Samples

[peranders]

Originally posted by Olle Bard
do you have any internet adresses for these companies?

www.analog.com
www.ti.com

www.google.com
www.dogpile.com
http://ixquick.com

My favorites

Check also
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-50719/lin...#searchengines

[Andy]

In my opinion:
TI is first, next AD and Maxim.
I'd like TI becouse they send by UPS where I can control trace.

[seanick]

Ahh finally a subject I know something about. Free samples! I have been researching them as of late due to a lower paying job than I am used to. so here are the companies I have gotten samples from so far:
analog devices - very fast! havent gotten anything i have been able to use yet though
Elantec - still waiting, according to the email, they should have shipped the parts today.. they are high on the list though because 15 minutes after i placed the sample request, they had an engineer call me, and we literally just chatted for an hour about random things. at the end of the call, he had decided to send almost twice as many devices as i had requested. the original, plus suggestions on better devices for the purposes i was using them for.. he said the EL2180 was good for running audio long distances over ethernet cable if i remember correctly...
Maxim is good, they take a while but have a wide selection,
Microchip is on my bad samplers list but only because their web site was giving me grief, they messed up my order, and they only have up to one megabit of memory on a single chip
National is good, TI is awesome, and onSemi is probably the best. mostly because of the choices of devices i wanted - TI sent me a really nice DSP but its going to be a long time before i can make a 7 layer board out of my kitchen...
7 layer burrito maybe but thats as far as i think i can stretch that one. two layer PCB's are hard enough.
Onsemi on the other hand, sent about a hundred T0-3's counting me and a couple of my friends, over the last few months.. one day the UPS guy literally had over 12 boxes of samples from onsemi.

[Elso Kwak]

Hi seanick,
Don't overdo it!. National is already more "carefull". Probably too much gainclones built with free samples.....No free samples from Linear Technology.

[till]

Yes, please be a little carefull in using free samples offer. I doubt you needed a DSP, and if you want really go to DSP, you need more than a free sample. I hope you need those hundred TO3s. Its no good idea to order more than you need. I had some long calls with TI last weeks, they reported problems with people ordering samples and resell them. They look out for such unserios sample orderers, so don´t stress it. They sayd its ok to order samples for personal projects, but not to much in short time else they put the name on a blacklist. We all should only order what we really need - not more. Its unfair to the DIY community to abuse this offer from the industry and take risk they descide not to send out free samples to private persons anymore. I think its always a good idea, as you reported, to let the companys contact you, and phone with them. In my experience they are not against private use of samples. They need to protect themshelfs agains missuse of the sample programms. My experience with microchip is good. They send you everything - but limit the orders to max. 4 orders a year, what is more than anyone can use for DIY purpose i think.

[josefr]

Hi Till

I agree with You i 100%

[carlosfm]

Yes, please order just what you need.
TI is very good, they deliver samples to me in just 2 days here in Portugal.
National is not bad, they deliver in more than a week, but not always.
I once repplied an e-mail from TI confirming my order, bacause I saw my address was wrong (had to change it, because of the special characters).
A guy named Ben Duncan repplied to me in less than 30 minutes!
I still wonder if the guy was Ben Duncan, THE MAN...

[seanick]

Dont misunderstand my intentions, I actually do plan to reward those companies for their generosity with buying largely from them for large orders, if and when i reach a position to do so. I have been researching DSP programming recently and try to use every sample for as many things as I can think of. the count of cans is actually much lower than that, i realized only about half of them were samples, the other half i bought before my local electronics parts store shut down. I ordered a couple different complementary pairs of MJ150xx transistors, about 10 each. the thought of resale never even occurred to me and is not something i would do.
its annoying that this board is so rarely about diyaudio and so much more often about judging others, not knowing the whole story.. i will keep this in mind before posting when i have relevant input to add next time, thanks for the education

[Elso Kwak]

Originally posted by seanick
its annoying that this board is so rarely about diyaudio and so much more often about judging others, not knowing the whole story.. i will keep this in mind before posting when i have relevant input to add next time, thanks for the education

Hi seanick,
First you are bragging how many devices you have collected from Onsemi then you are complaining, like you are raped by some forum members, not knowing "the whole story"
Well in the first place you should have told the whole story first hand. I only tried to ease you down a little bit. These semiconductors companies may decide to stop sending free samples or wanting to know specific company information like VAT-number etc. before sending any free sample.........

[RAYSIMMONS]

I know because of abuse Onsemi no longer recognizes sample requests from personal e-mail addresses.

[paulb]

Originally posted by seanick
Dont misunderstand my intentions, I actually do plan to reward those companies for their generosity with buying largely from them for large orders, if and when i reach a position to do so. ... I ordered a couple different complementary pairs of MJ150xx transistors, about 10 each. the thought of resale never even occurred to me and is not something i would do.

So you got 40 free TO-3 transistors, I'm guessing worth about $4 apiece. 12 boxes of samples in one day? You really don't think this is abusing the privilege of samples? I could not in good conscience do what you're doing. It's only a matter of time before the samples program reverts back to what it used to be like, where you get a call from a sales rep before you get your samples. Never mind spoiling it for the DIYers, you (and others who abuse this) are going to ruin it for many small businesses who depend on samples to quick-turn prototypes for evaluation.
If and when you do reach a position to reward them, it's my guess that you'll base your decision on a business basis, not on what the company provided to you as a hobbyist.

[sayang001]

Paulb,

I cann't agree with you more. I order samples for my company and for private use. I do get phone calls from company's like TI and National already about my sample requests, and I don't have an issue with that. They now that I use some for private use and they don't have an issue with that.

I know people who build gainclones and selling them for good money using free samples

I build one amplifier with samples from National, but for the other 3 amplifiers I ordered the parts. Also ordering from National over the web is easy and cheap. I think that I get always my samples because they can see that I order from them as well.

Just my 2c

[JOE DIRT®]

If i could input my2 cents canadian....I have been getting samples for years and I dont abuse it,what I have done is send the manufactures sample drawings in the way I utilised these parts.....what it does is allows them to update their App. notes and we all win...they are happy when I order samples because they know they will get a return..Just my thoughts


Cheers!!The DIRT®

[svokke]

Today i tried to order LM3875 chips from national with my hotmail account.
Due to the large request of samples they receive, they asked a fee for the samples. With a corporate email, they don't ask a fee.
It seems they're already trying to filter out the some less-serious DIY-people so be careful.

Greetings, Svokke

[AndrewT]

Hi,
I just got a reply from Onsemi technical information center, after I enquired about ordering parts for personal use and offering to pay for them.

Thank you for contacting ON Semiconductor
Yes, you can place sample order via our web. page www.onsemi.com. Shipping charge is $6 within the US.

Judging by this comment, they are inviting me to place an order for my own personal use.

Shipping to my address is $10 for quantity of 5.