Sourcing parts (was Re: [sdiy] Alpha pots group buy)

[Tom Wiltshire]

On 22 Oct 2008, at 18:57, David G. Dixon wrote:

>  In my estimation, the major drawback of this whole DIY experience  
> is the extreme
> difficulty in sourcing parts.

You have to build with what you can get, rather than thinking "if  
only..." and designing stuff with parts that are unobtainable.  
There's loads of old SSM/CEM stuff that I'd design with if anyone  
still made it, but they don't. There's loads of lovely top-end DSPs  
I'd use if the dev hardware didn't involve amputation of a major  
limb. etc etc... you get the picture.

Pots do seem pretty basic though and it would be nice if someone  
somewhere kept a good stock. Sigh.

On a separate (but related - sourcing parts) note, have people had  
good experiences with Futurelec? I'm currently involved in chasing a  
order for a big pile of CA3280E's that they promised me nearly 3  
months ago. I've taken it up with them previously, and was assured  
the order would ship later that week "once we get some stock from  
another warehouse". That was ages ago, and still nothing has  
happened. I understand that these are getting harder to get, but if  
they can't get the parts, they shouldn't take the order.

T.