Date   : Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:56:50 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Vanishing electronics suppliers

Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
> Has anybody else noticed how difficult it is getting to obtain
> electronics supplies? 

Yes. There's no commercial market for parts any more I suppose because 
consumers just chuck stuff away and buy a replacement when something breaks 
rather than getting the old one fixed. That's not going to change until 
someone imposes charges on public landfill - and despite all the bleating 
about the environment nobody in a position of power seems willing to do it.

Of course it'll take a while after the incentive's there for people to make do 
with what they have before companies actually start producing decent products 
again rather than cheap junk...

But anyway, I'm wandering... :-)

> I could understand if they were geing undercut by the likes of
> Maplin, but Maplin - if they actually stock the parts - are more
> expensive.

Maplin went downhill a few years ago and from what I hear they haven't 
recovered (I gave up on them completely a couple of years ago). Either the 
stock they had was rubbish, they outright didn't stock something, or they 
stocked it but it was never actually *in* stock.

> Maplin don't do PCB-mounted IDC plugs, Molex pins, various
> 74-series ICs. In fact, most of the bits I need for the IDE
> interface.

Stockpile. Blowtorch dead PC boards and salvage parts from them. It's the only 
way...

> My only alternative now is online ordering from places like
> Farnell, which require a credit card, which I don't have and won't
> get.

I'm surprised they don't take debit cards...

> What on *earth* possessed Acorn to use that connector on the PSU?

I suppose they were common enough connectors at one point - often inside 
peripherals rather than computers.

Plus what alternatives were there for chassis-mounting DC power connectors at 
the time? If you use D-type connectors then you have to start doubling up pins 
- and fend off support calls where people have mistaken the port for data of 
some kind and plugged in their printer or whatever.

I'm not sure what a modern equivalent would be. Printers and laptops are often 
multi-pin power input, but the connectors are usually PCB mounted and such 
oddball shapes that they'd be impossible to source easily either.

Personally I think I'd use a separate PSU for anything which couldn't be 
mounted inside a beeb case. That or run it from an external wall-wart and put 
regulators on the PCB.

cheers

Jules