Interesting perhaps, expensive certainly!
I just picked half-a-dozen products that we buy and I know the price of... the quantity price was about 400% higher than I expected to pay for that part.
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Interesting perhaps, expensive certainly!
I just picked half-a-dozen products that we buy and I know the price of... the quantity price was about 400% higher than I expected to pay for that part.
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Don't forget Melanie that they are end resellers and not 1st or 2nd distributors like Avnet, EBV or Arrow...
Ioannis
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Agreed, but I'm comparing the 1000-off column price, against our buy for 1000 of the same product... no hobbyist will ever buy in those quantities, so one would expect those prices to be reasonably convergent whoever you buy the bits from.
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Hmm, on the 1K pcs, they are too pricey, indeed.
I faced the same problem with others too, either local or European based "distributors".
Fortunatelly these days we have a powerful tool called internet to do a little search before buy anything.
Ioannis
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Yes, Elfa is NOT known to be cheap (or have a good online shop, it really sucks)Originally Posted by Melanie
The reason companys order from them is that they have "everything" in stock, and for a looong time, I can probably take an oderlist that is 10 years old and send to them and get the same stuff today, also they have alot of stuff, so companys can order "everything" from them, and have it the next day. (or the same day if you pay extra.)
The reason hobbyists buy from them is that they gladly sell to anyone, and sell components one and one, if you look at Farnell (that I would guess is their largest competitor) they dont sell anything if you dont have a correctly registred company..
..But I buy most stuff from electrokit, they are cheap, but they tend to have only "the most common" stuff, and some odd stuff (probably surplus), but they are nice guys and also send stuff very quick.
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hi,
I do not know for your country ...if you look at Farnell (that I would guess is their largest competitor) they dont sell anything if you dont have a correctly registred company..
but here, in France, everybody can buy from Farnell ... just 12 Extra Euros for P&P ...
Alain
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Why insist on using 32 Bits when you're not even able to deal with the first 8 ones ??? ehhhhhh ...
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IF there is the word "Problem" in your question ...
certainly the answer is " RTFM " or " RTFDataSheet " !!!
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Alain, Alain, Alain ...
You give me pains in the chest buddy.
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Impossible here, they just refuse unfortunatly..
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Re: T.Jackson
Having read the first part of the post in regard to hobby electronics becoming a thing of the past, I was dismayed being that I am only into this hobby a little over a year and enjoy it greatly. However, I remembered the reason why I got into it in the first place. True, I too get joy out of saying that I built something that appears in a shop window.....but what about all the things I built that aren't in a shop window?
I am a lab technician who at the time of getting into electronics was looking at the difference in certain formulations of lead acid batteries. Do you know how annoying it can be to monitor 20 battery cells simultaneously? Well, needless to say I tried to look for some magical piece of technology that could do the job for me. Guess what.....there's hardly anything out there...at least not for under $2000 or so that includes an unnecessary microprocessor-based unit. (I mean all I wanted was a simple alarm that would tell me when each cell was low). SO... I learned the hobby step by step and successfully built that alarm for under $100 of material (including etching equipment and a laser printer that will be used for other circuits).
AND THE MORAL IS...True, it's cheaper to buy and throw away consumer electronics and not bother to repair them....but frankly who cares? Consumer electronics is just that...for the consumer market. What about all the electronics that isn't the typical TV's or DVD players? I, hopefully like most people, got into the hobby to build things that haven't been built yet or if they have been, don't cost an obscene amount because of a bunch of bells and whistles? Microprocessors are great, but for many applications, they are overkill and they ramp up the price greatly. People just get used to the idea that discrete circuits are a thing of the past, so they intentionally avoid them because they aren't modern and not as impressive as microprocessors, when the cost without them is staggeringly lower. And big technology companies aren't going to waste their time with something that isn't 1) user-friendly (like microprocessors typically are), 2) modern, 3) completely overdone with accessories so that no other company will rival their product. They're like the plumbers that won't waste their time to fix a simple leak when the house down the street needs a whole new pipe system. Well, that's where I come in! That's the niche of hobby electronics!
As for the component availability...yes, I believe companies will eventually stop selling things like through-hole components at some point being as they haven't been in modern technology for a good 20 years or better, but as someone already posted...the hobbyist will evolve with it. Hey...I'd find some way to deal with surface-mount just to build that alarm I talked about. Maybe someday the technology will be so staggering that it will be impossible to solder without very expensive machines, but that wouldn't be for some time. What's even better is that there are companies that will probably cater to this advance in technlogy on the hobbyist's behalf. Companies love to make cheaper, knockoff versions of industrial processes for the average person...it makes them more money to downgrade their original design. You ever shop at Lowe's or Home Depot? My point exactly. So long as there are independent thinkers like myself that aren't satisfied with a given situation and wish to improve it with a piece of custom-made, not-readily available technology (INVENTOR is the term I believe I am referring to), well we'll always be around!
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Today's electronics is no longer a hobby, but marketing. You don't need to be really intelligent to develop something, but at least ... have a idea and some good contact. People purchase for a price, no longer for quality (at least not a majority of customer of Home stuff)... develop crap, sale it cheap and it will work for you.
There will always be a method to solder a part... don't worry about that... if you can't yourself, a company will do it for you... less cheaper that you might think if you look around a little bit.
Last edited by mister_e; - 21st January 2009 at 22:42.
Steve
It's not a bug, it's a random feature.
There's no problem, only learning opportunities.
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Naw, there's nothing left to invent, it has all been done before.
You're really, REALLY (notice the typographic emphasis here?) --- wasting your time with this I'm sorry to say.
Trent Jackson
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