Help again please:smile:
Wheres the best place to get electronic components. Ive tried the bay but no one seems to sell everything. Is RS or maplin the best?
Ive used saffron electronics until now, but they have stopped trading
Cheers
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Help again please:smile:
Wheres the best place to get electronic components. Ive tried the bay but no one seems to sell everything. Is RS or maplin the best?
Ive used saffron electronics until now, but they have stopped trading
Cheers
There is RS I like them but can be dear, then Farnell-CPC same sort of outfit again can be a bit dear on some things. I use these people quite a bit http://www.rapidonline.com/ good prices and good website, easy to use etc.
Can't comment on Maplin as I don't use them.
Rgds
Dave
I use http://www.rapidonline.com/ really good choice for most things and the service has been second to none so far.
Check out the Clearance Section first i'v allot of stock from that section, what was you looking for?
You could try http://www.farnell.com/ as well, however they seem to be upgrading the website. They use the same system as the RS website last time i used that site.
where farnell win vs rapid is every time I've placed an order...they've done free delivery (whereas Rapid charge 3 or 4 quid *unless* you order more than £30's worth of kit I think). Rapid are normally cheaper, but their range is much much less.
Maplin are (by & large) expensive, but useful if you've one nearby & only need one or two Bits & bobs.
Then there's the smaller outlets (handy for the more scarce stuff). i rather have a soft spot for cricklewood electronics.
Finally don't forget the states (especially if the pound holds its recent footing)....Digikey are often quite cheap & deliver free if you place an order more than £50 (thye pay the import duty, but you'll have to pick up the tab for the 15% VAT)
farnell are by far and away the cheapest on most things and free delivery (which if you are like me you forget stuff is a major plus... I've had 4 orders delivered next day from them this last week, each of about 2 - 3 quid...). I have compared Rapid, Farnell, RS, Maplins, CPC and few others like Crickelwood Electronics and farnell have come out best onmost projects and have the biggest range.
RS is free delivery if you order over the web but charged for if you order by phone.
One exception is if the site is down and you tell them they will waive the delivery charge.
.
Only if you have an account.... I beleive (but i could be wrong, not checked) if you don't its minimum £4.95.Quote:
Originally Posted by John S
Quote:
Originally Posted by irving2008
OK that makes sense.
Cheers everyone. Thats a real help. I new someone on here would Know:beer:
Looks like Farnell is the winner then. Being able to get everything from one place definetley saves in the long run. If you have to order from 3 or 4 places, the postage soon adds up.
Ok then. Im off to place an order......
Thanks again
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 :thumbdown:
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross77
Strangely the parts ordered at 1:30am always seem to take longer to come than the ones ordered at 8am!
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 :smile:Quote:
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]).
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 heatsinkQuote:
Originally Posted by Ross77
They sure do. should have to enougth to build 10 boards. £15 of that was for a logic probe.Quote:
but the bits always come in handy!
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.......Quote:
the 317 regs on these PMINMO boards get a mite hot at 2W with no heatsink
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
Sorry - forgot to mention they use UPS :smile: (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.
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:Quote:
Mind you, my local postie also does this if it's a recorded delivery or something.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross77
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)...
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.Quote:
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)...
So had I, but I was also concerned about getting a thin enough area of glue so that the chip sat down on the pad and not gettng glue where it shouldnt be. Glue and I are not compatible!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross77
The idea above is not mine, Phil outlines it in the assembly guidance for his boards, but I adapted it to what I had - the coat hanger wire is a tad too thick but its all I had to hand. here are some more pics, showing one of the 1206-style chip capacitors in its protective strip and the chip held to the board by the wire device (but not finally positioned yet)
I don't use SMD bits for soldering SMD - I use a pair of normally closed tweezers, and a soldering iron with a 1mm tip on it. Works very well (well enough for those 80-pin 0.5mm spaced PICs).
0604 is the smallest I've done for resistors, but I tend to use 0805s instead (and 1206 if I need a bit of current).
I did buy some 4-resistor 0402s for a project, and also to see how I get on with them.
Cheers guys. I need to know more so i will start a new tread tommorow on SMD. If its that easy then I can see this being worth while. SMD seems alot cheaper.......
Have you seen the guys on the net using hotel style toasters for smd?
Will wait for thread :smile: - I've been doing SMD for quite a while now, and prefer it to PTH.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross77
The toasters are, to me, a bit of an overkill, and it's basically making your own reflow oven - it's good if you've got a lot of components to do, since they are done at the same time, but for the numbers I do, it's not something I need. The two key components (in addition to the tweezers) I have are a temperature controlled soldering iron (with plenty of power), and some desolder braid.
Although having said that, I do have some (prospective) projects that have a large component count, and would benefit from it.