Futurlec?

[chuck richards]

Anyone here have any experience ordering from Futurlec?
Looks like they have some good prices, but how's their
delivery time?

Thanks,

Chuck


$4.95/mo. National Dialup, Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, 5mb personal web space. 5x faster dialup for only $9.95/mo. No contracts, No fees, No Kidding! See http://www.All2Easy.net for more details!

[Dennis]

Lot's of experience with them all good. Slow ship times usually around 2 weeks for me in here Oregon, US. I usually use them for bulking up on low supplies but never if I need it fast.
Dennis

---

From: chuck richards <chu...@all2easy.net>
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 12:07 AM
Subject: [neonixie-l] Futurlec?

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[Jonathan Peakall]

They are slooooow. But the stuff is what they say it is. I've had two
problems, one wrong item and one defective item. Both were cheerfully
replaced but it took a loooong time to get 'em.

Jonathan

[M.J.Sangster]

I've also had good luck with Futurlec - but they are slow (possibly the mail service is the reason). They sent me a wrong part, and immediately sent the right part, and did not even want the old wrong part sent back.

- Michael

[AlexTsekenis]

My limited experience is from when I ordered a bunch of MOSFETs from them.
Took about a month delivery to UK. One complain was that they were delivered in a simple plastic bag, no antistatic measures whatsoever.

Alex.

[Smiffy]

On Monday, February 25, 2013 6:58:40 AM UTC+10:30, AlexTsekenis wrote:

...

Took about a month delivery to UK. One complain was that they were delivered in a simple plastic bag, no antistatic measures whatsoever.

Similar experience. 

Speed: always slow, no point in asking when something will be despatched, as they either don't reply or reply but give something unspecific like "soon." 

Packaging: generally poor. Parts generally arrive wrapped in cellophane, bent pins on SMD parts not unusual, sometimes no labelling.

I also don't like the way that they hold credit card details without asking (assuming they still do that.) 

Otherwise, though, cheap, and as described.

[Charles MacDonald]

On 13-02-24 03:07 AM, chuck richards wrote:
> Anyone here have any experience ordering from Futurlec?
> Looks like they have some good prices, but how's their
> delivery time?

It has been a while.. but I have ordered from them in the past. They
seem to take a couple of weeks to Process the order, then they airmail
it from Some place like Thailand. Don't know if that is actually their
headquarters or not.


--
Charles MacDonald Stittsville Ontario
cm...@zeusprune.ca Just Beyond the Fringe
http://Charles.MacDonald.org/tubes
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[chuck richards]

Well Futurlec looks to have some pretty decent
prices on a few items I have been looking for.
4536 is 36 cents each for (25) or more.
Digi-Key's best price for 4536 is 41.32 cents each.

74HCT245 costs 29 cents each at Futurlec, where as
Digi-Key's best price is around 37 cents.

4538 costs 40 cents each at Futurlec. Those pop up
at various other places for anywhere from 50 cents to a buck
each!

Futurlec also has some nice 5 volt DPDT relays that have
2 amp contacts and have the standard 16-pin DIP pinout.
Those cost around 80 cents each. Best price for them
elsewhere is $1.49 each.

Futurlec also has some very reasonable shipping costs.
They do NOT charge sales tax, either....

That is one thing I find very annoying about Digi-Key
any more. Ever since they started charging sales tax
unless one has a tax number I find myself feeling like
I got ripped off every time I order from them.

Digi-Key is fast and they package the stuff very professionally.
For what they charge for everything including tax and shipping
they darn well ought to be professional!

Maybe I will give Futurlec a try.
Sounds like there is at least a fighting chance of
actually receiving the goods.

Thanks everybody for your insights about this.

Hey while I am at it, anyone know where to get
XR2206? Jameco lists them at $6.49 each!!

Ebay is much cheaper for XR2206, down around $2 each,
but there one must deal with most dubious sources from
Taiwan and China. Anybody know where a stash of cheap
XR2206 ics might be hiding?

Chuck

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[threeneurons]

Aware of Mouser Electronics ?

4536 32 cents, in ones and two-zees. 23.6 cents, 25 pieces or more.

4538 (really MC14538) 25 cents, in single quantity.

74HCT245 31 cents in single quantity.

http://www.mouser.com/

Digikey and Mouser have similar roots. They started providing parts to small users. Mostly school science labs, but exploded due to both a shift in the electronics part market in the US, and the Internet. They, along with Allied & Newark, issued catalogs. In the late 70's, the Mouser catalog was the size of your weekly news magazine, while the Digi-key catalog was the size of paperback novel. By the early 90's, both where the size of telephone directories.

Futurelec seems to be in the same class as Jameco. Both occupy the middle world. They aren't in the scale of Mouser or Digikey, but are bigger, than your hobby suppliers, like All Electronics or Goldmine.

Even though Mouser and Digikey, now compete, and even beat, the biz-2-biz electronics distributors, like Avnet, and Arrow. Newark (Farnell) is also in this pile.

[threeneurons]

I just got a package, that I ordered from Futurlec. It took almost a month to get here. As not to alarm anyone, I can explain why. One of those weeks could be attributed to my local post office, or specifically, my mail carrier. They tried to deliver it to my office last Saturday, but its closed on Saturday, and she didn't leave a notice, until a week later. I picked it up from the Post office, today.

Futurlec sends it Registered Mail, so it has to be signed for, and not left with a neighbor. The point of origin is Thailand, but its processed thru Singapore. The Invoice has an Australian address. The New York City address, I suspect, is just a PO Box. They also take about a week to process it. So if you're in the US or Europe, don't expect your parcel anytime soon. I suspect deliveries to Australia will show up sooner, unless  you have a customs service that follows the Euro model. Keep it in a warehouse for a few weeks. If its a terrorist bomb, then it will blow up there. 

[Terry S]

Has anyone tried their PCB service? Prices seem cheap enough.

> > your hobby suppliers, like All Electronics or Goldmine.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Bill van Dijk]

I have used them a couple of times, boards are good. Make sure you do not
violate their specifications though, they are not as flexible as some other
board houses. I use Eagle, so I can send them the native file.

Cheers, Bill

[Smiffy]

On Tuesday, May 14, 2013 10:15:53 PM UTC+9:30, Terry S wrote:

Has anyone tried their PCB service? Prices seem cheap enough.

I actually found them slow and relatively expensive.

Now I wouldn't consider using anyone but Laen's service at www.oshpark.com unless I need a BIG board - in which case I do my own.

[Smiffy]

On Tuesday, May 14, 2013 10:23:07 AM UTC+9:30, threeneurons wrote:

I just got a package, that I ordered from Futurlec. It took almost a month to get here. As not to alarm anyone, I can explain why. One of those weeks could be attributed to my local post office, or specifically, my mail carrier. They tried to deliver it to my office last Saturday, but its closed on Saturday, and she didn't leave a notice, until a week later. I picked it up from the Post office, today.

When I used to use Futurlec,  postage to Australia was reasonably quick - it was the 2-3 weeks from receiving to despatching the order that took the time. When I'd mail to ask when I was going to receive my order, I've had to wait over a week for a reply, which was a very vague "soon." I'm afraid that I simply don't have the patience to deal with companies like that so, after a period of hunting down stuff on eBay, I settled on Element14, with whom I managed to wangle a good discount. (I think they did it out of goodwill, as I'm not a volume buyer.)

[Scott Burris]

Even those prices seem expensive to me.

Take a board 5cmx5cm, roughly 4 sq in.  At oshpark that's $20
for 3 boards.

At http://www.seeedstudio.com, a 5cmx5cm board will run $9.90
and you get 10 boards.  That's considerably cheaper, but you may have to
wait a bit to get your boards.

For larger boards, I personally like pcbfabexpress.com or pcbex.com

Scott

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[Spencer W]

I use http://www.hackvana.com for my boards, even cheaper than seeedstudio!

Sent from my iPhone

[threeneurons]

 Smiffy wrote:

... I settled on Element14, with whom I managed to wangle a good discount.

Element14, is part of Newark/Farnell. That's the big leagues, up there with Mouser & Digikey. Much more professional outfits. These are also the tree killers. Both Mouser and Digi-key have catalogs as fat as phone directories (if any one remembers what those are). I here Farnell, in the UK is even worse, issuing several directory size volumes, to list their wares.

As for PCB houses, I already use one that does very good work. From bad experiences, in the past, once I find a board house that does a decent job, I'm leery about switching to someone else. Of course, they may not be right for everybody, since I usually order a very minimum of 25 boards of any one type. 

[pewter]

I have just used Futurlec for the first time for boards. I have previously used them for components and was pleased.

Was impressed in that this is the first board I have ever had made externally so did not know what to expect or do. There were a couple of queries on the files and what I wanted. I was contacted by email and all sorted. Good communications. As far as price. They were the cheapest I could find for 2 boards 125mm x 26mm but will look at what others are saying here for future. Some would say they are slow, but my boards were dispatched on 14th which was acceptable for me so should arrive any day.

[threeneurons]

When I received my package, there were a few items missing. I contacted them (thru email). They shipped the missing items, without making me jump thru hoops. I just got them today. They are a decent outfit. I'll order from them again.

[pewter]

Just received my boards as I mentioned on a previous post. Very pleased especially as I ordered and payed for 2 boards and received 3. Now I will have to make 3 clocks not 2, I don't think I will worry about that.