[GreenKeys] Radio Shack and Allied Electronics are dinosaurs, and fun new suppliers

[Jack Hart]

I have been using Electronix Express in NJ.. www.elexp.com <http://www.elxp.com> 

 

Prices are good, quick ship and they take PayPal!

Otherwise, I use Mouser.

 

Jack K0TTY

 

NNNN

 

 

 

 

 

From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of gil at baudot.net
Sent: Sunday, March 3, 2013 3:15 PM
To: Don Robert House; greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Radio Shack and Allied Electronics are dinosaurs, and fun new suppliers

 

Hey Don:

 

Radio Shack is a shell of their former selves, and Allied Electronics is nowhere close to the world-class service, inventory, and pricing of Mouser, IMHO.  Nods to the history behind them, but they are both past players.

 

Mouser  www.mouser.com   has surpassed their only real competitor, DigiKey  www.digikey.com  in on-hand inventory with the same or better pricing and is my preferred supplier today (Digikey is number 2).  Years ago both Mouser and DK had higher pricing than Avnet, Future, and other old-school distributors, but the the old call-em-for-a-quote guys were slow to build the online systems they needed to compete;  maybe their systems are decent today, but it is rare that I can't cost-effectively source something at Mouser or DK, and their real-time inventory levels are very handy, especially when deciding which micro is popular and likely to stick around.  I got some stuff from Allied a year ago and their system screwed me on shipping cost to the tune of like $85 bucks for a box that should have been 20.  I won't go back tho Allied.  Jameco  www.jameco.com  is handy for some things on which they have good pricing (IDC and some other connectors mostly for me), but they are pretty hobby-oriented.  

 

I don't want to call some parts sales rep for pricing and availability, I just want to go online, find a good price and quantity on what I need, add things to an online cart (that never expires!  some stupid places flush a cart after a week, but I might play with component choices for a month, adding and deleting from a cart, when I am designing something), and place my order.

 

The old-school pcb suppliers are screwing up too.  For years I got pcbs from Colorado-based Advanced Circuits  www.4pcb.com  and quite liked their online quoting tool.  But my new favorite place in Myro in Canada (hi-quality and quick factory in China)  http://www.myropcb.com  who not only has amazing pcb pricing, but I can specify a specific stackup (eg: I use a hi-temp laminate for rohs, and want a specific thickness between signal/plane layers so I can control impedance with trace width) even on a low-volume run.

 

Surplus places I like include:

BG Micro:  http://www.bgmicro.com/

All Electronics:   http://www.allelectronics.com/

and sometimes Electronic Goldmine:   http://www.goldmine-elec.com/

 

What COULD Radio Shack have evolved into (instead of selling cell phones to stupid people), if anyone was steering the ship?  A place like Sparkfun:

Sparkfun  (more good shit than you can shake a stick at):   http://www.sparkfun.com/ 

 

Other fun places to check out include:

Pololu (robot parts and cheap mylar laser-cut stencils for prototype smt use):   http://www.pololu.com/

Open Circuits (open-source electronics designs):   http://www.opencircuits.com

Adafruit (more good stuff):   http://www.adafruit.com/

Seeed Studio (reliable China source for cool stuff):   http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/

  (I am skeptical about quality from China suppliers, but many are getting very good now)

Dangerous Prototypes (great ideas, project, pcbs, and fun folks):   http://dangerousprototypes.com

Check out this guy in China operating a cheap smt placement machine:   http://www.hoektronics.com/2013/01/05/meet-a-shenzhen-maker-mr-chen/

  >>the smaller $3600 version of this Chinese machine (which I am considering getting) is detailed in a DP thread: 

      http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=68 <http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=4903&sid=c487fe99147bc6e7704d5b4ce466119a> &t=4903&sid=c487fe99147bc6e7704d5b4ce466119a

All of the budget "maker" dudes.  Check out an article from the diydrones guy:  http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/my-ten-rules-for-maker

 

OK, I'm just rambling now, but FWIW.  Some fun places to poke around.

 

gil

 

 

 

 

 

gil smith
greenkeys moderator
gil at baudot.net
www.baudot.net
Vaux Electronics: 480-354-5556




-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [GreenKeys] Radio Shack Catalogs on-line
From: Don Robert House <k9tty at dls.net>
Date: Sun, March 03, 2013 12:12 pm
To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net


Too bad they do not include Allied Radio and their Knight-Kits...
TANDY, a hobby company, bought Allied and then converted the stores to 
Radio Shack.
However Allied Electronics is now a competitor to Mouser, so things 
get complicated.

Don, K9TTY
Ringwood, Illinois


http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/


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