Apparently Maplin, a well known UK suppliers of parts for the electronics hobbyist and diy'er is in dire straits. This could be an interesting story to watch.
Maplin in 48-hour race to secure rescue deal with Jaeger owner
Maplin in 48-hour race to secure rescue deal with Jaeger owner
Sadly, Maplin have been fairly useless for some years now. They no longer serve the hobbyist market they started from, their shops are always in prime (and so presumably expensive) locations, their staff are usually polite but clueless, and the electronic toys they now sell can usually be found cheaper elsewhere.
I would agree Maplin moved away from the hobbyist market, many years ago in fact. I guess the money was to be found elsewhere as witnessed by all the types of stuff on display.
The same thing can be seen at trade counters from the likes of CPC (part of Farnell) where you are just as likely to be confronted by gardening equipment and barbecues as the more traditional items they stock.
The days of the enthusiastic diy'er clutching a long list of parts to procure have sadly diminished over the last couple (or more) of decades.
The same thing can be seen at trade counters from the likes of CPC (part of Farnell) where you are just as likely to be confronted by gardening equipment and barbecues as the more traditional items they stock.
The days of the enthusiastic diy'er clutching a long list of parts to procure have sadly diminished over the last couple (or more) of decades.
I don't miss filling in the long order forms, or standing in long queues. I used to live in Erdington a 5 minute walk from the Maplin store, it was handy when there weren't many alternatives. What was good, when they didn't have an item in stock they would deliver, often the next day, free of charge.
Trouble is it seems things seem to have conspired against the hobbyist for many years. Transistors are migrating to plastic SMD which makes quick prototyping troublesome, having dumped metal can TO-18/TO-5 for which push-on heat clips were widely available; I suspect it won't be long before TO-126 goes (replaced by SOT-223?). Which means getting heat out means dedicated PCB etc. with thermal pads etc.
But several years ago I sensed a decline as visits to Maplins had to have a contingency list for the parts they had not got in stock. I gave up after having to order the parts on line after hoping to save time by a visit.
But several years ago I sensed a decline as visits to Maplins had to have a contingency list for the parts they had not got in stock. I gave up after having to order the parts on line after hoping to save time by a visit.
Maplins have been pretty much useless for the hobbyist for quite some time now; one of the last really useful things they stocked was a big range of inexpensive aluminium boxes but these have been unavailable for 5 or 6 years now. I agree with scottjoplin about RS; I think they were forced to clean up their act because of pressure from Mouser and Digikey. They are now very competitive for semiconductors although they don't carry quite the range of the American distributors, naturally. Rapid Electronics is also excellent for many things.
I suspect the hobbyist market for scratch building stuff has all but collapsed in real terms.
Years ago there were all the popular publications on bookstands... these days I bet the youngsters have no idea its actually possible to put individual parts together to make something.
When I was young I wanted to pull everything apart, motors, torches, clocks, anything like that. I think I really got hooked on electronics (I had a fascination with audio though, radios and tape recorders) when my dad brought me a copy of Practical Wireless. There was a simple circuit for a traffic light controller using three TTL chips. And that was that. I never looked back.
I don't think that interest is there now in the young of today. Its all mobiles and PlayStations and the like.
Years ago there were all the popular publications on bookstands... these days I bet the youngsters have no idea its actually possible to put individual parts together to make something.
When I was young I wanted to pull everything apart, motors, torches, clocks, anything like that. I think I really got hooked on electronics (I had a fascination with audio though, radios and tape recorders) when my dad brought me a copy of Practical Wireless. There was a simple circuit for a traffic light controller using three TTL chips. And that was that. I never looked back.
I don't think that interest is there now in the young of today. Its all mobiles and PlayStations and the like.
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