SMDs and other components

[BryanP]

Thanks to Andy, Mitch and Luke for making me welcome at last night's
session.

The topic of SMDs and where to buy components in general was discussed
briefly last night and I thought I'd post some info for everybody to
keep and/or discuss. I know the first few are already on the Groups
site, just thought I'd share some more info about them.

"Mulgrave's Golden Triangle" (now a quadrangle since Altronics opened
18months ago).
Jaycar, Dicksmith, Rockby & Altronics are all near the intersection of
Princes Hwy and Springvale Road.

www.dse.com.au
DICK SMITH used to be in the well known shop on the corner but have
since moved diagonally across the intersection into a newly
constructed strip of shops and don't hold anybody's interest now that
they've gone into selling trinkets and televisions. Jaycar moved into
their old premises.

www.jaycar.com.au
JAYCAR are a known entity and moving into this larger store has
allowed to stock more rubbish (basically any toy you can think of that
farts) while also expanding their range of SLA batteries, kits and
tools. They have A LOT of components on the shelves in the aisles and
many hundreds more behind the counter. Additionally, while the Geek IQ
of the staff has been diluted a little over the years, they still have
keen young experimenters and usually more than one middle aged staff
member with experience behind them.
They offer a trade discount to anybody from an amateur radio club or
the Historical Radio Society of Aust. (HRSA). They also have kits for
many projects published in Electronics Australia (no longer printed)
and Silicon Chip magazines. I have a good relationship with the local
sales managers in 'Electus', their wholesale division.

www.altronics.com.au
ALTRONICS ran a successful mail order business from their WA store
before expanding into all other states of Australia in the past 2-3
years. They are very similar to Jaycar in the items they sell, while
also servicing data, security and audio industries. They too produce
kits for the Silicon Chip projects, and to my mind do a better job of
packaging, instructions and presentation of finished product while
being within a couple of dollars of the Jaycar prices. They also give
trade to HRSA and a couple of radio clubs.
LC Meter I built: http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=K2533
Google Map: http://tr.im/oK5K

www.rockby.com.au
ROCKBY have closed out a couple of other suppliers over the past
20years and stock and are primarily a components supplier. They have a
small shop-front and ordering via their website for pickup/post is the
best option. This is where you're going to find the hard-to-get
ferrite bead or strips and reels or SMD components. They also deal in
some of the average quality electronics gadgets like ipod chargers,
wireless headphones and tyre pressure gauges, but nothing that farts.
This is a good place to buy cheap SMDs in 100s for 5.5cents, while
Jaycar/Altronics will charge 8-12c.
They currently have an 8500pcs of 603 resistors pack for $119:
http://rockby.com.au/catresults.cfm?stock_no=37723
Most of you will be familiar with LadyAda's TweetAWatt, here's a local
device for those interested: http://rockby.com.au/catresults.cfm?stock_no=36954
Google Map: http://tr.im/oK8B

I've been collecting parts for a major SMD project and have been
steered by others building the same project to the following eBay
sellers, who I heartily recommend:

SURE ELECTRONICS
ebay: http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/Sure-Electronics
online: http://www.sure-electronics.com/
SMD passives and a very wide array of voltage regulator modules,
sensors and LCDs.

THAI SHOP:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/Thai-Shop-Etc_Voltage-Regulator
Especially good prices on 'grab bags' of regulators in lots of
20/50/100. Perfect for filling up the supply drawers.

AIDETEK/SMTZONE
http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/smtzone_Surface-mount-capacitor-kit_W0QQ_fsubZ3QQ_sidZ126671098QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322
I bought the 1% resistor and 5%capacitor combo and they come in these
great little briefcases. Freebie tweezers included.

Fortunately the exchange rate is more favourable again.
Regards,
Bryan

[Michael Borthwick]

Thanks Bryan,

Yes Rockby got stock from All Electronic Components who had a great
little operation in Lonsdale Street with virtually every PCB for any
project ever published in Australia.
( PCB's still available from RCS Radio though http://users.tpg.com.au/rcspcb/index1.htm
)
Rockby also got stock from Stewart Electronics who were in Huntingdale
and did a great job serving the professional market.
I quite like futurlec.com for mail order cheap components and breakout
boards.
Radio Parts closed there Eastern branch but are still going in Spencer
Street - they have aggressive trade discounts and remain popular with
installers of TV antennas, audio systems, connectors and for tools -
more the agricultural end of electronics. Good place to stock up a
field box. At least one of the more technically oriented Jaycar staff
moved to there and she knows her stuff.
Many of Rockby's SMD discretes are not labelled with the value -
that's OK for caps where you only really need 100nF and 22pF for most
AVR microcontroller work but is a pain with resistors bought on tape
by the 100 when you're fault finding. I did get a partial reel of
330ohm for $2 the other day which were labelled.
I have settled on 0805 as the size I work with - that is the size in
Jaycar's SMD resistor assortment but RS trade counter in Melbourne
only has good stocks of 0603.
Could move to 0603 but it gets annoying to remember which values you
have in which size when laying out the footprints.
Farnell have good SMD resistor prices and you can mix different values
to count towards the quantity discount.
Altronics sell SMD resistors in packs of 10 at 8c each and offer an
entire reel of 5,000 for $27 which is amazing. Anyone want 185 10K
resistors for a dollar ?
I could see Hackerspace getting 10K and 4.7K for pullup/pulldown, a
selection around 330ohm for LED current limiting and some 1K series
resistors to current limit inputs to micros connected to real world -
or just one of the assortments you've identified.

Cheers,
Mike
VK3UBM

[Marc Alexander]

 

That's a great list!

 

I can vouch for Sure Electronics and AideTek/smtzone too, I have bought smtzone's 0603 capacitor kit and 0603, 0805 resistor kits.

Their patented enclosures are excellent and worth the bit extra for hassle free storage.

I got an extra smtzone empty enclosure and populated it with Sure Electronics' 1206 resistor pack to get a cheaper 1206 kit.

 

DigiKey www.digikey.com is another place I keep coming back to for both parts design-in choice, stock level and popularity estimates,

when you get used to making their search engine and catalog navigation do what you want it's excellent.

They have huge stock levels and parts supply hidden by the initially simple look of the web site.

Ordering parts is quick and easy but keep your orders on the larger side to allow for the shipping cost.

 

About PCB manufacturers, I have used the Chinese manufacturer www.pcbcart.com many times from a few small 2 layer, up to larger

very dense 12 layer boards in 20 panels or more and haven't had any trouble with them, their quality and speed has been good.

You can do a pcb quote online, I just did a test now it was $95 USD total plus postage for 20 of 100x50mm 2 layer ENIG(gold plated) boards,

soldermask and silkscreen both sides, their quality in previous orders I have received is full production quality.

 

Cheers,

 

Marc

[BryanP]

On Jun 17, 2:16 pm, Michael Borthwick <hol...@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> Thanks Bryan,

>
> I quite like futurlec.com for mail order cheap components and breakout  
> boards.

> Radio Parts closed there Eastern branch but are still going in Spencer  
> Street

I forgot about these guys. Radio Parts is a place that I never really
found what I was looking for but others (whose opinions I respect) do
rate them highly.

I have also bought some parts from Futurlec and found some items to be
very cheap and it all arrived quickly and well packaged.

digikey, mouser etc are sources for a few of the very hard to find
components but I find for the few items I need (and the recently
fluctuating exchange rate) that postal charges make it prohibitive.
Farnell similarly have a massive range but their prices aren't always
the cheapest, but I do use them as a benchmark/last resort of sorts; I
load up the bill of materials into their shopping cart and then try to
find better/cheaper sources, usually also picking up extra components
or kits that Farnell don't stock to amortize the postage. The final
purchase (~30-50% of the components) are purchased from Farnell and
overall I've saved 30% even after postage but shopping around.

I notice there's a "Parts Procurement" course at SparkFun. -
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9164
The last 9 months of scouring for parts for my first non-"parts-
complete kit" project has been a sharp learning curve. I wish I'd sat
in on such a lesson before I started and maybe it's a good topic to
present at a meeting? Is there anybody who has the necessary
experience?

Bryan

[BryanP]

> I notice there's a "Parts Procurement" course at SparkFun. -http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9164

> The last 9 months of scouring for parts for my first non-"parts-
> complete kit" project has been a sharp learning curve. I wish I'd sat
> in on such a lesson before I started and maybe it's a good topic to
> present at a meeting? Is there anybody who has the necessary
> experience?
>
> Bryan

I should have also said that part of the lesson is "How to read a
datasheet" and a primer on IC package types.

Of course there's quite a gap between the hacker who just wants to get
a job done with ready-made modules --like a 1"x1" 5v regulator board
with screw-down terminals-- for their arduino project and an
electronics enthusiast who wants to add the regulator components as an
integral part of their permanent vero/perf-board project. I don't know
where the members of the group mostly stand, or if there's enough of a
group yet who need such a session.

Bryan