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Who Do You Get Your Parts From?

T

Tim Shoppa

Jan 1, 1970
0
The following seem to be the big names in electronic component supply:

www.mcmelectronics.com
www.digikey.com
www.mouser.com
www.jameco.com

What are the relative merits of each for a small time parts ordered
(<$20)?

My analysis below is sometimes distorted by deep history (going back to
the 70's or earlier in a couple of cases). But here it is:

MCM is great for repair tools, repair parts for consumer stuff,
etc.They are somehow corporately tied to Newark now which is an
"old-line" industrial catalog house. I do not understand how the
"In-One" companies interoperate (they seem to not interoperate for the
most part!)

Digikey and Mouser are not perfectly interchangeable but both have lots
of stuff in stock and pretty good (Mouser) to exceptional (Digikey) web
ordering interfaces. Both have really extensive (but not identical)
selection of semis, passives, cabinets, tools, etc. Both can get you
not-in-stock stuff without great difficulty (but with minimum
quantities).

Jameco was traditionally a hobbyist supplier. Several steps up from say
Poly-Paks but several steps down from the big catalog houses. Always
had a good selection of hobbyist-oriented semis, medium to poor
selection of passives. They have obviously been angling towards
becoming more full-line and stocking like Digikey et al but have only
made minor baby steps in that direction. What they do stock is often
cheap (and if you look at the date codes it may be a few decades old
too...) They still have very poor selection of passives, almost zero
precision stuff, etc. For a while they had a very good selection of
surplus power supplies, now they have a very good selection of new
switchers.

Tim.
 
G

GregS

Jan 1, 1970
0
The following seem to be the big names in electronic component supply:

www.mcmelectronics.com
www.digikey.com
www.mouser.com
www.jameco.com

What are the relative merits of each for a small time parts ordered
(<$20)?

When I look at these i figure most or all will require a minimum fee.
I used to order anything from Newark and free shipping, but they
dropped that for me, however that was with a PO not credit card.
I have been ordering more from Allied, free ground shipping for me.
I have not used much of Mouser, but I have to use ALL of these
companies to get price and selection. Of course Farnell owns Newark and MCM.
You can order MCM and Farnell parts from Newark. At one time Jameco had
low stock, and surplus stock, but almost anything they had was cheaper than anybody
else. They still have bargains.

greg
 
G

GregS

Jan 1, 1970
0
The following seem to be the big names in electronic component supply:

www.mcmelectronics.com
www.digikey.com
www.mouser.com
www.jameco.com

What are the relative merits of each for a small time parts ordered
(<$20)?

I used to pick up a Digi-Key catalog and thumb through it to see
all the neat stuff. That was 20 years ago. I really hate the thought
now of picking up the catalog, putting my Digi-Key glasses on, and
trying to get some kind of feel thumbing thin pages and trying
to hold that flimsy catalog flat. I absolutely have to use a catalog at times, but
if I can't find Digi parts on their website, which is pretty good, I dred the thought
of using that dam catalog.

greg
 
L

Luhan

Jan 1, 1970
0
W

Winfield Hill

Jan 1, 1970
0
[email protected] wrote...
The following seem to be the big names in electronic
component supply:

www.mcmelectronics.com
www.digikey.com
www.mouser.com
www.jameco.com

Not much from MCM for me. For semicons I use

www.digikey.com
www.newark.com
www.mouser.com
uk.farnell.com (ordered via Newark)
www.alliedelec.com
www.futureelectronics.com
www.arrow.com
www.jameco.com
www.nuhorizons.com
www.avnet.com
www.gerberelec.com
www.allamerican.com
www.rell.com (Richarson, RF stuff)
www.rocelec.com (Rochester, obsolete stuff)
www.mcmelectronics.com
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
I used to pick up a Digi-Key catalog and thumb through it to see
all the neat stuff. That was 20 years ago. I really hate the thought
now of picking up the catalog, putting my Digi-Key glasses on, and
trying to get some kind of feel thumbing thin pages and trying
to hold that flimsy catalog flat. I absolutely have to use a catalog at times, but
if I can't find Digi parts on their website, which is pretty good, I dred the thought
of using that dam catalog.

I've downloaded DigiKey's entire catalog in PDF:
http://dkc1.digikey.com/us/pdf/Current.html is the main "browse" page, and
near the bottom, you can download the whole thing. What I generally do is
use their parts search function if I know what I want, and I can go right
to the catalog page. Otherwise, it's pretty much like browsing any catalog,
except it's phosphor on glass instead of ink on paper, and it takes longer
to flip pages. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
T

Tim Shoppa

Jan 1, 1970
0
As long as we're talking about our favorite ordering websites:

McMaster-Carr, http://www.mcmaster.com/
is pure heaven!

The website is a breeze to use. You can select items a trillion
different ways, with graphics and menus that are actually relevant at
every single step. And while they don't do electronic components, they
do just about everything else :). No minimum orders, warehouses all
across the US so most orders arrive the next day via UPS ground, and I
have actually had stuff arrive SAME DAY!

I mean, I thought Digikey had a good online ordering selector. They're
still good and getting better, but McMaster-Carr just blows them away
in terms of ease of use.

Tim.
 
R

Richard Henry

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tim Shoppa said:
As long as we're talking about our favorite ordering websites:

McMaster-Carr, http://www.mcmaster.com/
is pure heaven!

The website is a breeze to use. You can select items a trillion
different ways, with graphics and menus that are actually relevant at
every single step. And while they don't do electronic components, they
do just about everything else :). No minimum orders, warehouses all
across the US so most orders arrive the next day via UPS ground, and I
have actually had stuff arrive SAME DAY!

I mean, I thought Digikey had a good online ordering selector. They're
still good and getting better, but McMaster-Carr just blows them away
in terms of ease of use.

In a previous position, working on a small project, I used to order almost
all the electronics parts I needed from Digikey and mechanical parts from
McMaster-Carr, on my own credit card, then submit an expense report for
reimbursement. I found that I could get my reimbursement check from finance
faster than I could get parts ordered through purchasing.

Then we got a new manager who thought I was trying to pull something over on
him.
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Jan 1, 1970
0
Richard Henry said:
Then we got a new manager who thought I was trying to pull something over on
him.

He was probably worried that somehow it'd take away from what surely was going
to be his golden parachute, whether he performed or not.
 
R

Richard Henry

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joel Kolstad said:
He was probably worried that somehow it'd take away from what surely was going
to be his golden parachute, whether he performed or not.

A compromise was eventually reached - the department admin assistant got a
company credit card an ordered things we wanted, after printing out the
order, having it initialed by the manager, then initialed by the program
manager who owned the account the parts would be charged to, then she would
type in the whole order again (without error!) and order the parts.

At my next job, I got a company credit card of my own to order parts with.
All I needed was a verbal or e-mail approval from the project engineer to
spend the money.
 
R

redbelly

Jan 1, 1970
0
The following seem to be the big names in electronic component supply:

www.mcmelectronics.com
www.digikey.com
www.mouser.com
www.jameco.com

What are the relative merits of each for a small time parts ordered
(<$20)?

I've ordered from Digikey and also Newark ( www.newarkinone.com ).
Both are pretty good, but Digikey has lower shipping charges (to New
Jersey, at least) and somewhat better search features on their website.

Haven't ordered from Mouser, but I've used their website. They are not
nearly as good as Digikey in terms of being to search for a part, and
pare down the search by entering specs or ranges for specs.

Mark

p.s. Up your order to $25 (or is it $30?) and you'll avoid the extra $5
handling fee at Digikey.
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
As long as we're talking about our favorite ordering websites:

McMaster-Carr, http://www.mcmaster.com/
is pure heaven!

The website is a breeze to use. You can select items a trillion
different ways, with graphics and menus that are actually relevant at
every single step. And while they don't do electronic components, they
do just about everything else :). No minimum orders, warehouses all
across the US so most orders arrive the next day via UPS ground, and I
have actually had stuff arrive SAME DAY!

I mean, I thought Digikey had a good online ordering selector. They're
still good and getting better, but McMaster-Carr just blows them away
in terms of ease of use.

There's one just down the street from me - I can call in an order, and go
pick it up at will-call in about 10 minutes. (maybe 20 if they're really
busy.) ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
R

redbelly

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rich said:
There's one just down the street from me - I can call in an order, and go
pick it up at will-call in about 10 minutes. (maybe 20 if they're really
busy.) ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

I'll have to try that sometime. I'm 20-30 minutes drive from the one
in New Jersey.

Mark
 
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