Re: Fragile connectors

Yes, unfortunately. At least they though to sell resistors in packs of eight, a formerly good electronics retailer was selling resistors individually! They stopped there electronics for hobbyists operation some years ago, are now just another consumer electronics retailer, "The Techsperts" or some such rubbish.

We have Element-14 (Farnell) in Australia, couple or three years back they stopped free delivery to cut out the small hobbyist market. No great loss as RS Components still good.

Any other electronics supplier I know of have minimum orders or non-competitive pricing.

I buy fair amount of stuff like resistors by the hundred, or LEDs, small power converters from eBay. There are some good suppliers on there, also some rubbish supplier, but the Paypal guarantee at least lets me get a refund when required.

Thank you. Problem for me is knowing what some of this stuff is called, not knowing what to search for makes it difficult

OT, do you know what three way (normal) and four way (PWM) female PC motherboard fan connectors that are on the wire side are called?

I couldn't find them on RS Comp online catalogue.

Ended up buying Y splitter cables from eBay. Probably cheaper than making my own too, even if on one case, I make a one to three way cable with a couple of two way splitter cables.

Grant.

Of course, that you actually get what you want from any of those is iffy at best. You're as well off buying new from a reputable source. Minimum order, shipping? Just buy more stuff.

I guess electronics used to be a poor man's game, what with your three basic goods -- the radio, TV and stereo (and in various blends, with tape players, phono, etc.) being all through-hole, serviceable (even through the "no user serviceable parts inside" era), well stocked and relatively easy to rework.

That's pretty much disappeared with cheap, machine produced, consumer quantity, knife edge ratings, SMT design. Short life (just over the warranty -- a triumph of engineering and design optimization, really), low cost, integrated (as opposed to modular) design.

I've seen the kind that have the polarizing ramp thingy off center, so you can use 3 or 4 pin housings with them. Possibly they're in the Molex (or other) catalog somewhere (or... good luck, any of a thousand Chinese sources of good to dubious quality). Often, you have no better choice than to browse the manufacturer's catalog to find things you need, then cross check with a dozen distributors to find what's actually in stock that you can purchase (in a few days delivery and less than 10k quantity).

Tim

Yeah, but more fart machines, spotlights, UAVs, and novelties.

Jaycar is the retail arm of Electus, so they're not "crazy clarks". they've not solde me a dud yet. if need a part today I go to Jaycar, or Altronics, if i want it tomorrow farnell can do that.

In October Element 14 were doing free delivery on all orders. most months there's a minumum order total for free delivery.

Yep, I lost a hobby two ways, working in electronics, then on retiring, discovering I can no longer access new components due to SMD design.

Yeah, so buying ready made cables and cutting them up for the connectors is good for the small quantities (

Maybe they're trying to see if there's a market out there. My October spend on components was zero. Focused on computer bits right now, and foreseeable future.

Some small stuff, PC related cables and so on, from ebay.

Grant.