Maplin again !

[Radio Fixer]

Wanted a small project box to finish off the loop aerial amplifier.  Quick trip to Maplin and bought the item below:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/hammond-watert...55mm-n17gc

Then got a flyer from CPC and virtually the same thing but not water tight which I don't need anyway.

http://cpc.farnell.com/eterna/220-l/encl...EML007-003

£5.29 versus about a £1  .  So a piece of rubber string around the lid costs over £4.

Ordered a few from CPC for future projects in mind.

Gary

[ppppenguin]

Not quite as cheap as the CPC one but likely available locally:
http://www.screwfix.com/p/ip55-enclosure...65mm/33991

Screwfix and Toolstation may have other water resistant boxes too.

[Radio Fixer]

Wow!  Quick there Jeffery, you must finish breakfast about the same time as me   .

Gary

[Radio Fixer]

The CPC ones to, be fair, are not quite so good in pcb mounting etc but for most projects perfectly good enough. Came this morning and I think I ordered yesterday. Amazingly quick. I can remember when Farnell had all sorts of restrictions but they sure have sharpened their act and fit the old American expression now "You got a buck, we want it".

Gary

[Bassoonbloke]

Hello People,

I used to find Maplins quite handy at one time for stuff. There are a couple of shops near me. They were ok for the odd components and bits in emergencies. However I find that they are really quite hopeless these days. The staff generally have no idea what they are selling and have no interest in finding out. Their stock levels for components seem to be two of each bit !! and also as has been pointed out, their prices are not exactly great.
I think part of the problem is the lack of interest in the whole electronics connected hobbies over here, nobody actually wants to, or has any interest in repairing stuff anymore.
Oh well....

Alan.

[ppppenguin]

There's no profit in selling a few Rs and Cs over the counter. The only reason for doing it now would be if it created a demand for other stuff while you're in the shop.

There's plenty of online suppliers, the big boys like CPC and many smaller guys who sell on ebay, Amazon etc. Plus a few specialist ones such as the one for caps in Germany whose name escapes me at the moment.

[Cardigan]

I find Conrad Electronic to be very useful:

http://www.conrad-electronic.co.uk/ce/

[Excessive Leakage]

There's no profit in selling a few Rs and Cs over the counter. The only reason for doing it now would be if it created a demand for other stuff while you're in the shop.

There's plenty of online suppliers, the big boys like CPC and many smaller guys who sell on ebay, Amazon etc. Plus a few specialist ones such as the one for caps in Germany whose name escapes me at the moment.

The chap in Germany is Jan Wuestens http://www.die-wuestens.de/eindex.htm and I have purchased many items from him. His electrolytic selection is excellent.

justradios.com is a good place for parts too. Postage seems to be the same to the UK and to the US and Canada (that's all I've ever been asked to pay for P&P)!

Regards

Adam

[zx80nut]

I used to find Maplin great for components, and cheaper than Tandy. Nowadays, Maplin is more like the old Tandy
I started using them when there used to be "Concorde" on the front cover of the catalogue ( ! ) - That must have been about 1978. They othen used to have stuff out of stock though, as I regularly got some components along with a voucher for the price of missing ones in the delivery.
Nowadays, still OK for the occasional component, but they have gone MUCH too expensive. I tend to use Farnell for component purchases, or eBay occasionally.

The only "problem" with Farnell is that the stock is SOOOOOO big. Just search for a 10K 1/4 watt resistor for example and you get a huge number of responses. I sort lowest price first and pick the cheapest suitable one as I don't care who manufactured it (careful to avoid US stock). As a result, it can take an hour or so just to get a fairly small number of items into the basket as there is a lot of sorting and filtering to do.

Rapid Electronics is another good one that I use.

Grant

[Radio Fixer]

Spiratronics are also good.

Gary