I'm looking for the manufacturer of a laser product that Radio Shack sells (or did a year ago) that is called the Ultra-Thin Laser Pointer. I have an idea for a new laser product that is very similar in design (but not usage) to that and believe that if I could locate that manufacturer, it could save me R & D time.

Thanks for any direction or advice.

 

Where I live, Digikey is worshipped as the saviour of prototype design programs. They do so many things so very well, that their premium price is considered fair. For example:
- if their online engine says they have stock, then they actually do have stock (amazing)
- you can easily and quickly choose parts by price, function and availability using their search engine. I think its a pretty good search engine.
- they carry a good selection of parts suited to design and manufacturing of electronics goods. This is a breath of fresh air where I live because local suppliers do not stock anything that is not in demand by the repair and installation trades. And other online suppliers don't do the other things as well as digikey.
- They charge a low price for shipping. Consider that I live in Canada and the border is always a pain in the a-- for any US supplier, but Digikey.ca always delivers on time and without hassle for one low shipping price. This borders on the miraculous for us out in the hinterlands.
- I can order stuff late in the afternoon and it gets delivered to my door by the next morning! I've ordered many many times and they have never failed. This is also somewhat miraculous when compared to most other suppliers. This, combined with their low shipping cost means I can design one day and build the next without costing me more than a few minutes online. Wow.
- yes, they have a service charge for small orders, but I seldom order stuff for less than their minimum so this doesn't bother me.

I have designed stuff for may years, long before the advent of the fax machine, never mind the internet, and I appreciate the speed and convenience of online parts buying, but I especially appreciate a company who can tell you exactly what they have, how much it costs, will provide the data sheet at the touch of a button, and most importantly who can absolutely get it to me the next morning. Digikey is the leader and I don't mind paying them a few pennies extra for such service.

__________________
RadioRon

 

maplin used to be good, when you could walk into the shop, speak to a technical person and buy any of the electronic components in their catalogue.

now it's like toys R us with a resistor pack.

I was moaning to the sales person about their lack of stock, when an older assistant walked past, and said to him "yeah, in the old days we had loads more components and none of this other rubbish...."

used to be really good for those emergancy builds

__________________
Transformers are work
Electronics is a hobby

 

I agree about glitchbusters...not much stock..but very reasonable PIC prices

Great shipping via first class mail from ALL electronics in California...to my home in NY.....TWO days....very reasonable prices...good stuff...happy with what I got.

TERRIBLE shipping from JDR MICRODEVICES in California to my house....
1 tube of chips....maby 30 inches long....weighs almost nothing....shipped via
UPS....took SEVEN days to get here.....UPS surface shipping..........
By the time the IC's got here....I was PISSED OFF.

Both orders to ALL and JDR placed within one hr of each other

UPS left my entire retirement plan savings check lying in a snowbank
alongside my driveway.

Do yourselves a big flavor.....stay away from UPS.

You guys make me laugh...you're so right about...Radio Shack....last
time I walked into RS and asked for a FET...all I got was a blank stare.

Thanks DEAN for your list I hv to chk a lot of those places out...some of
them sound great.

Anybody know where I can get a version of MPLAB...like around 7.0
...7.1....7.2 besides MICROCHIP????....Digikey doesnt hv it.
MICROCHIP USED to help out hobbiests like me....NOT ANYMORE.
A $5 handling charge and a $9 FED EX charge...then I tried to get their
2006 technical library upgrade CD roms....same thing.......
A year ago they sent me a Mid Range Ref Manual....no charge....
boy have they changed....

If you are looking for good, basic books about programming
PIC microcontrollers..checkout Dave Bensons website:
www.sq-1.com
Yes, the books are expensive...but they are worth every penny

Thanks all for posting these sites....this is great....Art

 

It's a free download, just download it!.

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

Indeed, UPS sucks.

My dad's a professional illustrator and they've broken paintings in half...

They left my neighbor's new computer parts out in the snow a couple years ago...I saw them sitting in the middle of the driveway with two inches of snow on them.

And as for Radio Shack, ugh. I can pay 2USD for a .1uf cap or I can just order a hundred online...

__________________
-Ian

 

This is an excellent resource thread! Going to have to bookmark this one.

Here are a few I use. I buy from Mouser most of the time unless they don't have it but it's already been listed. Here are links to a couple I haven't seen listed yet that I have used.

http://www.circuitspecialists.com
Good all around electronics store. Local for me (Mesa, AZ) which I why I used them in the first place. Have a few nice kits for a good price.

http://www.galco.com
Industrial electronics parts. I've only purchased specialized parts from them like large diodes and SCR's for large industrial equipment. I'm sure they have many other items, check em out!

 

Thanks Nigel.....I wish it was that easy....with my dial-up internet
connection it would take at least 2.5 hrs to dnld MPLAB.
Last time I checked, it was around 32Megabytes
A cd rom would be much more faster and convient for me.
Guess I'll stay with V6.3
Art

 

Surely you must know someone with broadband?, ask them to download it for you and stick it on CD. Or just leave it downloading while you go out for a beer!.

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

I buy from futurlec the best prices anywhere, takes a longggggggggg time to get the order. In Canada the prices are from 4 to 12 times higher we really get screwed here does any one know a good place here????

 

You really need to go back to the rest of this thread. There are a lot of places, and many of them are happy to ship to Canada.

 

http://www.moreleds.com

AKA quickar electronics. I actually got to talk to the owner the first time I ordered, really nice guy. I did not know that the policy is $20 minimum. He just told me to not tell his son about it, or that he took in on a Saturday, lol. I have been ordering from him ever since, close to 300 LED's. He even helped me out and explained how to calculate the current and all. (This was before college). I would highly recommend them.

 

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZsureelectronics

Sure Electronics, their customer support is perfect. Good for stocking up on SMD component sets.

 

As for "local" places to fill for quick-turnaround needs, when I was in Santa Clara, California for a year, I thought Fry's was a decent B&M to get parts without going too far (Yeah, Jameco and JDR were also in driving distance ). This held true for their Cupertino and San Jose stores. I don't recall checking out their Palo Alto store, and that means I can't say much for their GA, TX, and AZ stores (anyone know? I'm curious... also if it's known or not that Fry's is going to stop selling components.)

Although I do start to get a feeling they're starting to become like RatShack in terms of stocking parts, but they've got a waaaay larger selection last I checked (it's been 6 years...)

Now that I'm in the middle of nowhere I'm stuck with ordering online; though I've recycled parts from dead equipment and haven't had a need to order anything for a while...

... but if only I had an easy way to recycle SMT devices...

 

http://www.mode-elec.com/index.php?page=home
http://www.a1parts.com/
http://www.bgmicro.com/
http://www.jdr.com/interact/default.asp
http://www.tiptopelectronics.com/
http://www.demoboard.com/anchor.htm
http://www.acecomponents.com/
http://dkc1.digikey.com/ca/digihome.html
http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?handler=home
http://canada.newark.com/
http://www.rpelectronics.com/
http://www.jameco.com
http://www.abra-electronics.com/index.html
http://68.144.0.135/mro/default.asp
http://www.arnscott.com/
http://www.mgelectronics.com/
http://www.manuals-in-pdf.com/
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/
http://www.elexp.com/index.htm
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php
http://www.danssmallpartsandkits.net/
http://www.sdp-si.com/D220/D220cat.htm#T58
http://www.excelta.com/marketplace/d...sion_hand_tool
http://www.smallparts.com/
http://www.mpja.com/

Misc:

http://bama.sbc.edu/
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/1.1.htm
http://www.discovercircuits.com/