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

Sun Mar 3 21:39:16 EST 2013

The only reason I mentioned Allied Electronics is that the name might  
cause a legal problem to the RadioShack historical site.
One reason is that Mouser is a sponsor of the site.  Allied Radio and  
their kits were a lot of fun.
Of course over time they could not last... suffering the same fate as  
Lafayette Radio and HeathKit.

I use Mouser all the time as just about everything they sell has no  
minimum quantity and their pricing is better than Digikey.
The other source I find handy, especially for hardware is JAMECO.  I  
also enjoy their monthly project emails.

I get the mail catalog of ALL Electronics, but recently have not  
bought anything from any of these suppliers.

Best,
Don
K9TTY

From: Gil Smith 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&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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