Digikey Prime

Of course but if Digikey doesn't have what I need, it doesn't do much good to worry about the difference. Buying from Amazon is a lot more difficult for me so, sure, DigiKey gets most stuff.

I guess I'm not a sucker. I've never bought anything like what you describe from Amazon. Almost everything has wall warts or lump-in-line power supplies.

And a whole lot more. Again, I guess I'm just not the sucker that you describe yourself as. Do you just buy random stuff from eBay, too?

Amazon is just another source - and a very good one.

Good grief. No, I wouldn't buy production components from Amazon but it's a good place to find things like wire, cables, adapters, and that sort of stuff. Our purchasing department would rather buy from Amazon than some random seller elsewhere, though they've only pushed back when I've wanted to buy something from eBay. Not going to happen.

I only buy a few parts for engineering. I use Amazon Prime a lot (Toblerone chocolate bars are engineering parts too) and that all goes on a credit card with other stuff, so accounting just pays the card bill every month.

Our purchasing lady keeps production stocked, and lately she just buys reels when stock is getting low.

We load the pick-and-place mostly with reels. We lose parts in leaders, and stub ends, so it's hard to count how many are used or how many are left after a run. So we over-kill on reels.

We are about to buy a big x-ray machine that will count parts on reels without unreeling. We'll use that to close the loop on reordering.

Lots of assembly houses will do the part ordering for you too. Kitting is a real pain.

I wonder about that. Do they warehouse it on consignment? Do they own it as invetory? Or are they just fronting for a client?

I needed something oddball, it was on Amazon but 'no stock' so I checked other suppliers... also 'no stock'. A week later they ALL had stock.

Don't your blokes cut off the used-up tape? Just look at the reel and see the still-remaining diameter.

That would take a lot of math, what with the spiral path, the core diameter, the part pitch, the tape thickness. The xray thing will just count the parts. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the resolution to do fun engineering stuff like scoping lead frames and wire bonds.

Production isn't my call; I'm just the circuit designer. They get stuff built and tested, and that's great.

I don't do production, rather build prototypes. I generally build thirty to fifty boards at a time, though. I buy almost everything on reels. The only things not on reels are some really expensive parts or parts that the suppliers sample us. Though the inductor companies are starting to supply whole reels, too. ;-)

I keep a spreadsheet of all the parts I have, then mark off the number the BOM calls for, plus a healthy percentage to cover "misplaced" parts. If I buy an extra reel, no one cares but being short is an incredible PITA.

Sounds like a lot of bother. Extra reels seem easier.

It is but I find it's easier than trusting them to actually get the parts I specify. Some parts are getting really hard to come by, these days, so I make sure I have every part in my mitts before it goes on the schematic. OTOH, prototype houses are better/easier than our factories. I refuse to use them for prototype work (seems like a waste, even if they did the jobs right).

While the goal is 'just count the parts', it might also change the stored charge on floating-gate MOS devices. Weren't you using some such references? X-rays are ionizing radiation, insulation like silica doesn't really work well in that environment.

Leaver's Law: Everything it does for you, it also does to you.

That's why they mark the spokes in units, some reels have several scales, so you need to pick the right one.

As much as is possible, I say ?No thank you? to Amazon.

Amazon doesn?t only compete against retailers, it competes against its own suppliers. When a supplier?s product becomes successful, Amazon will find a product to replace that product that it itself sources, and drop that supplier:

Good isn?t good enough. Amazon wants to be the *only* supplier to the world.

Dave