lcsc.com

Hope they are legit. I have seen the same pictures of their facilities (not the LCSC ones) used by more than 1 vendor on AliX. They may purport themselves to be a HUGE company when they are a hole-in-the-wall broker.

 

Well for one, I only purchase the Chinese branded products because that's where you find the deals. They have a OTP 1K Word microcontroller for $0.03 each... It's being pulled apart by the community and it's their own design. The community is trying to develop an open source programmer and emulator and there's a lot of work being done. It's definitely interesting. I'm starting to see the chip in the wild, like little battery powered flashing LED strings you see for $5.

We do a little research and the Chinese brands that I'm not familiar are listed on their exchange.... its a different world.

The name brand stuff usually costs more through them than Digikey so... I order domestic product from DigiKey, Mouser or Arrow.

 

I order domestic product from DigiKey, Mouser or Arrow.

And don't forget Newark...

 

I can't order from Newark they're out of Chicago so they charge me tax.... lol

Look this place doesn't look super huge like Amazon but what do you need to stock and ship parts... If I added up the stuff I have on reels I'm sure it would be some silly E^x number.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=260273311583028

 

Hello,

In europe Newark is called Farnell.

Bertus

 

Compared to Fairchild or National transistors, these cheap transistors have very shiny leads and looks not suitable for outdoor devices in high humidity environment.

Shiny or pitted leads can be signs of counterfeit parts.

 

Chinese leads are very shiny. It is a kind of thin layer of coating which makes it solderable, but storing it in damp condition it turns into not-solderable. Genuine leads look like tinned which are not so shiny, and remains solderable at any condition.

I recently found a link where Futurelec selling 1 piece of DB3 DIAC (DO-35) at $0.4 probably with few dollors of shipping. And found another link where AliExpress selling 50 pieces of DB3 DIAC (DO-35) at $0.4 with free shipping. Buyer saying these cheaper are working well and are under specification.

 

humidity is bad for any component... epoxy can absorb water and can cause them to be damaged during soldering... can you see if the leads are magnetic

 

Hi again,
These are highly magnetic! I guess this is bad. But genuine TO-18 can are also magnetic. What that mean?

Most of such shiny Chinese version of through hole leads (transistors and IC are magnetic) but SMD version looks high quality and not magnetic. Only one bag of HT7550 (Chinese) TO-92 are not magnetic. Some one gave me buying from Chinese seller and Aliexpress salling exactly the same thing of 100 pcs at $0.8. 100 Pcs of LDO 5.0V non-magnetic regulators at $0.8!

 

It might mean they are tin plated steel leads instead of copper. I’m sure it’s plated because otherwise they will be rusty... I’ve seen this on thru hole LEDs not necessarily Chinese origin with gold plated leads. one way to save money is using steel instead of copper.