Your latest purchase

I spent a career with instrumentation. Accuracy is one of the most misunderstood, misused, and abused word in the world of electronics. Never trust a salesman or his spec sheets. Never accept an accuracy figure or specification without knowing and asking a whole lot of questions about how they are arriving at their specification and under what conditions.

It's a very interesting field, measurements and standards, but far from as simple as one might first think.

Lefty

I got a 1m blue led strip for 1$ free shipping off ebay, buyitnow price 10$ XD
Waiting g for the day I get that 5m rgb strip with ir control for 1$ instead of 20

Was it a chinese supplier? They almost always seem to throw in wacky "extras"... :wink:

cr0sh:
Was it a chinese supplier?

Yes.

My order from Futurlec (California) arrived from China, 12 days transit not the 7-10 quoted. Somehow I got the 256k-bit serial rams as surface mount chips though the 64k-bitters are DIPs.

It's time for me to play with SPI so expect maybe some stupid questions.

100 ATMEGA328P-PU from mouser.com These will hopefully last through the summer :)Their 25 point break has got about 1% increase from my last purchase. Digi-key ran out of them.

do tell what do you do with 100 328's that will only last you through the summer? Since 2009 I have only used 2 hehe (and 3 168's and a handful of tinys)

oh and I hope you enjoy your 5 inch thick mouser catalog(s) soon to come ... they make good monitor stands

nothing really against mouser, but when you pay 1% more for 100 and you get a freaking phone book a week later you start to wonder if that 1% could have been shaved by not mailing a brick that has a 98% chance of instantly ending up in the dumpster (and its much more insulting when you buy a 1.50$ + shipping that really should have cost 2 dollars shipped sans doorstop)

edit:
against mouser I hate their search

Osgeld,

I have designed a family of serial LCD panels and backpacks with ATMEGA328P. I'm flashing them with my code and selling them in kits. My first 25 ATMEGA328P lasted 3 months, next 25 lasted 3 months. Not to use linear regression but just common sense, this 100 will last 8 months or less, the end of summer.

I wouldn't mind a catalog though. I find catalogs very useful in getting a feeling of what each part looks like. I can also take notes on the catalog. One is enough.

2x Nema17 stepper motors with 26:1 planetary gearbox on

2x N.O. temperature switches, closes at 35c

Just over four hundred one half watt .4 ohm resistors -- a dollar including shipping (no, I don't have an actual plan for em)
Twenty TIP41C and a hundred 5.1v zeners -- four dollars shipped
five three-watt warm white LED's, including constant current drivers -- Four bucks and change
USB ASP Programmer -- a dollar shipped
Twenty LM317T and ten ULN2003A -- Ten bucks shipped.

I hit a scratch ticket for twenty bucks and decided to do a bit of ebay bottom-feeding... :slight_smile:

Crimp tool...

finally had enough of using pliers that never really worked anyways

10 off VS838 infrared receivers for £4.13 delivered from eBay.

However, one doesn't work and the rest seem to pick up spurious noise! Not that that will be a major problem for my application(s).

Just ordered and eagerly awaiting another Duemilanove also from eBay - £12.89 delivered.

Still waiting for my 3 el-cheapo mini-steppers (with gearboxes) and driver boards to find their way to me from China after being inspired by focalist and his sub-$100.00 CNC build...

That is indeed the drawback to the supercheap items from HK and such.. Patience is required. Especially with my ebay bottom feeding, shipping can take a month at times. Happily components are small, a small filing cabinet holds all of my component hunting.

Just not been able to get some tinkering time in... amazing how I can via modern chemistry I can delay, but ultimately not avoid paying...

focalist:
That is indeed the drawback to the supercheap items from HK and such.. Patience is required. Especially with my ebay bottom feeding, shipping can take a month at times. Happily components are small, a small filing cabinet holds all of my component hunting.

Just not been able to get some tinkering time in... amazing how I can via modern chemistry I can delay, but ultimately not avoid paying...

Maybe it's my west coast location, but I've never had any of my Asian E-bay bottom feeding purchases take more then 12 days, with 10-11 days most likely. Being retired has helped me slow down and enjoy the ride more so waiting for such bargains has not been a problem. I think one key is to have more then one project in the works so attention can be switched back and forth as parts procurement allows.

Lefty

Maybe it's my west coast location

And I agree with that statement. When I order from China , ( I did order from E-bay --> 7 X MAX 7219 ), It mail from HK, take the plane and arrive in Vancouver, BC - In your case retrolefty, in LA or San Fransisco. After the plane trip via Vancouver, take a land trip across Canada going to Toronto, the "Border - Custom" in Mississauga, after that, ship to my PO box in Toronto - West - End. And I go get it... hopefully, I don't pay GST - Fed tax or PST - prov tax or HST - both. That is the borders guys to decided to place taxes on the items arriving by mail.

Most of the time, I buy locally, or order from Canadian e-stores. My last order from HVW, USB mini, a servo motor and a RTC chip + Xtal, came very quick - order on Tuesday, arrive on Friday, same week... I was SURPRISE... and my order from China ( 2 mini drill with a DC motor ) arrive at the same day - Friday - last week.

Interesting. Since USPS and China post now provide tracking of most packages, I see the routes most of the time, at least as far as scans go. To make it to the Boston area, most often it seems packages go through Chicago or Los Angeles, rather than a east-west direct route, even though the huge ports of the Eastern seaboard.

I frequently don't understand the business model of selling an item and taking a loss on the shipping... But I'm also enough of a pragmatist to be happy getting stuff on the cheap..

focalist:
I frequently don't understand the business model of selling an item and taking a loss on the shipping... But I'm also enough of a pragmatist to be happy getting stuff on the cheap..

I too can't see how they are making any profit at all with including free shipment. All I can think of is that their government is subsidizing or reimbursing the shipping costs. Nothing else makes sense?

Lefty

I order a 8 High bandwith transistors ( BFR90 ) from the UK. It took 2 week. I ask the cleck at my PO box office - at Shoppers, Most Eastern oversea mail goes to Montreal and take the road throught the 401 < - Canada's busiest Highway. And off course going to the Post Office Custom in Mississauga <-- West of Toronto. A bit more quicker than from Vancouver. I don't know about the US mail setup. That was nice to know about the Canadian mail system - Canada Post.