Digikey doth truly rule

Hi,

I agree entirely about DigiKey. However, when I want to order just a few parts (rather than dozens at a time), Mouser has a much better price for small quantities. Also, they will ship via 1st class mail - saving on shipping costs.

So I use the search on DigiKey, check the price, then search by the exact part number on Mouser to see if the price is much lower.

That's an interesting perspective, Tim. I find it easier to search Digikey for passives and Mouser for semiconductors/actives. Jameco has them all beat for their specialties like wall warts, motors, solenoids, solar stuff, and tools/solder stations.

That's my triumvirate...they all have stuff they do best, and I really have no need for other catalogs to cobble up the bench.

For onesie, twosies they all have about the same prices, but when you start buying in thousands, Mouser has them beat by a mile.

Jim

"> Don't get me wrong: Newark, Mouser, Allied, Jameco, and a few others

Yes. For this, they might benefit from hiring a person with some real electronics knowledge, who might be able to standardize the terms used in the database, and thus would have to translate any non-standard compliant terminology from their vendors into the terms used in the database. That would make even the semis consistent.

Good day!

Well, Digikey will ship for free if you mail in your order with payment. Not awfully relevant to me because it's been years since I ordered by any method except the web.

I'd feel guilty doing that, but I cannot fault you for being thrifty :-)

Tim.

Their pricing doth truly suck sometimes, but on the good side they stock most of the stuff in their catalogs (and then some), as opposed to some "other" distributors whose catalogs might be characterized as vaporware.

I wonder sometimes how much they spend printing catalogs every two months, which always seemed excessive to me. I'd have thought twice a year would be plenty.

Farnell seems to be the same back-end as Newark with a different name on the front.. (Err, now it's "Newark-in-one", but I've always been oblivious to name changes.)

Tim.

OK, that explains it :-).

Newark always had some interesting semiconductor stock from HP (now Agilent... too many name changes!). Finding what they have in stock is certainly easier now that I can search on the web, but I'd probably buy more from them if they improved their web interface so I didn't have to type in every single part number that may be useful to me just to see if they carry it.

I just tried Newark/Farnell for some passive searches and indeed they've recently updated their search interface so that it's a lot like Digikey's.

Tim.

Have a look at the Farnell and RS websites (UK):

I prefer them to DigiKey.

Leon

Agreed. Digikey and Mouser are my main suppliers. As a rule of thumb, if you can't get it from Digikey or Mouser, it doesn't really exist.

Farnell took Newark over a few years ago.

Leon

For those who joined the hobby after the early 70's let me point out that DigiKey's name comes from an electronic digital keyer that the company sold via ad's in QST. It was a small circuit board (about

============================ A bit cumbersome for hams based in the uS

interfaces.

over

Now, if their prices were only as low as Mouser's..

way

in

thumb,

That's pure nonsense. I've tried to get specialized semi's from both, and having failed that, I've found what I needed at other online sources. One recent example comes to mind: Futurlec.

Another is ultrabright LEDs. D-K or M have nothing worthwhile. You have to go to another supplier to get 'em.

And maybe the best example is the source(s) of many of our small qty parts: Ebay. ;-)

But on Ebay, read *all* the info in the auction. I see shysters, especially foreign shysters, who will sell you parts dirt cheap, and rip you off with the shipping/handling. :-(

more

.... Higher prices, less quantity price breaks, etc., etc. Oh, did I mention, higher prices..

I just love wotking on the PCs in our Purchasing Dept. :-/ They have a whole shelf full of janitorial supply catalogs. Just think, if we could only gwt all these catalogs and paper towels recycled, we'd save a whole continent of forests..

I spent some time playing around with the Farnell/Newark web selectors and they actually are pretty decent. Just like Digikey, they sometime get tripped up by obscure numbering (for example, Newark/Farnell calling 0603 size SMT parts 603 in many instances) or other gotchas, but in principle the two mechanisms seem to be approximately equivalent.

So, attaboy Newark/Farnell! Maybe they'll get more than one order every 5 years from me now :-)

Tim.

I remember Jerry Mouser in his claptrap pickup truck peddling "jappo crappo" capacitors and resistors out of the bed of the truck at a lot of the companies in San Diego in the late '60s.

Things have changed...

Jim

">

Those janitorial supply guys have *really* high prices. Between telephone directories, Mouser, Digikey, trade rags, paper packing and EEM, the recycling box is never hungry. A few printouts don't amount to much, and the few newspapers tend to get used for packing, which is lighter than that recycled paper packing that Digikey uses.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

If you noticed, each newer catalog has *more* parts; more brands, more variety, more types, etc.