Any suggestions for a North American supplier with a good online
presence? Tiny to large E/RM/Pot core etc.
Most of the distributors and agents seem to have high minimum orders,
no online stock checking, no online ordering etc. etc. just like in
the 1970s. There's one within 15 minutes of my office, plenty of
stock, but they want C$100 per *line item* minimum order (clamps,
bobbins and cores are 3 line items...).
The only thing that seems to have changed with the internet is all the
data and application notes are now online. I don't want to deal with
surplus houses, the product needs to be known brand name stuff that
can be had in production quantities.
I've just been struggling with a related question, myself. I bought
out a whole rack of various toroids and cylinders (ferrite and
powdered iron of differing permeability) to play with. I'm interested
as a hobbyist and want to file away (dremel) bits of them to create
gaps of different types and to test what I've been able to learn from
the Unitrode magnetics books and class.
I'd like a mail-order supplier from which I can order any particular
basic shape or paired shapes in any particular desired type in small,
hobbyist quantities at reasonable prices. Permalloy tape-wound for
low freq, amorphous metal alloys for higher freqs, etc. Composite
powdered iron, permalloy, Kool Mu, and ferrite in toroids, various
cylinders, etc. Just toys to play with.
But I'd like to know what the material is and its expected properties,
when I buy it. Not because I need to depend on it, as I'd like to see
about figuring these things out for myself. But because I'd like to
be able to compare my results with the "known" value to see how I'm
doing when I do figure something out and would like to know if I got
anywhere close to right. Some of the places that sell these things
"on the cheap" provide NO INFO, at all.
Jon