[sdiy] selecting a semiconductor manufacturer

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Wednesday 18 May 2005 11:07 am, Phil Harbison wrote:
> harrybissell wrote:
> > TechAmerica was great... until Radio Shack bought them. Phooey !!!
>
> A-freakin-men! We had one in Doraville (North Atlanta 'burbs)
> which was a DIYer's equivalent of Toys'R Us, but alas, they
> were engulfed by the evil Tandybeast.
>
>  > H^) harry   (mouser man :^)
>
> I don't know if we have a Mouser in the ATL metro area, but
> we do have a Fry's which is almost as good as TechAmerica,
> and supposedly we are getting 2 more Fry's (including one
> closer to Casa La Harbison) real soon now.
>
> Digikey also seems to have a good selection but I have never
> ordered from them so can't comment on their service.

I can -- their service is *excellent*.

A number of years ago I was trying to fix some video equipment.  Found a 
shorted cap,  5600uF at some low voltage,  went down to the local parts 
place,  bought one (Sprague?),  and _it didn't fit_!  Worse yet hitting a 
metal bracket next to where it was supposed to go in chewed things up enough 
that I couldn't just take it back.

So I called Digi-Key,  and talked to the nice lady on the other end,  giving 
her the dimensions off the old unit,  which I still had,  and she took that 
info and walked into the room where the parts were,  and found me one that 
would match up.  They had a couple or three different tables in the catalog I 
had at that time that were all similar parts,  Panasonic,  and all fairly 
close, but I wanted something I could be sure would fit.

Oh,  and even with their shipping,  COD,  and below-minimum fees,  the damn 
thing still came out costing me less than what I'd paid for the local part!