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  Jinx <<joecolquitt@CLEAR.NET.NZ>

Subject: Re: [OT]Re: Price and availability of PIC parts


This is a RANT


>------------------------

> The problem for New Zealanders wanting to get Nat Semi


>The positon with NS at the moment is -- Avnet  are the "official"

rep for NS, they also do Microchip, Motorola, OKI, Seiko, and many


<<snip>

charge you 4 times the price for micros or RAM. Retail stores

like Dick Smith or Jaycar just don't have those sort of components

and besides, I wouldn't trust half the staff there to sit the right way

around on a toilet. My last last last resort is a Dick Smith store.



>

I don't want to go complaining about every component rep I've had

the rough end of the pineapple from. Suffice it to say I think some

of their policies are not helpful to developers. I'm reluctant to try

new designs as I know the sort of trouble I'm going to get in trying

to find a sample. So often I don't bother, or patch something up out

my money for them. And of course I'm not going back for a larger

quantity if I can't get experimental samples in the first place.


> Ah well, thats progress for you.


Progress as defined by the bean-counters maybe

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You know this type of complaining really gets to me!


By being on this list YOU are face to face with the exponentially
increasing explosion in knowledge happening today. Yet you want the world
in new Zealand to stay as it was in the 1960's with a fully equiped
DSE/Jaycar down the street with 104 monoblocks in a choice of .1" or .2"
pitch.  Get real.  If you want to live in a backwater for electronic
hardware development then accept that there is an increasing cost. Kids
today are not going into electronics as they did in the 1960's - they are
playing Quake.


Think 'world'.


Do as I do.


1. Buy from the USA for ICs in bulk. Here are the places:


start with:

http://www.semiresources.com/

ic makers then find distributors


I use:

http://www.nuhorizons.com/

http://www.digikey.com/

http://www.arrow.com/

http://www.future.ca/

http://www.future.ca/1033/fai/

http://www.marshall.com/

http://www.hh.avnet.com/parts_master/query.html

http://www.ied.pios.com/


I have my credit card with 2 of them. I email and the goods come UPS,
FedEx, DHL.


No, dont complain to me about the high cost of couriers. You get your
goods in 3 days almost guaranteed. Post offics - 3-4 weeks for
'Airmail'.



2. For IC samples: cultivate some friends in the USA with picture books
of NZ sheep, yacht races and Queenstown mountains in return for samples
as requested.



3. For small numbers of passive components: yes this is a problem. Here
is Hong Kong everything is available just 300 yards away (Apliu St, Sham
Shui Po.)  I think I will start to offer components again for sale.
Payment in $US cash currency notes sent to me.  More on that later.



Rant finished......



regards,


Peter Crowcroft

                    DIY Electronics (HK) Ltd

                PO Box 88458, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Voice: 852-2720 0255   Fax: 852-2725 0610    Email: peter@kitsrus.com

                       Web: http://kitsrus.com

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