I am trying to find materials/parts and electrical parts for months for my Robot, and it's been unbelievably difficult.
There are stores where you can buy parts, but the selections are unbelievably limitted, and unbelievably expensive !!
For example: PIC16F877, I bought it for $20 + tax = $23 (CAN)
I just bought this same microcontroller from MicrochipDirect.com for $5.44 (US)
A PIC16F84 is $14 (CAN), on MicrochipDirect.com is $3.92 (US)
A 10K variable resistor is between $12 to $20 here !!! a perforated board is between $5 to $15 depending on size...
And besides that everyhing is very expensive, if you want more than the basic stuff, it is almost impossible to find... For example, microchips, here, I only found PIC16F84 and PIC16F877 that's it !!! and even those are in limmited supply, I went to 4 stores (wasting half a day becuase they are far from each other) and all said they have these chips, but none of them had them in stock !! and on their websites they don't display what they have in stock (and if they do, it's not accurate), you have to call them, and then you have to ask for EXACT part, you can't say "Do you have ANY PIC16 in stock ?", because I get the reply "which one exactly", so I have to say "Let's start with first PIC16F84" and then I have to wait 5 min until they look it up, and they return to say "no we don't have it", then next chip, another 5 min, and so on....
I hate this !!! :cry:
PS. I just bought like 20 microcontrollers from MicrochipDirect.com, I can't wait to receive them
There are stores where you can buy parts, but the selections are unbelievably limitted, and unbelievably expensive !!
For example: PIC16F877, I bought it for $20 + tax = $23 (CAN)
I just bought this same microcontroller from MicrochipDirect.com for $5.44 (US)
A PIC16F84 is $14 (CAN), on MicrochipDirect.com is $3.92 (US)
A 10K variable resistor is between $12 to $20 here !!! a perforated board is between $5 to $15 depending on size...
And besides that everyhing is very expensive, if you want more than the basic stuff, it is almost impossible to find... For example, microchips, here, I only found PIC16F84 and PIC16F877 that's it !!! and even those are in limmited supply, I went to 4 stores (wasting half a day becuase they are far from each other) and all said they have these chips, but none of them had them in stock !! and on their websites they don't display what they have in stock (and if they do, it's not accurate), you have to call them, and then you have to ask for EXACT part, you can't say "Do you have ANY PIC16 in stock ?", because I get the reply "which one exactly", so I have to say "Let's start with first PIC16F84" and then I have to wait 5 min until they look it up, and they return to say "no we don't have it", then next chip, another 5 min, and so on....
I hate this !!! :cry:
PS. I just bought like 20 microcontrollers from MicrochipDirect.com, I can't wait to receive them