I have this theory a lot of Jaycar's stock can be found on alibaba for quite a bit less, but unfortunately they are the only "walk in" shop that caters for hobbyists, ok I forgot about Altronics but they don't have so many stores.

 

My local Altronics is an extra 400 m drive

My biggest gripe with my local Jaycar is the guys behind the counter have no clue... I find myself explaining TO them... and I'm a novice.

Some stores are great. some are not.

FWIW, I bought this unit long before alibaba was a thing - I think even ebay was relatively new even. but it's definitely chinese manufacture.

Speaking of online suppliers - who do people use and recommend?

 

I tend to try avoid any conversations at most shops, apart from the usual Hi, Thanks, anymore than that and I think they need to refer to the manual.

Another member recommended this lot, prices seem pretty cheap, can't vouch for the service but the member in question seemed happy.
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/

No idea what delivery would be to Australia. Damn it's hard enough getting an item from Brisbane to Sydney within 2 weeks. I ordered a ML7 lathe bed in the UK and it arrived in less time than a modem\router I ordered from Brisbane, yep over 2 weeks and that's going by dates on the package.

Farnell (element14?) are good in delivery time,usually next day at worst 2 days, price wise not too bad if you can buy 10 or more items.Ordered a few Microchip dev boards. Used Dontronics many years ago, every so often I use Little Bird Electronics, if they have the items in stock delivery time isn't too bad, if not it's Back Order time. There was one mob I ordered from, name escapes me now, but the wait was that long I'd actually forgot that I'd placed an order.
Worse experience I had was a set of custom wheels for a bike I was building.....I think it was well over 6 month wait, their excuse was "it's racing season blah blah blah". The joys of living on the other side of the world and a gumberment that's intent on killing an industries, apart from infrastructure, that involves getting callouses on your hands.

 

I ended up using RS components because free shipping... shipping pretty much everywhere else was ~5 times the component costs...

 

dont forget to look at the connection circled in yellow.

 

The dozen or so joints in that top row don't look exactly spot on. Some look a little frosty.

 

thanks guys

I had a good look at all the joints before posting (the circled solder joints image) - they are all good sound joints - a little oxidation on the surface, but the appearance has more to do with my cameraphone and the angle than the state of the joints. You can also see a thin coating of grey crud in places - the PCB got damp, probably more than once. Some pitting visible around the 240VAC input as well, and there is at least one place where the copper track has delaminated around a pinhole - and I've bridged to the next resistor.

I've resoldered the two loose connections, replaced the blown 0.22 Ohm resistor and am awaiting delivery of a 3 ohm W resistor and 3A fuse before trying again.

If it blows at the next round, I'm not sure where to go next - rebuild the whole circuit from scratch?

If that was the case - how do I identify the 1) inductance of individual components and 2) the specs of the piezo elements?