7805 regulator source?

[Jake T]

The 7805 in one of my regulated supplies has failed. I was just going
to order one of the cheapest ones off of eBay. Most likely, this would
be a Chinese clone. Might this be a problem down the road, or should I
order a better brand and what are your suggestions? Thanks.

[Peter W.]

a) A princely $0.65 from Digi-Key.
b) Might this be a problem down the road? Three possible answers in the most likely-to-occur order:
- Yes, but not right away. So you will be making the same repair multiple times.
- Yes, but in such a way as to cause additional cascade failures - so you are putting the device at-risk.
- No.

In fewer words: Don't be stupid.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[Dave Platt]

In article <98294110-cf93-4521...@googlegroups.com>,

Peter W. <peterw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 7:07:11 AM UTC-5, Jake T wrote:
>> The 7805 in one of my regulated supplies has failed. I was just going
>> to order one of the cheapest ones off of eBay. Most likely, this would
>> be a Chinese clone. Might this be a problem down the road, or should I
>> order a better brand and what are your suggestions? Thanks.
>
>a) A princely $0.65 from Digi-Key.

And, if you download the Digi-Key paper order form, fill it out by
hand, and mail it to Digi-Key with a check for the full cost of the
component, they'll pay the shipping charge. Yes, they're still
offering this service (as of about three months ago) although they
don't go out of their way to publicize it.

>b) Might this be a problem down the road? Three possible answers in the most likely-to-occur order:
> - Yes, but not right away. So you will be making the same repair multiple times.
> - Yes, but in such a way as to cause additional cascade failures - so you are putting the device at-risk.
> - No.

>In fewer words: Don't be stupid.

"Cheap is often very expensive."

[Jake T]

On 1/8/22 11:55 AM, Dave Platt wrote:
> In article <98294110-cf93-4521...@googlegroups.com>,
> Peter W. <peterw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 7:07:11 AM UTC-5, Jake T wrote:
>>> The 7805 in one of my regulated supplies has failed. I was just going
>>> to order one of the cheapest ones off of eBay. Most likely, this would
>>> be a Chinese clone. Might this be a problem down the road, or should I
>>> order a better brand and what are your suggestions? Thanks.
>>
>> a) A princely $0.65 from Digi-Key.
>
> And, if you download the Digi-Key paper order form, fill it out by
> hand, and mail it to Digi-Key with a check for the full cost of the
> component, they'll pay the shipping charge. Yes, they're still
> offering this service (as of about three months ago) although they
> don't go out of their way to publicize it.

Wow, I never knew this! Do I go ahead and pay shipping for which
they'll refund later, or just pay for the device?

[John Robertson]

Are there no electronic supply stores in your city/state? I'd try them
first. I do use DK and Mouser and Element 13 of course, but for single
and small orders I go to my local electronics supplier. In my case
(Vancouver/Burnaby, BC, Canada) it is https://www.rpelectronics.com -
They have a showroom you can wander around in, perfect for hobbyists and
hunting for something you can't recall the name of!

John :-#)#

--
(Please post followups or tech inquiries to the USENET newsgroup)
John's Jukes Ltd.
MOVED to #7 - 3979 Marine Way, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J 5E3
(604)872-5757 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

[Phil Hobbs]

RP Electronics? I wonder if they're the successor to the old
Rendell-Paret shop on 4th and Arbutus in Vancouver. That was a real
old-timey ham shop--stuff stacked to the rafters, and old Hedley Rendell
chain-smoking behind the counter.

I used to buy stuff there when I was a kid. Freaking ex-pen-sive
compared to now.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

[Phil Allison]

John Robertson wrote:
==================

>>
> >
> Are there no electronic supply stores in your city/state? I'd try them
> first. I do use DK and Mouser and Element 13 of course,

** Element 13 ?? Aluminium ?

[Dave Platt]

In article <srcgq2$3k7$1...@dont-email.me>, Jake T <jake...@steak.com> wrote:
>On 1/8/22 11:55 AM, Dave Platt wrote:

>> And, if you download the Digi-Key paper order form, fill it out by
>> hand, and mail it to Digi-Key with a check for the full cost of the
>> component, they'll pay the shipping charge. Yes, they're still
>> offering this service (as of about three months ago) although they
>> don't go out of their way to publicize it.
>
>Wow, I never knew this! Do I go ahead and pay shipping for which
>they'll refund later, or just pay for the device?

Just pay for the device, and include your local sales tax if any.
Don't pay for shipping.

To quote from their current Terms and Conditions document:

"6. Shipping Charges.

"Products Shipping from Digi-Key's Warehouse. Except as otherwise
provided on the Site, (1) shipping or freight charges and insurance
will be paid by the customer*, (2) all sales are made FOB Digi-Key's
warehouse in Thief River Falls, MN, USA, and (3) shipping or freight
charges from Digi-Key's warehouse in Thief River Falls, MN, USA are
prepaid and added to the invoice, billed collect or billed to a third
party.

"* When a check or money order accompanies your order, Digi-Key pays
all shipping and insurance (our choice for method of shipping) to all
addresses in the U.S. and Canada."

"Our choice of method for shipping" has always worked out to be the
same as their basic-price ground shipment, in my experience. The two
or three times I've used this method, I've not had a package delayed
unduely through having been sent on a slow horse via Mongolia, or
anything like that.

As far as I know there's no way to take advantage of this if you're
using their online ordering system, as you can't have a check or money
order "accompany your order". It might be possible to start the
process of order entry and then print out your "cart" and mail in the
printout, but I'm not sure this would give them all of information
needed to process the order. I just download the PDF of their
paper order form, print it, fill it out by hand, and mail it with a
check. If I write my Digi-Key customer number in the right place,
I even get an email from them when they process the order.

This manual process is a nice thing if you want to order just one or
ten small items (where the parts cost is less than their normal
shipping charge) and you don't mind the order taking an extra week
or so.

[John Robertson]

I take it you grew up in Vancouver, BC. I started out in Toronto. Great
surplus stores in Toronto back in the 60s!

You knew Rendell Paret back in those days? I used to love hanging out in
that old shop too, along with the other electronics surplus store (run
by Peter - AIR) at Main and 17th or there about. Peter had very nice
monstrous TEK surplus oscilloscopes that I couldn't afford back in the
late 70s and early 80s...And of course Main Electronics around Main and
29th - but they are all gone now.

RP sold out to Andrew back in the 90s I believe and he kept the name
ever since. No longer surplus, which is a shame, but that market kinda
dried up. And the High schools in Vancouver no longer have electronics
as a course - although they do have robotics and other tech classes.

John :-#)#

[John Robertson]

You could dig out an old Digi-Key catalogue and use the order page from
that - I assume - to get your free shipping. Photocopies would probably
be fine.

[Dave Platt]

In article <qPqdneWhC6VHE0f8...@giganews.com>,

John Robertson <sp...@flippers.com> wrote:

>You could dig out an old Digi-Key catalogue and use the order page from
>that - I assume - to get your free shipping. Photocopies would probably
>be fine.

Sure. Or, web-search the phase "digi-key order form" and you'll quickly
find the PDF version.

[Phil Hobbs]

Yup. Born at VGH, UBC undergrad, then went to grad school in California
and moved to NY to work at IBM Research.

> I started out in Toronto. Great surplus stores in Toronto back in the
> 60s!
>
> You knew Rendell Paret back in those days? I used to love hanging out
> in that old shop too, along with the other electronics surplus store
> (run by Peter - AIR) at Main and 17th or there about. Peter had very
> nice monstrous TEK surplus oscilloscopes that I couldn't afford back
> in the late 70s and early 80s...And of course Main Electronics around
> Main and 29th - but they are all gone now.

Never went to either of those ones. I lived just up the hill from
Hedley's place.

> RP sold out to Andrew back in the 90s I believe and he kept the name
> ever since. No longer surplus, which is a shame, but that market
> kinda dried up. And the High schools in Vancouver no longer have
> electronics as a course - although they do have robotics and other
> tech classes.

Interesting, thanks!

[Jeff Liebermann]

That was too easy:
<https://www.digikey.com/-/media/PDF/Help/Order%20Form/order-form_en-US.pdf?la=en>
On the form is printed:
SHIPPING INFORMATION
We pay all shipping (our choice of method)
and insurance to addresses in the USA
and Canada when check or money order
accompanies order. See "Shipping Charges"
in the Digi-Key Terms and Conditions for
details on heavy/oversize items.

Thanks.
--
Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[Bob Engelhardt]

On 1/8/2022 11:55 AM, Dave Platt wrote:

> And, if you download the Digi-Key paper order form, fill it out by
> hand, and mail it to Digi-Key with a check for the full cost of the

> component, they'll pay the shipping charge. ...

That seems like bad business: processing a paper order is going to be
much more expensive than an automated online order. And it encourages
itsy-bitsy orders which are certainly money losers. I suppose that it's
basically a customer-relations thing & not for-profit.

I like DigiKey and try not to abuse their no-minimum with trivial
orders. And when I do, I'm happy to pay for shipping.

[Chris Jones]

Is there a dumpster / bin that you know of with electronics waste in it
that you can take items out of (legally or otherwise)? It is quite
likely that you can find a 7805 in a device in the bin quicker than
ordering one, and the parts are much more likely to be good than random
e-bay purchases.

Look for something that runs off a heavy wall-wart, like a really old
modem from the mid-90s, that likely has a 7805 in it, but a lot of other
stuff would too - e.g. CRT monitors or fax machines.

[Peter W.]

Really? Dumpster Diving for a $0.65 (+ tax) part? And a used one at that?

[tschw...@aol.com]

Element 14, the distributor formerly known as Newark.

[Jake T]

I ordered from Digikey via the snail mail system to avoid shipping.
Ordered some other goodies too. Where I live, I think I'd be locked up
if I tried dumpster diving. They won't pull you over for driving like a
jacka** through town, but if they see you taking stuff out of the
dumpster, look out!

[Guy Patterson]

Fair point, but you might find a Faberge egg while you're snorkeling through the offscourings.

[Chris Jones]

On 12/01/2022 23:56, Peter W. wrote:
> Really? Dumpster Diving for a $0.65 (+ tax) part? And a used one at that?

I'll happily take a genuine Motorola, National or TI part out of a
dumpster and available today, over whatever you might receive in a
month's time from a random ebay seller in China (which was the OP's
original suggestion). Heck on ebay you might end up with a used part
anyway, albeit with carefully straightened pins and a freshly lasered
part number on it, perhaps related to its internal circuitry, perhaps not.

If you're building things for yourself, or even prototypes at work where
time is of the essence and you don't have the new part you need, there
is nothing wrong with testing and reusing the occasional part from
scrapped high-quality equipment, (unless you're building pacemakers or
satellites, or for production use where you need traceability etc.).
Some newly made TO-220s have more bendy thinner tabs to save copper, so
I prefer the old ones with the thick tab anyway - less chance of
cracking the die when you do up the screw.

[Chris Jones]

Pity, though it would save me a lot of problems with storing all the
test equipment I find.

[Peter W.]

Please don't get me wrong - I have pulled many gems 'off the curb' or out of dumpsters, including an Edison Home 3-minute cylinder machine, a Dynaco ST35 & FM3 and much more. And I am not above salvaging parts, either. But I will not go diving for a random bit of electronics when I know that I will be able to find a genuine part at a small cost that is both new and warranted.

[Phil Hobbs]

I remember back when Digi-Key advertised in the back of Electronics
Illustrated and Popular Electronics, alongside Poly Paks and Jameco.

Maybe they remember their hobbyist roots.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

(Who also cares about helping beginners.)

[whit3rd]

On Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 9:47:12 AM UTC-8, Peter W. wrote:
> Please don't get me wrong - I have pulled many gems 'off the curb'... And I am not above salvaging parts, either. But I will not go diving for a random bit of electronics when I know that I will be able to find a genuine part at a small cost that is both new and warranted.

If the need is just a 5V regulator, an auto accessory stepdown regulator is
available at my local dollar store (USB charge point); no order/deliver delay.
As for 'warranted', that's a meaningless consideration for little nuts-and-bolts
small change items. I'm not going to pursue a warranty, they're
expendable. Instead, order/stock a few extras...