Component Prices Rip off in Australia

Futurlec can be a very mixed bag, and have been for years. You will find they are loved by some, and hated by others, very much the same as above.

Google on: futurlec bad

Don...

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Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

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G'day Dave, I gave my copy to a mate. I can't find anything on the Jaycar website explaining why they flog all those stupid toys. Can you summarize what page 9 says, for those of us who don't have the catalog?

Bob

Bob Parker wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Have you seen their surplus store next door? Full of all sorts of genuine surplus stuff.

Moby, Johnny,

There's a good reason for that - Soanar/Jaycar/Electus is all part of Fermionic which is owned by Gary Johnston.

No, I'm in Sydney and they're in Melbourne. Is that at their place in Renver Rd which used to be occupied by Rod Irving Electronics (which deservedly went out of business)?

Cheers Bob

As indeed it should, as they're now joined at the hip.

** Groper menace.

** Farnell will still sell you 50 off 1N4148 diodes for $1.50 + gst.

Or 10 off 20 x 5 mm "Littelfuse" antisurge fuses for $3.44 + gst.

....... Phil

Hi again Bob, as far as I know, it is. (They used to also be known as Vorlac, from memory.) I'm very familiar with Renver Road - I started out as a panel-beater before I got (less?) sensible and got into electronics, and did my apprenticeship in that street, at Collins Auto Panels, back in the early 70's.

... Johnny P.S. I now live in NSW also.

Hi Bob No problemo. Much quicker to photograph than type though!

Dave :)

selling

for

Hello David, I'll check that out too. On another note, although you've probably forgotten, I had a discussion with you once before publishing one of my circuits in Silicon Chip, the AT Keyboard Translator, which I did in conjunction with Bob Nicol, (Microzed), in about 2000. If you didn't know already, Bob died last year, of a massive heart attack. He was a nice bloke, with a good heart, (not that good, it seems). A shame, there aren't enough people like him in the world.

... Johnny (alias Steve)

Thanks Dave! :)

Bob

Hi Steve I think I remember the discussion, but can't remember if I remember correctly! :-/

I didn't know about Bob, sorry to hear that, sad news indeed.

Regards Dave :)

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Hi Dave, yeah, I for one, miss him. I believe that Margaret, (his wife), sold the business, but have no idea who now owns it. Regarding the Keyboard Translator, (which didn't do too well in the end), I contacted you at the time because you'd done a similar project and I didn't want to step on your toes. On an aside, I've enjoyed your various projects and articles over the years. Anyway, that's all irrelevant now. I just thought I'd let you and others that read this group know about Bob, in case you didn't already know.

... J (Steve)

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I just had a look at the page you referred to - I do understand Jaycar's position and, to be fair, they're still way in front of DSE. So are Altronics. They've also managed to keep a good range of hobbyist components in stock. ... J (Steve)

It's --------------------------------------------------- Replacing the kits, books and radios are aisles of domestic products such as kettles, coffeemakers, toasters and frypans. Although Powerhouse stores still stock small components, tools, leads and connectors their main emphasis is the mass markets of Harvey Norman, JB Hi Fi and Retravision rather than the niche markets of Jaycar, Altronics or Radio Parts.

It must be said however, that the shift of the whole company away from practical electronics is a consequence of two factors. The first is the declining enthusiast market. With cheap pre-assembled electronics from China and many technically-inclined people into software and gaming rather than hardware construction, kitbuilding has diminished since its heyday in the 1970s and 80s when (at one point) it supported no less than four commercial magazines.

Secondly there are the aspirations of its owner, for whom gross turnover and profit are king. No matter how good the company is, high turnovers cannot be sustained from a niche market. Hence the push to appeal to 20 million Australians as opposed to 200,000 electronics enthusiasts or less than 20,000 radio amateurs. Though some have regretted these changes, they seem to have had the desired effect, with Dick Smith and Powerhouse major contributors to the health of the Woolworths group. ----------------------------------------------- Apparently there are Australians, then there are electronics enthusiasts and amateurs... DSE has abandoned electronics people, so it's only reasonable that we support the opposition. One wonders what Dick Smith himself thinks about what Woolies have done to his chain which was successful only because it was supported by people like us.

Bob

What the!? I've been there (to the counter section) a couple of times recently and I figured they'd closed the surplus section down to use it for storage, after merging with the Huntingdale store. There are no obvious doorways or signs pointing into that area that I can recall. Is it still open?

It's a LONG drive there so I'm going to be mighty disappointed to find out I could have wasted even more time and money there :)

Bob passed away in June 2005, and the business was taken over by David (Surname escapes me for now) from Chittaway Bay NSW. David is concentrating on the Pixaxe side of things, and has let most of the other items go.

As it turned out, Bob passed away within a week of Peter Crowcroft's (kitsrus.com) passing, but I wasn't able to confirm this until about two months later.

Which bring me to a strange story. About 5 or 6 years ago, one of my customers told me that Bob had passed away. I rang Bob up to verify it, however he said he was feeling fine. :-)

After this episode, I wasn't going to ring again, to see if he had died again, when I was informed by yet another customer again.

I know you will see the funny side of that Bob.

Don...

--
Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Now selling the Olimex range of Development boards.
Micro,TTL,USB to 1.5" color LCD http://www.dontronics.com/micro-lcd.html
USB,RS232 or TTL to VGA Monitor http://www.dontronics.com/micro-vga.html
World's smallest USB 2 TTL Conv http://www.dontronics.com/micro-usb.html

"rowan194" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

I went there yesterday. Next building to the north of Rockby. There is a green door, you just go in and browse and ring a buzzer if you need service.

(Surname

Pixaxe

months

away. I

Hello Don, I vaguely remember Bob mentioning that he'd heard about his own death. (Everything that I remember seems to be vague these days.) That was about the time that we were preparing the Keyboard Translator kit, in

2000. Bob DID think it was funny. I haven't had any dealings with Microzed since it changed hands and have never tried the PicAxe series. I usually use raw PICs in my projects. I'd also heard that David 'someoone' had bought the business, but my source didn't know his surname either. Maybe he's reading these posts and will reply. Incidentally, one reason that I have very little time for Parallax these days is because they did quite a number on Bob. While still leading him to believe that he was the sole Australian distributor of their products, they started supplying Dick Smith with the Stamp directly, whereas previously Bob sold to them as the middle-man. They also stole the extended-memory Stamp from us. (That wasn't too big a deal, since the Stamp series was ancient history by then anyway.) Sounds like sour grapes, but it's the truth.

... J (Steve)

again,