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Looking for cheap supplier for LED displays

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fastline

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We are having a hard time finding a cheap supplier for what we need. Have looked at all the main sources (newark, allied, mouser, etc). Looking for 4 digit, 7 seg, with decimals, prefer blue but will consider green or red illum, 8-12mm digit height, pinout on back.

Would really like to find something with extra area for illuminating the measure units. Also looking to buy in groups of 50. Lumex has some solutions but way out of our price range.

Ideas?
 
We have looked at them and was concerned about delivery. Seems all the US guys bring them in and mark them up about 5000%. We could not wait the 4 weeks but to be honest, will not be able to move head with a high priced display.

Were these displays worth using? I would like to see something with measure units on it but I am not finding it at ALL except lumex with a 20 dollar price tag..

Any other ideas? Hell, I have ordered from China before and got stuff in 3 days... Must be the business, not the distance. Really glad I found this out before we set things in motion with them..
 
while on the mfg subject, I take it futurlec is NOT the place to go for PCBs as well? We have not had to get PCBs made in 2 yrs. who are the people to go to for decent proto pricing and low volume (50-100)? We have a board to be made that is about .75x2.5", single side, 50-75 holes, a few SM pads, etc. pretty basic
 
going over seas is your best route to getting componants for cheap. the 4 x 7segment leds that i just got took 24 days from the day i purchased them. but i only paid 1.20 each. you could go the digi-key route but you'll pay for it. I don't believe that futurelec gets that much buisness. every where i go i here they are the slowest. however they are the cheapest. you could try greasing there palms for faster shipping. Other then them i'm not aware of a cheaper contact. Anyhow, i hope this helps out.
 
As for the pcbs. i make my own however at the size that you are talking i would order from express pcb just order join the pcbs together to add up to there minimum size probubly 6 of your pcbs. Then cut them yourself. If your confident in you pcb design you might want to do a search for a proto board order 50 of them on one board and have them send you one to try out. Just a suggestion.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I have emailed Futurlec to see if they can help with better shipping but I doubt it... I also took a look at the links above and neither are dead ringers for what we need but getting close....

We really need to stay in the 1-2 dollar budget, blue or green illum, .4-.56" digits, etc.
 
cool site deb. i like the prices and that its in AZ how long does the shipping take?
I'm in California and it's usually two days. Where are you?

It will take forever if you don't tell them where you are.

We can give you better information if you put your location in the profile.
 
Cheap usually means poor quality, doesn't it?
What is the cost of the frustration of seeing some segments dead when brand new?
Or going dead when still fairly new?
Or some segments at different brightnesses?

Then spending a lot of time replacing them.
 
These days most of the surplus components are full spec. The things become obsolete so quick, then get sold off in massive Chinese technology marketplaces (see the Elektor magazine articles! They do trips to China for the public now too).

So the parts are usually perfect tested parts. Parts failed at manufacture time now are usually scrapped on the spot, they don't get a chance to get to the market in most cases.
 
I was going to say there seems to be some misconception about cheap. Many US companies sell "top quality" goods with a substantial mark up, claiming them to be american. Then you take them apart to see China written all over them.... I see it in the mfg world every day. I am willing to pay for quality parts but not pad the pockets of US companies just trying to screw and lie to the public and get rich doing it.

Example. Go to Harbor Freight and buy their 6" digital caliper for 11 bucks. Accurate to .001 easily and we are a CNC mfg and have tested them and they are decent. That same "exact" caliper is sold by Starrett for 80-120 bucks!! I could care less who's name is on it, quality is what we are looking for.. I would not mind paying the 100 bucks for a quality product made by starrett but when they buy China crap and mark it as their own, I have issues with that.
 
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I have seen many cheap Chinese products that do not work because they are missing very important parts! They obviously were not tested in the factory and there was no quality control.

The stores that sell them replace them and just toss the bad ones into the garbage can and say, "here's another one".
 
Yes you can get a LOT of nasty junk products from China.

But as far as buying surplus electronic components goes, most are brand-name components in orginal antistatic packaging, with dates and QA stickers, etc etc. The surplus houses buy end of production runs from big companies. So big company makes 150,000 widgets with top quality parts then after production is done they sell the remainder 3900 parts to a surplus house. Where you can then buy a perfect hewlett packard $5 display for 50 cents.

Most surplus houses are quite honest about whether any part they stock is a new QA tested part or is a factory "second".
 
There is a surplus electronics parts store near me. They sell name-brand ICs for half the normal price. I bought some wall-wart switching regulated power supplies (5V at 2A) made for a name-brand modem for less than $1.80 each.
 
Are there any other online US retailers we shold check with for these? We have looked at Newark, Mouser, Allied, Digikey. Not sure if there are others to consider..
 
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