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Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

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Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#51

Post by jjoonathan »

55873445216111 wrote: post #42
codetrotter wrote: post #34

How do people on HN feel about Arrow Electronics? https://www.arrow.com/ I don't see any mention of them ITT yet. I've used them a bit in the past for a project I was involved with. They were not the cheapest but they seem pretty ok from my experience.

Arrow is the largest electronic component distributor in the world. They cater mainly to mid/large companies though, not hobbiests/etailing.

They had a free shipping promotion on (relatively) small orders a while ago, so I don't think they mind the attention.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#52

Post by tinfever »

sschueller wrote: post #22

For small personal projects I have switched to LCSC in part because I can automate the BOM order when I generate the PCB gerbers all out of Kicad via gitlab pipeline. All I have to do is add the LCSC part numbers as an extra field in my Kicad schematic. If I order from JLCPCB I also get a shipping discount at LCSC. Mauser and digitkey are very expensive to ship here (Switzerland) so unless my order is larger it's not…

How does that JLCPCB / LCSC shipping discount work? I know they used to do combined shipping but I think they dropped that option years ago.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#53

Post by antoniuschan99 »

codetrotter wrote: post #34

How do people on HN feel about Arrow Electronics? https://www.arrow.com/ I don't see any mention of them ITT yet. I've used them a bit in the past for a project I was involved with. They were not the cheapest but they seem pretty ok from my experience.

You can also look at Verical for reels of components as it’s part of Arrow

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#54

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

codetrotter wrote: post #34

How do people on HN feel about Arrow Electronics? https://www.arrow.com/ I don't see any mention of them ITT yet. I've used them a bit in the past for a project I was involved with. They were not the cheapest but they seem pretty ok from my experience.

My last experience with Arrow was such a gigantic clusterfuck, that it's hard to form a real opinion. I'm going to chalk it up to a big company making a statistical mistake that just happened to affect me.

However, when my order is a customized First Article for verification testing, which by definition means I'm planning to buy tens of thousands of units later, you'd think they'd try harder.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#55

Post by cybrox »

sschueller wrote: post #38
thrtythreeforty wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that the KiCAD userbase is still considered "small potatoes" and not worthy of this kind of development effort. Which is a shame if true. KiCAD is a gem of open source and holds a lot of mindshare with nerds and hackers.

Isn't Kicad the tool the CERN uses and also actively develops?

It is. Research and hobby does generally create lower order numbers than industry, though. However, at least DigiKey offers an integration iirc.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#57

Post by cybrox »

Glant wrote: post #5
nightfly wrote: post #3

"I had a bad experience with the cheap shipping, guess I should keep trying it until I hate the company *

Alternatively, "Our customer constantly has issues with our service, let's ignore it until they are no longer a customer"

Well, they won't complain anymore!

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#58

Post by Osiris »

nebula8804 wrote: post #2

Wow I am going through the same thing as the author right now. I recently placed an order with Mouser doing side by side comparison shopping with Digi-Key. The last time I used Mouser was 12 years ago in my college days. I thought hey they were good back then let me just compare the prices and Mouser came ahead this time due to the shipping cost. I am just ordering replacement capacitors for an old PC motherboard tha…

3 weeks? You would have gotten them faster directly from China and probably for a lot cheaper.

The only reason for me to order from a US based company is faster shipping.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#59

Post by JohnFen »

sschueller wrote: post #22

For small personal projects I have switched to LCSC in part because I can automate the BOM order when I generate the PCB gerbers all out of Kicad via gitlab pipeline. All I have to do is add the LCSC part numbers as an extra field in my Kicad schematic. If I order from JLCPCB I also get a shipping discount at LCSC. Mauser and digitkey are very expensive to ship here (Switzerland) so unless my order is larger it's not…

It may not affect the economics of your situation, but if you do projects on a regular basis, this might help.

When I order parts for a project, my baseline rule is "order 3: one to break, one to use, one to kick around in your parts drawer for next time". Then I go back through my order and increase quantities of parts I know that I'll be needing again for future projects until the order total is high enough to qualify for discounts on shipping.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#60

Post by crooked-v »

JohnFen wrote: post #32
WalterBright wrote: post #19

When the cable guy came to add another outlet to my previous house, I watched what he did and chatted a bit about his tools. He was using Digikey tools. I then ordered identical tools. For my later house, I installed all the cables and outlets myself, with the Digikey tools. All I can say is two thumbs up for them. Quick and easy, and not a single bad connection. I did this because of my troubles soldering, which all…

> Ever since, I look at what the pros use and buy those tools. One of the best pieces of business advice I ever got was to identify the core pieces of equipment that really impact the quality/efficiency of your work and go as high-end as you can afford on those. Then go as cheap as you can tolerate for everything else.

See also: Professional chefs with extremely expensive personal knife sets alongside basically disposable $8 tongs and $20 pans.
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