Where to buy electronics components and parts

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

I'm curious: Where do you guys buy all your transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc.

I am just starting to build a collection and am looking for the best way to do so. Any suggestions?

2

Where I buy them from may well be completely irrelevant for you unless you are in the UK too.

Big international sellers that are good include:

Farnell / Element 14 / Newark (different names for the same company)

RS Components (I don't use these any more as I find their customer service sucks)

Mouser

Digikey

3

eBay is also a good source if you're just trying to build up a collection of passive components. It's dirt cheap, but takes a while to get if you are in the US/Europe.

4

It depends. Usually, I prefer to try and source things locally to avoid having to wait a few days or weeks for delivery, and to avoid paying shipping charges. Locally in Massachusetts, USA, I find myself going to:

However this is primarily for electronics bits and pieces as the first two don't carry Arduino, and Radio Shack has very little selection.

In terms of Arduino boards, and sensors, I try to buy from US distributors just to cut down the ship time. I've used:

I often go to American Science and Surplus (http://www.sciplus.com/) to see what things came in recently.

5

I like Jameco and Digikey for general parts. There is a Fry's near where I live and they actually have decent prices on some items like breadboards and wire, just as good as Jameco without the two day wait (tax tends to cancel out shipping so cost is the same).

For ready-made shields and breakout boards and "neat-o" stuff I can't recommend Sparkfun.com and Adafruit.com enough. Pololu.com has done well by me in this category too, but I haven't used them as much as Sparkfun and Adafruit.

eBay can be a good source to get very inexpensive LEDs, power LEDs, and LED displays from China and weird out of production technology (I am a fan of HP 5082-7300 displays which are only available as surplus). It usually takes two weeks for the shipment to arrive, though, for China deliveries.

6

Yeah and buying from china on the CHEEP... leaves me chuckling for the weeks that it takes for most to arrive usually two and occasionally three weeks over the money I saved (to buy more). I like Adafruit because they support what they sell with libraries and tech support that works, I've tried it.. I can frequently purchase something for less on Ebay but W/O support the parts are less than useful, Robot Shop is another good place to buy, pricey... but 10 - 20% less than SparkFun/Farnell. I recently bought a 4D systems 3.2 SGC display from them, 4D Systems sells them @$69.00/100 Robot Shop @ $74.00 and SparkFun @ $83.00 (approx) my display from Robot Shop didn't look new and I pointed that out to them, They overnighted me a new one... Nice place to spend money I think. It wasn't their fault as the factory packaging is a pink bubble package. Still If you don't have a good idea of what you are buying, you soon will. I feel that the experience is different for all, as we all perceive things differently and hopefully learn from the mistakes... One place I would highly recommend to stay away from is Sure Electronics... I have several horror stories to tell about things that either I had to throw away because they didn't work right or "Ship back to China to sure for repair/replacement" and Yeah I have the emails where they insisted that I was trying to program the wrong part "That is a PIC18LF2520 and it must be programmed that way... when the part is for my old eyes marked well enough to read W/O glasses and marked PIC18F2520. I finally gave up and tossed the part. Even the LCD wasn't worth saving... 1602 W/O backlight...

IMO

Doc

7

taydaelectronics.com is my first choice. digikey is my second choice for quickly getting that one or two missing part that I need. Digikey minimum shipping is around $2.50, which is really nice. most other U.S. electronics parts stores charge double or more than that even if you just buy 1 small part.

I ordered from tayda several times and the package usually arrives in a week. On all my previous orders, the package comes from Massachusetts. This last order was shipped from Colorado. The company is based in Thailand.

my last order from tayda, placed 5/31. status shipped on 6/1. received the package today 6/6.
shipping charge is $2.60.

if you are not in a hurry, you can get parts really cheap, and I mean really cheap on ebay auctions. (buy it now is a different story). I just got 2 step down buck converters for $1 shipped with tracking (they normally go $3.90 buy it now each). If you stick with Top Rated Ebay sellers and sellers with >99% rating, you will get your package in 10 business days or less. I'd say over half the stuff I get from ebay Chinese sellers in about 7 business days, and more than half that time the package is stuck at U.S. customs (you can tell from the tracking info. Los Angeles customs takes a long time, while San Francisco customs seems faster, around 2 , 3 days max.

I'd say shop around and stick with what works best for you. What works for others may not work for you.

8

I vote for taydaelectronics as well :), in Australia they stuff comes direct from Thailand and usually takes about a week.

eBay is also good, but it can take a while for the goods to arrive from China. dx.com is another source that i use occasionally electrical bits, but they can be more expensive than eBay on some things.

9

I bought from Tayda as well and I found their service to be the best or among the best (Amazon Prime+++) I have ever dealt with, the Only foreign company I have dealt with who had accurate tracking data, China for some unfathomable reason is truly abysmal. I have Never gotten accurate tracking data. Usually what I see looks like a menu... They Must by now Know that there are other languages in the world? Or is it simple arrogance, or revenge.. for all those terrible Charlie Chan Movies made in the 30's and 40's "Charlie" was played 'rather campily' ... by a Caucasian... Revenge?

Doc

10

This is what my tracking looks like. One week to deliver. Granted I am in SF bay area, delivery is faster than domestic UPS that takes 10 business days to deliver coast to coast. It takes longer if the package goes through Los Angeles, which may explain why your delivery time is a little longer (I see you are in SoCal). But from what I see in tracking info, it spends the most time at Los Angeles customs facility.

11

Yeah Nothing gets through that bureaucracy quickly except possibly the time of day and I think they need a window for that...
But Ya Know, It's Still a Thrill to stand there and open 5 or 6 packages of goodies, strange packaging, lettering and smell too...
IMO

Doc

12

Don't online stores have HUGE shipping fees? The $3.50 or so ATmega328 will become MUCH more expensive. Very occasionally, I go to Sayal to get some parts. But, they only have some ICs (most of them I have no use for), some resistors, capacitors, switches, diodes, etc. The rest are things for computers that I have not interest in. They do not have everything I want. They don't have ATmega328 in store, either!

13

Daanii:
If you want to build up a collection of parts, and have the space to store things until you need them, you may want to try some grab bags. Jameco has them, and I have heard other places have them too.

I got a grab bag of resistor networks from Jameco and got the weirdest values ever. So I got another grab bag (try again!) and got the exact same values in very similar ratios. I think they put their unsellable stuff into those grab bags. But I have been thinking of putting an LED grab bag on the next order to try to get lucky. This behavior resembles a gambler's addiction.

14

dkl65:
Don't online stores have HUGE shipping fees? The $3.50 or so ATmega328 will become MUCH more expensive. Very occasionally, I go to Sayal to get some parts. But, they only have some ICs (most of them I have no use for), some resistors, capacitors, switches, diodes, etc. The rest are things for computers that I have not interest in. They do not have everything I want. They don't have ATmega328 in store, either!

Not all, and it pays to shop around. Those are $2.88 at Digikey and their shipping is dirt cheap. Buy stuff abroad where it matters.

Edit: If you buy 25, they will sell to you for 1.80920 each, in a DIP no less. Microcontrol Your Everything®. :slight_smile:

15

I found a new site that has some components right now but it looks like they'll have all kinds of electronic things. It's www.nordevx.com

16

Jameco is good for beginners as their catalog is one of the easiest to navigate, however, their shipping is typically $8.00 minimum and their in-house Jameco ValuePro brand can be a little questionable on quality.

I usually go with Mouser or Digi-Key.