I did a search, didn't find anything, but I was wondering who everyone uses to get parts for various projects. I'm wanting to put in a order soon but don't know of a lot of places... Especially the cheaper places.


Thanks,

Zack

 

Digikey, Mouser, Newark, Jameco, mpja.com
Digikey is my 1st choice.. Also mpja has some great prices on power supplies and wierd niche stuff.

 

To add:

http://www.futurlec.com/ - very cheap parts, take about a week or so to get. Note that the cost may well reflect the quality - my ICs came in IC tubes, but with regular tape, not anti-static tape on the ends. So, if you're just getting parts to play with, this ain't bad. If you're going to build something that must have good, reliable parts then use one of the first four mcgyvr mentioned.

www.elexp.com - relatively cheap and out of NJ I think. Good place to buy cheap breadboards and jumper wires.

www.allelectronics.com - similar to www.MPJA.com. If you need indicator LEDs, mpja carries packs of 100 for $2 last I remember.

For super bright and cheap LEDs - www.ledshoppe.com - again, quality is so-so, don't be surprised to buy a pack of 100 and find 5 or more bad. Also takes a week or so to get shipping out of southeast Asia.

You may or may not find every part you're looking for in one place, so if you happen to order from two or more, compare prices on the same items from both. I bought a bunch of logic ICs from futurelec and Jameco - each had an IC the other didn't or at a lower cost, so it pays to shop around.

 

Digi-Key, Mouser and Newark are industrial suppliers, though they'll happily take your hobbyist dime. But they'll charge you sales tax for your state--they just find it's less hassle to do it that way, and if you don't like it, tough.

Jameco is usually cheaper, and doesn't charge tax outside CA (it's on your conscience whether you pay your state the money, as you're surely required to do). MPJA is probably cheapest of all, but their catalog is thinner than the others.

You can sometimes find useful stuff at All Electronics (http://www.allelectronics.com/). Or you could try Electronic Goldmine (http://www.goldmine-elec.com/).

 

Thank you so much, I will check these out!

Also Is there any way to indicate the quality of the ics?

 

Fry's is pretty good around here for some parts.

 

Also Is there any way to indicate the quality of the ics?

Not sure exactly what you mean here..but if you buy from any of the sources I listed you can guarantee you will not be sold fakes/knockoffs. They buy direct from the manufacturers.
Buying from Ebay (or any vendor out of Asia/India,etc..) is a totally different story

 

You will note many members have their approximate location in the upper right hand corner of the display. The logic behind this components, different parts of the world use different vendors.

 

www.es.co.th Much lower prices than many U.S. sources.

 

You can get some great deals from China thru EBay. "Free shipping" gets things to me in a couple of weeks.

Otherwise I use Digikey.

 

I like getting stuff cheap, but I'd be hesitant to trust an overseas vendor that I've never heard of. You wouldn't want to participate in a story like this:

http://www.sparkfun.com/news/350

Here's the data sheet:
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/news/Slugs/ATMega328-Slug.pdf