the SMD bit. I'd heard that you had to glue them on first, which could be a problem if u accidently fry it whilst soldering.