Students caught out....

I was at my favourite supplier on the way home and he told me this salutary story:

Seems a few uni students were in the shop a while ago, buying parts for a project. Another punter offered to do the work for them, for a suitable financial consideration. The students accepted.

Unbeknownst to them all, two further customers, who heard the whole exchange, were lecturers at the same uni.... Those students were expelled, and the guy's work was traced back to so 50 other projects.

Justice prevailed.

JimboZA:
Seems a few uni students were in the shop a while ago, buying parts for a project. Another punter offered to do the work for them, for a suitable financial consideration. The students accepted.

More money than sense. Which confuses me. When I was in college I was unaware of anyone who could afford to out-source their homework. Money was needed for rent, food, gasoline, utilities, books, tuition, a never ending stream of irrelevant fees, and, what was left, beer. In the U.S. college cost has risen significantly faster than inflation #. How is it that so many students have money for out-sourcing? Are parents overindulging their offspring more?

# Apparently, with a significant decline in quality.

That is a classic case of kids going to Uni because Mum wants them to get a degree in something, anything, just so long as they are not around the house all day!!!

JimboZA:
I was at my favourite supplier on the way home and he told me this salutary story:

Seems a few uni students were in the shop a while ago, buying parts for a project.

You mean that you still have independent suppliers with physical shops in S.Africa!?!?
You're lucky.
We have one chain here, Maplins, with physical shops. All the rest are on-line, virtual stores.
The last independent physical electronics parts shop near me closed last year because the owner hung himself in the shop. I was told that this was because he was losing money. As far as I know, there are no longer any independent physical electronics parts shops in the whole of London.

Maplins employ staff that know nothing about electronics. I went into my local branch and asked, at the components counter, for a 12 V regulator. The assistant came back, from elsewhere in the shop, with a box that appeared to be a fitting for a car!
"NO. I want a 7812."
"What's that?"
"A three pin integrated circuit."
"What does it look like?"
I didn't want to confuse him by telling him "It looks like a TIP120". :slight_smile:
After about 30 minutes of this back and forth, he eventually found some.
It doesn't inspire confidence when asking, for instance, about a component's parameters!

You mean that you still have independent suppliers with physical shops in S.Africa!?!?

Yep, I use these three. The first one is robotics and stuff and is close to my office; you'll see Arduino branded stuff there and lots of Sparkfun / Adafruit / Pololu; the others are more general electronics and are 10 minutes drive from home, literally round the corner from each other.

For comparison, it's about 18ZAR to the GBP right now.

http://rse.apexmedia.co.za/

There was one about 500 metres from my home, but it burned down last year.

After about 30 minutes of this back and forth, he eventually found some.

Consider yourself lucky - my nearest Maplins doesn't do discrete components. PA systems, fog machines, yes. Resistors in packs, yes. 7805? No way!

In most cases, an online retailer just makes sense. It's hard enough keeping prices and inventory competitive when you're selling to a whole country (or continent or planet.) However, I was reminded of the disadvantages to this approach when I was shopping for solder paste. US Postal Service restricts sending stuff like that (and coin cell batteries...) via air mail. Shipping to my state via one of the major carriers (FedUps) would start at $40.

Now, given that solder paste has a short shelf life and is sold to a fairly niche market, how likely is it that I'll find that in a local shop? If we still used brick-n-mortar stores as primary source, maybe non-zero. But now? Nuh uh.

Don't you have Radio Shack?

We did. Not sure if there are any left. The two I knew of are gone.

While I would assume you could pick up a roll of solder there, does RS actually carry solder paste? I can't imagine there would be enough SMD-savvy makers out there to keep the stock fresh in any given town. I still kinda see it as the place for cordless phones and cheap RC cars. (OK, and an Arduino or two.)

SirNickity:
In most cases, an online retailer just makes sense. It's hard enough keeping prices and inventory competitive when you're selling to a whole country (or continent or planet.) However, I was reminded of the disadvantages to this approach when I was shopping for solder paste. US Postal Service restricts sending stuff like that (and coin cell batteries...) via air mail.

If you bought it from China, would they know what was in the packet? Shhhh! Everything I buy from there is marked as 'gift'. :wink:

Shipping to my state via one of the major carriers (FedUps) would start at $40.

Tell me about it! I needed a US$3 item from Adafruit. Local suppliers didn't stock it. I could have bought it from Adafruit, but the shipping to the UK was another $12! In the end I managed to get one from China with free shipping for about $2.50.

Now, given that solder paste has a short shelf life and is sold to a fairly niche market, how likely is it that I'll find that in a local shop? If we still used brick-n-mortar stores as primary source, maybe non-zero. But now? Nuh uh.

Another advantage of independent bricks and mortar shops is that the owner/staff knew what they were talking about and you could get good advice there. That's not as easy over the intertubes.

SirNickity:
We did. Not sure if there are any left. The two I knew of are gone.

While I would assume you could pick up a roll of solder there, does RS actually carry solder paste?

I don't shop RS all that often, particularly since I moved offices, and it isn't on the way home, I decided to check. RS has two different solder pastes listed in the web inter-tubes. There are 3 RS's still operating within 10 miles of my home, and the web claims that the 2 oz. Non-Spill Rosin Soldering Paste Flux is at each of the 3 RS, while the SP-30 Acid Paste Flux 2 oz. is online only.

dannable:

After about 30 minutes of this back and forth, he eventually found some.

Consider yourself lucky - my nearest Maplins doesn't do discrete components. PA systems, fog machines, yes. Resistors in packs, yes. 7805? No way!

Are you certain? There's usually a counter at the back of the shop with the individual components hidden away behind it. I now usually look up their product number on-line before I go there. It doesn't always help though! I wanted 2 Mtrs of 6 core cable. They knew what I wanted, and they knew they had it in stock, but they had to look through several dozen reels of cable before they found it. :0 :0

MichaelMeissner:

SirNickity:
We did. Not sure if there are any left. The two I knew of are gone.

While I would assume you could pick up a roll of solder there, does RS actually carry solder paste?

I don't shop RS all that often, particularly since I moved offices, and it isn't on the way home, I decided to check. RS has two different solder pastes listed in the web inter-tubes. There are 3 RS's still operating within 10 miles of my home, and the web claims that the 2 oz. Non-Spill Rosin Soldering Paste Flux is at each of the 3 RS, while the SP-30 Acid Paste Flux 2 oz. is online only.

Flux is not the same as solder paste (used for SMDs). Solder paste has powdered solder in it, flux doesn't.

I was thinking flux, not paste. They have flux.

These guys ship free and I always get my stuff in 20 to 30 days.
http://www.dx.com/s/solder+paste

Hi, I live in a rural city, 100kms from Melbourne, we have one independent electronics outlet, they are a small run development and assembly company, I worked there for 3 years.
They have apart from there own line of parts gadgets, they represent a range of other suppliers, Jaycar, Altronics, which includes Arduino clones such as freetronics. A good component base because they supply the local educational facilities in the state.
The prices are reasonable, they are online and even their Arduino stuff is not to badly priced.
Other wise we use E14, RS or Altronics, Jaycar.

Tom.... :slight_smile:

GoForSmoke:
These guys ship free and I always get my stuff in 20 to 30 days.

Thanks! I found some at Zeph.com, but after a couple of weeks, no answer to emails, and a couple phone calls where someone picked up, then hung up, I contacted my CC company to reverse the charges. That finally got someone's attention and they shipped the product. At this point, I don't trust them enough to try again.

TomGeorge:
A good component base because they supply the local educational facilities in the state.

An educational system that teaches useful engineering skills? Nice! I'm kinda hoping the Maker movement actually persuades individual schools to take this stuff seriously. Electronics as a marketable industry could be a fad, but looks solid for a few years at least. :wink:

An educational system that teaches useful engineering skills?

Hi, wellll yes, the secondary schools, year 7 to 12 do have some sort of electronics content, depends on staffing and money, I'm afraid.
Also the commitment of teaching staff, and their skill level.

To let you know how bad some of our education system is;
About 10 years ago, my then employer was keen to advance the skill levels of their employees.
So I was offered the chance to go back to Uni and do my Degree in Electronics, my Diploma and previous employment allowed me to skip Year One of a Three Year Course, (bit suspect... Three year for Degree, was four years , twenty years previous.)
I turn up for first day of year two degree and goto a subject called Electronics. Now expecting it to be an advanced electronics subject I was surprised when the lecturer, who I know, said to me, "Don't worry about notes, you don't need to take this subject, I'll give you exemption after the class."
I then sat through a Second Year , Engineering Degree subject that began by teaching "OHMS LAW".
I was flabbergasted, this is basic stuff that should have been covered in First Year to bring everybody up to speed.
The lecturer who was very disillusioned about the curriculum for the engineering course, said that that is the way it has to be done due to the dumb students that get into these courses.
The course I gather no longer exists at the local Uni.
Unfortunately due to family health problems I couldn't finish the Degree.

Tom....... :slight_smile:

Back in the late 60's and early 70's they let the dummies slide by but at least that let the rest of us get better courses. When 1/3 of the class is outside smoking the classroom is that much less crowded.

But then the rich dummies will get the degrees their money entitles them to. When second level college starts out at Boy Scout Merit Badge level, the bar has been pulled pretty damned low.

GoForSmoke:
I was thinking flux, not paste. They have flux.

These guys ship free and I always get my stuff in 20 to 30 days.
solder paste - Free Shipping - DX

Yes. I can vouch for DX. Never had any problems with them and my orders arrive, sometimes, in 12-14 days. But I do wish that they'd give more detailed specs for their products on their website.

I have some of their $2 hand crank cellphone chargers. Maybe on my best day ever I could have used one to charge my MP3 player. Taken apart, there's a plastic gear train to turn a 10 cent motor posing as a generator and there's some kind of circuit and a power led. That's right, the hand crank generator lights a led nice and bright with maybe half or more of the output after the gear friction has robbed most of your work ... to show it's working.

They do sell useless gimmicky gadgets as well as useful gimmicky gadgets.
Don't miss the bag of 10 5mW red laser modules for now less than $4.50 total. No, I haven't tested one for MBTF. They work on 5V for at least a good while and it says run on 20mA 4.5V.