Yet another reason to avoid PartMiner

Well, are any of the kind any good anyway? Those I have encountered mining for hard to find parts either want me to pay them to tell me where to try to buy (if someone pays them it won't be me...) or cheat the search engines so you locate them while searching for just about any part, while having really very little if anything of what they list.

If you have had some good experience with some of them, please advise.

My only successfull experience was 5-6 years ago with Magnitude Electronics (

), they listed a SCSI chip which I could not find and really delivered (small quantity, they had large stock), somewhat pricy, perhaps a bit more than somewhat, I don't remember, but I got the chips.

Dimiter

------------------------------------------------------ Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments

------------------------------------------------------

larwe wrote:

After their low bait-'n-switch trick a year or two ago when they stopped making data available for free, I made a mental note not to ever consider them if I was looking for a rare component.

Earlier this year, I tried to find a source of Allegro UGN3235K hall effect sensors. I contacted dozens of companies, many of whom had it listed as "available" on their websites. A few answered my e-mails, most didn't. Not one of them was able to supply this part. It's probably the same with most other obselete components. Big promises but no results.

If anyone's looking for UGN3235K devices, you can replace them with a pair of Infineon TLE4906L chips facing each other.

Bob

I got so tired of the Partminer links coming up that I used Customize Google to block all hits.

Believe it or not, it was almost 5 years ago (late 2001).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Wow, where does the time go? Thanks for getting me more or less back into sync. :-)

Cheers Bob

I agree with this. I outright refuse to use suppliers that expect ME to pay for their advertising material. Maplin is one them, wanting £5 for a catalogue. RS are so stingy with their catalogues it's unheard of, you'd think they'd be giving them away on every street corner when you see their prices. After LOADS of arguing I lost interest, they sent them eventually by UPS/TNT? to a rural country location taking 3-weeks of further c*ck-ups, such that I had absolutely no faith in anything I ever ordered getting to me. The catalogues went in the bin.

Buy our products *AND* buy our sales merchandise. Use *OUR* delivery service that *WE* have a cut price contract with, even if it'll never get to you because the drivers are too lazy to even bother.

This methodology wouldn't work at my local Indian Restaurant I'm sure.

"Aly" wrote in news:p5ydnd8 snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

RS stingy? Overpriced in many things, yes, but not stingy. Those paper catalogs cost so much that it's amazing they can give them away at all. If you paid actual cost for them, you'd pay £70 per set. You can always get the DC ones. Also, you can use their site and you can set up any handle you like on their site to get access to PDF's for free, with no need to have an account with them. If you think that's stingy, you have forgotten the meaning of generosity.

And no, I don't work for them, nor get any benefit other than what I described, same as you can have.

Maplin's catalog is less than impressive now, but if they'd start putting those tech notes back like they used to add to it, it would be worth the money for those alone.

Actually I wonder about the "£70 per set" figure for RS catalogs. It's what I was told once, and I think it might have been the whole-year figure, three releases per year. The costs rise per set the fewer they make, and they're trying to use CD's to save costs.

what

I know where you're coming from. My issue was more that RS insist on using a courier, and from the onset with RS it was just one big hassle.

But as for Maplin. They've become an overgrown toy store. What I do have here are the catalogues from 1988 thru 1992 and they're still useful, hence :-) Being able to look up every 7400 device at a glance, and every transistor package is just brilliant. It was like a total of about 20-pages so I don't buy into their excuse today that they're too complicated to list. Too complicated for them today maybe....

....

BTDTGT in a large town!

The ones I hate that have crap web programming, that wrongly identify browsers and even worse claim a new browser is too old but they support ancient microscrotum only.

I then also speak to technical people as if they are using web browsers

Supplier- "We cannot do[/support]...."

Me:- "I think I know the cause of the problem, can you tell me the make and model of your telephone?"

Supllier - "Uh... model is ...."

Me:- "Sorry the problem is we only support telephone conversations using a Binatone R3000, please get one of these phones and contact us again.

Have a nice day"

I you think I am bitter and twisted, you must of course be mistaken or judging me by your own standards :-^ :-^ :-^

Again for the humour impaired

^ ^ ^ ^ :-^

--
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
    PC Services
              GNU H8 & mailing list info
             For those web sites you hate

Is that the Maplin cats you have back issues? I'm trying to find the original manufacturers (Hung Chang) model number of the MF100 multifunction counter so I can search it online, if you have a cat that list that instrument the info might be on the page - it is for the currently stocked MF1000 counter/function generator.

"Aly" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

That pegged Maplin neatly. It's a stupid move. Tandy failed in the high street in the UK because of it, and Maplin succeeded so well that Tandy mostly went back to the US where they operate more like Maplin did here. So why Maplin now start to do what made Tandy fail I do not know. It's painful to watch, so most of the time I don't watch.

Your point about RS and couriers I also recognise, I wish they'd reduce costs by using the standard mail. The kind of logic that says that to get a decent service you must use an expensive private courier is wasteful, and the neglect reduces the quality of the main service, making a self- fulfilling prophecy. Same logic that's currently making a crisis in UK dentistry. That scandal is making street long queues now, it's too big to hide, as will be the pollution of lots of tiny vans doing what a single train used to do.

multifunction

Give me until mid next week. I will check for you when I'm back home. Actually mail me if you really want it done :)

"Paul Carpenter"

Hi Paul

:-)

That kind of sounds like my conversation with PayPal at the moment. They did a system upgrade about a month ago which messed up the reporting of some Verified accounts to eBay. This is slowly trickling back onto the forums.

PayPal say it's eBay. eBay say it's PayPal. Well, through my own determination (and access to multiple accounts) it's definitely PayPal. I've now told them to stuff it (in polite terms) and STILL they keep on bloody contacting me. I've finally resorted to totally blowing my top earlier, and STILL they thank me for telling their useless staff to F-off!

I do have limits. It's usually about a month before I go crackers!

So

painful

a

Totally acknowledged.

Maplin. Well. I don't go there unless I'm in deep *stuff*.

RS. Yes, why they can't use RM I have no idea. But I'm not paying £30 for a little edge connector anyway (in my thread on the sci.electronics groups).

As for dentistry, you can't even get one if you're willing to give them REAL money now. :-( Look, reaaaaal money, lotsza money. Nope, they'd rather treat 7-bus loads of smelly whining children a day. (yes, I hate kids. And I hate companies. Is there a link?)

Aly wrote: [supplier woes]

I've got the "Spring/Summer 2006" Maplin catalogue. I'd never bother to buy it, but the sales bod said there were vouchers in there which would save me more than the catalogue cost on what I was buying anyway (which they did) so it cost me about minus one pound. They have the 7400 series, 4000 series and transistor packages in there again (with a note saying it's a result of feedback).

I completely agree about their change in direction though. It's awful. I just don't know what they are trying to be - they're now crap for components, crap for consumer electronics, crap for toys and crap for computers. Their sole redeeming feature is that you can check stock at your local store on-line so you can be disappointed without having to leave the house :)

I've pretty much given up on Maplin for anything but "I need a 50k trimpot to finish this off and I want it this afternoon" type 'emergencies'. Rapid and Farnell are my current favourites. Rapid's catalogue (which I was sent gratis, without asking) is good.

Tim

Real email = dl0504DOTfieldATntlworldDOTcom

Many thanks.

RS told me "no minimum order" and no P&P unless requested express delivery - maybe they've changed their terms since you last looked?

delivery -

The problem with RS is if you're not in a major city or town. Courier delivery drivers simply don't even bother to deliver the packages, they just say 'attempted-delivery' when clearly they haven't. 3-weeks it took to deliver the catalogues in the end, before someone eventually rang to say they were in the village.

Even if you give couriers your telephone number, they just don't bother. This is the gripe with RS, in that their delivery method is fine if you're in big easy to find business premesis.