jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) (06/16/88)
With the decline of northern Silicon Valley as a R&D area in electronics, it has become more difficult to buy electronic parts in the area. Within the past few months, the local branches of Zack's and Dick Smith have closed. Hamilton/Avnet moved out a few years back. We have a surfeit of yuppie-based businesses; there are at least two major design firms, three desktop publishing shops, and four computer stores in downtown Palo Alto. (The high-end audio store and the BMW dealership are a bit further away, and the fashion mall with the Neiman-Marcus and the Bullocks is a few blocks away on the Stanford campus.) While mail order is useful, occasionally one needs to run out and buy some wire, or a power supply. One would think that Radio Shack could meet these needs. One would be wrong. I recently purchased some 12v 500ma DC power supplies, of the wall- transformer type, from Radio Shack. I discovered, though, that while the supplies could deliver 12v, or 500ma, obtaining both at the same time was too much to ask. Output voltage dropped to 10.5v at 250ma. This seemed rather tacky, even for Radio Shack. So, while taking these back, I decided to purchase some wire, ordinary 20ga stranded wire, three different colors in one blister pack, and so marked. What could go wrong? Two spools held stranded wire. One held solid 20ga wire. So, if anyone out there works for an electronic parts retailer interested in locating in a new area, consider Palo Alto, Redwood City, or Mountain View. There is no competition. John Nagle
larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) (06/18/88)
In article <17492@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>, jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes: > I recently purchased some 12v 500ma DC power supplies, of the wall- > transformer type, from Radio Shack. I discovered, though, that while the > supplies could deliver 12v, or 500ma, obtaining both at the same time was > too much to ask. Output voltage dropped to 10.5v at 250ma. This seemed > rather tacky, even for Radio Shack. You have to learn how to interpret Radio Shack specifications. In the case of power supplies, just think of EITHER/OR, as in auto warranties. The transformer is obviously rated at 12 volts or 500 mA, whichever comes first. :-) <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York <> UUCP: {allegra|ames|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> VOICE: 716/688-1231 {hplabs|ihnp4|mtune|utzoo|uunet}!/ <> FAX: 716/741-9635 {G1,G2,G3 modes} "Have you hugged your cat today?"
matthew@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (73550000) (06/18/88)
In article <17492@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes: > > With the decline of northern Silicon Valley as a R&D area in electronics, >it has become more difficult to buy electronic parts in the area. ... > [much deleted] > > So, if anyone out there works for an electronic parts retailer >interested in locating in a new area, consider Palo Alto, Redwood City, >or Mountain View. There is no competition. > > John Nagle > except Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale/Santa Clara (just a short hop down 101 from Palo Alto/Mountain View) If you haven't been there, you MUST go, just to see what happens when you combine a components retail shop and a grocery store. Really. Matthew Kaufman matthew@ucscb.ucsc.edu ...!ucbvax!ucscc!ucscb!matthew .
phd@speech1.cs.cmu.edu (Paul Dietz) (06/18/88)
In article <17492@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes: > So, if anyone out there works for an electronic parts retailer >interested in locating in a new area, consider Palo Alto, Redwood City, >or Mountain View. There is no competition. No competition?! Try Pittsburgh! You'll be competing with TV repair shops that only sell those "hard to find tubes." Of course, there aren't any customers to speak of (except me!) ... Paul H. Dietz ____ ____ Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / oo \ <_<\\\ Carnegie Mellon University /| \/ |\ \\ \\ -------------------------------------------- | | ( ) | | | ||\\ "If God had meant for penguins to fly, -->--<-- / / |\\\ / he would have given them wings." _________^__^_________/ / / \\\\-
jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) (06/19/88)
The Radio Shack 273-1653 supply (12v, 1a) produces about .2v of ripple when delivering 250ma into a resistive load. This increases to .3v at 500ma. The output voltage also drops. I had just assumed that these little supplies had 7812s in them. No. Fortunately, Stancor has some real wall-transformer type power supplies. John Nagle
rkarlqu@hpscdc.HP.COM (Rick Karlquist) (06/21/88)
> I recently purchased some 12v 500ma DC power supplies, of the wall- >transformer type, from Radio Shack. I discovered, though, that while the >supplies could deliver 12v, or 500ma, obtaining both at the same time was >too much to ask. Output voltage dropped to 10.5v at 250ma. This seemed >rather tacky, even for Radio Shack. > So, while taking these back, I decided to purchase some wire, >ordinary 20ga stranded wire, three different colors in one blister pack, >and so marked. What could go wrong? Two spools held stranded wire. One >held solid 20ga wire. Halted Specialties in Sunnyvale always has lots of wall transformers at reasonable prices. They have a test bench at the store where you can characterize them before buying. They also sell 1000 foot spools of hook up wire. While you're in the neighborhood, you can also go to Fry's electronics, up Lawrence expressway about a mile.
rona@videovax.Tek.COM (Ronald K. Anderson) (06/22/88)
I'll never forget the first time I designed and built a circuit using transistors ( a pack of 2N2222A's purchased from RS). I had never examined a working transistor to that point, so it took a little longer to discover that their parts were the culprit. Replacing them with equivalents from an electronic junk store fixed my circuit and forever biased my skepticism of that outfit. If it wasn't the first time, and if I wasn't trying to learn something, I don't think it would have bothered me so much. I still buy stuff from them, but usually when I have no other alternative.
keithl@vice.TEK.COM (Keith Lofstrom) (06/22/88)
This is probably out of line, but: We had a marketing manager who told us we could sell our rejects to Radio Shack (he did at his previous job). We fired the son-of-a-bitch. He told us a story about the kits that "a certain nationally-known consumer electronics retailer" sells: ------ The following story is second hand. Don't sue me, please -------- The kits are put together out of rejects. Half the kits stay on the shelves at the store and never sell. The ones that do are bought as educational gifts for teenagers. 90 percent of the teenagers never open the kits, and throw them away. 90 percent of those that open the kits can't manage to put them together, and throw them away. Of the one percent that do complete the kits - which probably don't work - 90 percent assume that they didn't do it right, and throw them away. The last 0.1% take the kits back to the store and ask for working parts. So, the company ships a complete new kit (with working parts) for every one in 2000 kits they make. It's cheaper that way. Just think, if you had gotten your kits elsewhere, you'd now be an EE instead of a CS person... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'd better put a disclaimer on this. None of my managers want me to write bad things about big companies that buy equipment and employ lawyers, so I wrote this without approval. As a matter of fact, this is actually being written by a 14 year old kid who broke into my account. Yah, that's the ticket! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Keith Lofstrom ...!tektronix!vice!keithl keithl@vice.TEK.COM MS 59-316, Tektronix, PO 500, Beaverton OR 97077 (503)-627-4052
aboulang@bbn.com (Albert Boulanger) (06/25/88)
Halted Specialties in Sunnyvale always has lots of wall transformers at reasonable prices. They have a test bench at the store where you can characterize them before buying. They also sell 1000 foot spools of hook up wire. While you're in the neighborhood, you can also go to Fry's electronics, up Lawrence expressway about a mile. Or ACE Electronics just down the block! Or Haltek Electronics.... God, I wish we New Englander's had as many surplus places as you all in Silicon Valley. Now, who was complaining about no being able to find electronic part stores around Redwood city? If you can, get a copy of Nuts and Volts magazine Albert Boulanger aboulanger@bbn.com Albert Boulanger BBN Labs Inc. ABoulanger@bbn.com (arpa) Phone: (617)873-3891