Bad Omen?

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

Yes, searching for what's in stock at a decent price, not what might've been manufactured to suit the task. Quite different, and why one is stuck with suppliers' web sites.

The free delivery option for web orders here is an incentive too ;)

Grant.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

Have you ever tried? You don't need a part number to search for e.g. "0.1uF Polypropylene Capacitor." That works on both findchips and octopart. And they show you what's in the inventory of major distributors. Including DigiKey :)

That is much better done with findchips/octopart. And not bound to a single boutique.

BTW, if DigiKey has something in stock at the moment has almost no correlation with production quantities availability. The reverse is also true. You can not get everything from a single place.

Just one example--I recently tried to buy several thousands of BC550/60C transistors. The funny thing was Avnet had BC560CTA @ $0.0163 each but no BC550C at all. I bought 2 ammopacks of 2,000 for $65 from them (that was all they had in stock.) On the other hand Arrow only had (and still have) BC550CTA at the same price but no BC560C at all. That was a couple of days ago. Now Avnet has 32K of BC550CTA in stock. If you were shopping at Avnet only a week ago you would've said that BC550C are unobtanium because they do not have them in stock while both findchips and octopart kept telling Arrow has plenty in stock.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

Have you ever tried findchips/octopart?

It tells absolutely nothing. Zero, nada, zilch. If DigiKey doesn't stock anything it absolutely doesn't mean it is not available from others. And the opposite is also true--if they have some obscure part in stock it doesn't mean somebody still manufacture that part and it is available from somewhere else.

And one more thing--parts availability is constantly changing these days. Sometimes the entire quite sizable stock gets purchased buy somebody else literally from under your hands. Yesterday I put a box of polystyrene capacitors in my cart on Mouser and kept shopping for something like 10 minutes. When I returned to the cart to checkout they all gone; somebody bought their entire stock and now that particular part is on backorder.

Joerg wrote: : > never understood why people do purchase anything from them... : Because they have the only search engine that works.

Even when I need a datasheet, I have a habit of searching up the device in the DigiKey web pages and then following the datasheet link. I find it much faster than navigating through eg. TI's or Analog's selection trees or using *their* search facilities.

When passing through DigiKey pages it's also easy to drop an order when there. Ordering from US seems to be no problem in nowadays globalized economy. Farnell has an edge by delivering overnight, whereas DigiKey and Mouser take a few days. When ordering on Friday there is not even that difference - the world logistics machinery keeps grinding on weekends.

The only complication with DigiKey and Mouser orders is that every now and then you get some ITAR related end use clarification requests, whose replies set back the delivery by a few days.

Farnell sortiment and their web engine are OK, although the web engine is SLOW. Many other distributors' (RS, Future...) look and feel I don't like - I find them messy and counterintuitive.

Regards, Mikko

v$o1h$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org...

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Logic isn't your strong suit, is it? It tells me that it *is* available, somewhere; tautology. If it's available in one place chances are it's also available elsewhere, but it *is* available (i.e. a real part). Sure, the inverse isn't necessarily true but so what? I don't design by logical fallacy.

So what? My intention is to make sure I'm not designing in any maximware. That's particularly important these days. The chances are next to zero that we'll buy production parts from Digikey anyway. Their prices are out of sight.

The next step would be to get price/delivery quotes from my normal sources (generally Arrow, Avnet, or Future). Checking first at DigiKey shortens this process immensely.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

Ok then, go on Findchips, key in this:

Then you know what I mean. According to the results most distributors don't carry any. I guess that takes the cake.

It isn't "much better", it takes forever. Findchips and the like are only good if you already know the part number. Not if you want to see what kinds of opamps are there for a certain job.

I've been around the block for a long time so I have a pretty good feel for that. Digikey isn't perfect but one of the best sources if I need an "availability weather forecast". If they do not carry a certain part then warning lights go off in my head. And they are mostly right.

You can not get everything from a single place.

True. I had to order at Mouser a couple months ago because Digikey had everything in stock except, of all things, a mundane 40V Schottky. It happens rarely but it does happen.

Just what I said all along, should have gone to Digikey, they have oodles of them:

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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For all my protos recently, I almost always have to do a Mouser and a Digikey order. Some things aren't available at the other, and prices can vary greatly between them. Since I am the customer, I can take the time and do price comparisons even on caps and resistors!

Charlie

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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Well, it is called findchips. You have to go to findcaps.com for capacitors.

I like the hack that allows you to sort by price on Digikey (using Greasemonkey). Shame they don't incorporate it themselves.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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If you want to pay 3x the price, sure. And 7,055 pcs is not "oodles." And even those are just remnants, the other BC550Cxx are non-stocked. And this only one will also go non-stocked when they are bought.

And they are exactly at the same point with BC560C. 4,000 left in stock at

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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The first category on there was "umbrellas". Hmmm ... :-)

Hack? Where? Where?

Sergey, let's face it, nearly all thru-hole stuff is going to head for lalaland. Ok, we were really early adopters over in Europe back then, but since the start of my industrial career in 1986 I can't remember any thru-hole board I have designed. And I've designed tons of boards.

There will always be mfgs for thru-hole, just like Sovtek and Svetlana do for tubes, but it's going to be boutique-ware.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

Have you tried the example I gave you this morning?

Not always, of course, but generally Digikey is a pretty good indicator.

Get used to it, this will continue for at least a year I guess. In a teleconference this morning I did what I do a lot these days, advised a client to buy and stash parts for a new project even though we aren't

If it's any comfort the same happened to me. Had my basket almost done, phone rang. I answered the phone. BIG mistake. A few minutes later I returned to my order and ... "Hey, where's my inductors?"

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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Or place several orders while shopping, but the suppliers I deal with can't amalgamate orders once they're placed. Twice recently I've had overnight, interstate, free delivery of a single 2c part (of 100 ordered), instead of them amalgamating it with next delivery.

Grant.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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Well, if it's any consolation, even Walmart couldn't amalgamate my orders so far. I ordered a DVD recorder. Free shipping. But, doesn't come with HDMI cable, so added one to the cart. That part has no free shipping unless you have it delivered to a brick-and-mortar Walmart. Can't they just pack it with the recorder? Nope, of course not. They arrived there but with two different shipment dates and then you always have to hope that the pickup windows (before they send it back) overlap enough. Strange.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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Don't know about this case, but often stuff like this comes from different fulfillment warehouses. This very often happens with NewEgg, too.

That is what I'm using them for. Not with tubes but for audio.

The rumours about their death are grossly exagerrated. Fairchild makes those full steam and they are dirt cheap. Toshiba is back with their 2SK170 and

Definitely I could replace BC550/BC560 with SOT-23 BC850/BC860 but it doesn't make any sence because rest of the part is all big thruhole ones. Nobody makes SMD polystyrene capacitors, less for high-tolerance ones. There is no replacement for low-noise RN55/60 resistors (at least cheap one) for sub-millivolt audio circuits. I would love to make SMD version but there is no parts for that...

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

So what? Findchips shows quite a bunch. And it is beyond my understanding why would one search for those...

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I know. I do have a lot of parts I'm not sure I would use in my inventory just because they are scarce and I used them once.

Yep, that happens a lot...

They won't go totally belly up by the only places I know that do thru-hole mass production are all in China now. So some day you may have to buy parts from Asia.

If your needs are audio check out the BCX70k. Nice low 1/f corner.

factor of 2, with most of them being on par or better.

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A mere fraction of what Digikey offers.

Maybe because you don't design for mass production :-)

I need to see the offerings of half a dozen mfgs right at my finger tips. At Digikey I do, at Findchips I don't.