Anyone know where to get decent component prices in Australia without getting ripped by Farnell, DSE, RS components and so on ....
s- posted
17 years ago
Anyone know where to get decent component prices in Australia without getting ripped by Farnell, DSE, RS components and so on ....
s
I usually get my stuff from Rockby Electronics in Melbourne.
Bob
are you paying retail or wholesale?
Soanar used to be great - now they seem hell bent on becoming a toyshop. If I see on more flyer for coughing ashtrays or farting men...... M
How low do you want to go? Are you after numbers, or 1-offs? If you're after quantities, you need to go overseas. I've found that DigiKey and Mouser are hard to beat for range and price on most common bits and pieces. Otherwise, for small quantities of (very) common parts, I'd look at Jaycar and Altronics before DSE. Also, Rockby, WES and Oatley Electronics are always worth a look in case they happen to have what you're looking for. I'm sure that others will have more suggestions - I've probably forgotten a few.
... Johnny
Sounds just like Jaycar, they're going the same way as DSE these days.
... Johnny
can you get that site to work? It seems Firefox-hostile.
It works in Firefox if you enable popups, Java, etc. :^|
-- W . | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
I agree. Digikey and Mouser are good if you can get together a big enough order to justify the shipping prices. WES Components stock lots of stuff usually pretty cheap. You just need a customer number to get the trade price. Years ago I got some good prices on bulk quantities from DSE Wholesale, but in view of the direction they've gone in since then, that's probably no longer true. Jaycar/Electus is probably a better bet (especially if you want lots of screaming pencil holders).
Bob
It works fine in Firefox, I had troubles working out what to click in the beginning but once you get its easy. Tom
you're
pieces.
for.
Hi Bob, who wouldn't want lots of screaming pencil holders, or, my favourite, coughing lung ashtrays? Incidentally, although you've heard it a million times before, thank you for the ESR meter. It's saved me heaps of hours over the years, when I was still doing TV repairs. (Read this as, while it was still profitable to do them.)
... Johnny
You're entirely welcome!! :-) I didn't think anyone remembered the ESR meter these days. I know exactly what you mean about getting out of the repair business. I did the same thing quite a few years ago for much the same reason. It's really bad seeing so much electronic repair talent being wasted because of cheap Chinese throw-away electronics. It's the same all over the Western world, but not much we can do about it I suppose...
Bob
you
was
do
Yeah, you're right Bob, it's sort of a shame, but by the same token, when I went to buy a new 51cm TV last year and only had to pay AU$180, I was pretty pleased. Still, it did a lot of us out of jobs. I had a pretty good (little) TV repair business on the North coast of NSW that I couldn't even give away in the end. Now I do what little design work that I can muster up and rely on my pension the rest of the time. Not whinging, such is life... My biggest gripe nowadays is that the Australian hobby industry is dead and there are very few youngsters interested in getting into the profession. Despite what many say about Gough, he was on the right track regarding free education. That's how we became the country with brains, (and the "brain-drain"), a couple of decades ago. Now it appears to be the Chinese, Poles, Yugoslavs etc. Not putting them down, good on 'em, but we should be there too. The end of Electronics Australia some years back was a good indicator. I'm pleased that Silicon Chip has hung in.
... Johnny
As a thirties something, that lived electronics as a kid, was in York St every Sat, built numerous projects including Super 80 PC which led to my IT career I am saddened what has happened to electronics in Australia. eg Went to Dick Smith flagship store in Penrith - the "oooh
- Power House" and they dont even have the complete range of resistors
- how much do resistors cost??, this shows how little they care!! Their store staff are just pc gamers, not electronic buffs. Its so sad. Jaycar is much better, but sell other crap (farting keyrings) I guess to pay their overheads but really I just see these stores selling a range of PIC devices a few components here and there and thats it for electronics.. Disposable electronic black blobs on pcbs, nothing servicable, just send back to manufacturer for board swap. (BTW: It career also diluted with cheap inported labor (Qantas how could you!))
Yep, our so-called leaders today should wake up to themselves. And on the subject of Dick Smith, I remember when they used to have a store full of components etc. Now, (at least in Nowra, where I live these days), there is about 80% consumer gadgets, with a small corner dedicated to the few electronic components still stocked.... Oh, for the good old days, when we had brains worth "draining". I know I'm living in the past, but I don't care. Give me Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd over ???? any day. (No, I don't know how the subject changed to music either - must be Alzheimers.)
... Johnny
I agree with all you said. Sounds like I'm in the same age group as you. What worries is me is that in-depth knowledge of electronics is gradually getting confined to a smaller and smaller section of the population, and most of them are in Asia now that very few Aussie kids are showing any interest in this subject or anything technical/scientific for that matter. Things are gunna be pretty crook in another decade or two. Will there be enough hobbyist interest in electronics to keep even Jaycar and SC in business?
Bob
Wasn't Australia gunna become "The Clever Country" and move away total dependence on exporting primary products? Our politicians have made sure that won't happen. As for Qantas being just one more nominally Australian company exporting jobs to India and putting local IT and other specialists out of work, I can't believe that it'll make a significant difference to their bottom line when you take fuel costs into consideration. Yeah... I'll take Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues and even Abba in preference to what the FM stations are pumping out these days! :-)
Bob
Let me guess, you want a wide range of components in stock and cheap too? It doesn't happen. If you want "cheap" then you'll wait 4-10 weeks, and have to deal with a few dozen suppliers. Farnell and RS aren't *that* bad, I know many compnaies that use them almost exclusively for volume production because stock availability and the kitting services are more important than price, they just build the price into the product. Many Farnell and RS prices are very competitive, and even cheap considering the service you get.
Dave :)
Rubbish. Jaycar are selling a wider range of components than they ever have, same with Altronics. Just compare catalogs from 10-15 years ago. See page 9 of the current catalog for their explaination of why they have the sell the farting gadgets.
Dave :)
I'm surprised none of the other posters have mentioned futurlec
I've been using them for a year or two now. They ship out of Thailand and their prices are usually hard to beat. Interestingly, their shipping costs ($4) are usually lower than every Australian based supplier. The postage charges on mail order stuff now (like ebay) is part of the profit margin for many.
Cheers Glenn
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.