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Geek Yellow Pages

TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
edited 2011-12-18 00:33 in General Discussion
Hi all! I know many of you are experienced hobbyists/engineers and know where to get parts for your projects. But for those who don't (like myself) I thought it'd be a great idea to make a hobby-centric supplier list where people could easily find different sites they could check for electronic parts and kits for their projects. I think it might be a good idea to also have a blurb as to why a fellow DIY'er would want to go X company instead of Y company.

Ex.
Tayda Electronics -
Good: Super cheap components shipped in ~week that are well labeled.
Bad: They don't always have all of the parts and I've heard they're sometimes backordered.
"Ugly": People think they'll ship from Thailand (but it's really the US)

We're hosting the main collation on our forum: www.tymkrs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=53 but if you don't necessarily want to join to post, I can certainly move posts from here to there! So long as noobs have a resource to go to!

Thanks for any input ya'll might contribute :)
@atdiy/@tymkrs

Comments

  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2011-11-25 08:41
    Tayda is good, cheap, sometimes send the wrong item but refund quickly when that happens. Some orders definitely do ship from Thailand.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2011-11-25 09:05
    Ahah! I did not know that! I'll have to correct that a little later tonight.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2011-11-25 11:13
    Hardly a week goes by that I don't order something from Tayda. I've been very happy with their prices, quality, and quick service. Their Hong Kong shipping process is so refined that the entire envelope is printed at once, including the customs declaration and Airmail "stickers."
  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2011-11-25 12:57
    I love Tayda!! They have never shipped from the US, though, just from Thiland. Still, I highly recommend it.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2011-11-25 17:33
    Heh - any other places you guys get electronic parts or kits from? The good? The bad? The ugly?

    I should mention - I've updated the post in the forum to reflect what ya'll have contributed :)
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2011-11-25 19:24
    Jameco is a favorite of mine,

    Good: They carry all of the parts in the world, and the data sheet is on the same page as the part.
    And the prices seem reasonable.
    Bad: They want me to pay money for the parts I order..
    ugly: They want me to pay money for the parts I order, before they will ship them to me...

    -Tommy
  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2011-11-25 19:37
    Mouser is another good one.

    Good: They literally carry every component available.
    Bad: There is so much that if you are just casually browsing for a part, you will probably not be able to find it. You have to do your research before hand. It's best for immediate part # look up and production quantities.
    Ugly: There are no product pictures on about 90% of the items, and most of the ones they do have are just stock photos that don't show exactly what you are getting. I like seeing what I am buying.
  • Maintenance manMaintenance man Posts: 17
    edited 2011-11-25 19:45
    I have looked at the Tayda web page and the prices are very cheap. Is the shipping and handling also very reasonable? Is the parts of good quality and will I save money including the shipping and handling? LEDs are only a few cents each. This place looks very promissing for purchasing very cheep components for electronic projects. Please let me know if they are as good as they seem to be . Thank you all for your help.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2011-11-25 19:52
    I've gotten parts from them twice, as have some of our friends and my parts were shipped from MA, US within a week. Very cheap, extremely well labelled, and I got what I ordered :p. Our other friends have reported back the same. And they are of pretty good quality, but like others have said in the forum - you don't really always get ALL of the information you may need to get the exact part. But for "bread and butter" parts, it works quite well.
  • frank freedmanfrank freedman Posts: 1,983
    edited 2011-11-25 21:32
    AVNET
    Good: reliable, cost effective, good support very wide product range. More specialty items. Product engineers seem first rate and helpful.
    Bad: You get what you pay for, so while they are competitive, not always the lowest cost. Gotta pay for the good I guess.
    Ugly: Have not experienced ugly with them, but on another scale,
    Beauty/Beast: Like Microchip, their emails are very informative and useful. They offer seminars on different technologies all the time some free, I have attended one that was $99.00 on USB and the LPC series of MCUs. The down side is you need to be reasonably close to their offices unless your company can bring them out (cost or sales volume?) and occasionally they reschedule the seminars.


    Digikey:
    Good: reasonable selection of both parts and development kits for a very wide range of MCU/CPUs, lots of complementary technologies. Cost competitive. Not cheap, but fair. They have not messed up any orders. Timely processing and shipping w/ many options.
    Bad: Newark Electronics (aka Excrement 14 eh, whats in a name) seems to have a better presentation of parts at the lowest level of selections, individual part page seems clunky and awkward, longer lead time on what seems /should be common parts.
    Ugly: Have not experienced any ugly with them.

    Tayda:
    Never heard of them. Is this site a shill for them?
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2011-11-25 21:53
    Hi Frank - thanks for your suggestions, I updated the list with them. I don't know what you mean by shill :p but whenever I've had to get SUPER cheap parts like leds, caps, resistors, or even chips like 555/lm386 for my n00b projects, I go to tayda. It's just ridiculously cheap, like a penny per component.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2011-11-26 23:51
    Thanks for helping to add sites! A few others have helped a whole bunch with adding more - so I decided to just move it to a different forum for ease of organization:

    http://www.tymkrs.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=9

    So far we have:

    Large Electronic Components Sites:
    Digikey
    Jameco Electronics
    Mouser Electronics
    Avnet
    Tayda Electronics
    Component/Kit Makers
    Sparkfun
    Kits and Parts
    Parallax Inc
    Adafruit Industries
    MakerShed
    Surplus Components
    All Electronics
    Electronic Goldmine
    Robotics
    Lynxmotion
    Robot Shop
    Crust Crawler
    Pololu
    International Sites
    Conrad Electronic
    Tayda Electronics

    Some have bad/ugly filled out (but not all!). So if you've had experiences with these - let me know!
  • Jorge PJorge P Posts: 385
    edited 2011-11-27 05:39
    You can find surplus at http://www.surplustraders.net/a/product_index.shtml
    Good: Allot of "New Old Stock", Dirt Cheep, hard to find parts
    Bad: Most parts are $100 minimum
    Ugly: With some parts you need to buy their entire stock.
  • stamptrolstamptrol Posts: 1,731
    edited 2011-12-15 16:31
    Hi folks,
    After seeing this post, I ordered a bunch of parts from Tayda in Thailand.

    Just wanted to report a successful transaction. Parts are as advertised, low prices, uses PayPal, some obscure manufacturers but parts certainly look good and are useable, arrived in eastern Canada in about 15 days.

    Two thumbs up; thanks Tymkrs!
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2011-12-16 06:57
    You're totally welcome :) Glad to help a fellow maker save a little moola!
  • tobdectobdec Posts: 267
    edited 2011-12-16 07:43
    Unfortunatly I get alot of my parts from local sources...and what I do order from hong kong is personal, I got hookups over there lol. I've found for robotics parts if your just seeing what your capable of, go to a flea market, thats where I get all my used electric wheelchair motors and such.

    btw: Tymkrs I got family in Rochester, MN....I can't beleive the amount of snow u guys get....good luck this year
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2011-12-16 10:06
    Haha thanks for the well wishes tobdec - This year has actually only given us what, 2 inches of snow that melted a few days later? We're getting temps in the 40s even now! Nothing like last year for sure :)
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2011-12-17 22:55
    Tymkrs wrote: »
    any other places you guys get electronic parts or kits from?

    american science and surplus http://www.sciplus.com/
    Elenco http://www.elenco.com/
    Edmund Scientific http://www.scientificsonline.com/
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-12-17 23:04
    Sometimes these people have good deals on optics, but I find their shipping can be a bit painful if all you want is one or two little things. They're kinda the discount window for Edmund optics.

    www.anchoroptics.com
  • TubularTubular Posts: 4,717
    edited 2011-12-18 00:33
    Some other thai stores
    futurlec not to be confused with futurelec
    etteam

    not sure if you got these
    seeedstudio
    olimex
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