Shopping Advice

[keantoken]

Hi all.

I want some advice from those of you who have been buying your parts online. I need to squeeze the most out of my money.

Do you know where are the best deals for the following items?

1: 12V SLA batteries (over 5Ah, preferably higher than 7Ah)
2: Large assortment of metal-film resistors of every value (E6 is fine).
3: Similar assortment of small caps suitable for audio and RF decoupling.
3: Reservoir/filtering caps.
4: PCB etchant
5: heatsinks
6: plain vanilla PCB boards
7: transformers

I am interested in where you usually go for these items, when you need to squeeze your wallet.

Thank you for your advice,
- keantoken

[theAnonymous1]

I can give you a partial list.......

1: Try your best to find a store locally that sells them; shipping charges usually kill any discounts you will find online.

4: The cheapest etchant you can get is 1 part muriatic acid to 2 parts hydrogen peroxide (3%). Do some research first if you've never used this combo before, it's toxic and dangerous.

6: I buy all my PCB stock from ebay seller ABCFAB. He has great service and will cut the boards for you if you ask.

7: I don't think there is such a thing as cheap transformers.

[keantoken]

Originally posted by theAnonymous1

7: I don't think there is such a thing as cheap transformers.

I found someone that recommended this:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2102703

Exactly what I need for this:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...76#post1847276

- keantoken

[SY]

For cheap transformers (but limited selection), Apex Jr and Antek. Edcor is a highly-thought-of source for relatively inexpensive audio transformers. I've used Allied's house brand power transformers (probably Hammond) with great success.

[keantoken]

I found this, I'm pretty sure it's what I want.

I tried looking up the benefits/downfalls of toroids but it seems to be a tossup.

I would go for the toroid right now because of lower EMI...

http://www.antekinc.com/trans.html

I will get the 15-0-15 50VA one and step down to 13.8V using 7x12's or something. After I get bored with that I might build my own + and - regs.

Now what about resistors? How the blip do you guys get all your resistors? Radiosnack only has carbon comps, I want to move up to metal film.

Thank you for your help,
- keantoken

[SY]

kt, I had been getting good metal film resistors from Halted. But since leaving California, I need to find another source myself. Where in Texas are you?

Fortunately, mf resistors are pretty cheap even at new retail. Digikey and Mouser have them at attractive prices.

[keantoken]

I will look through Mouser and Digikey and see if the filter options give me the range of values I want.

EDIT: Am I going to have to select all the resistors I want manually?

Thanks,
- keantoken

[keantoken]

Okay, this is exactly what I was looking for... Except a little suspicious.

What can you say about this?

http://www.rapidonline.com/productin...ec862412fb550e

- keantoken

[sidsparks]

Rapid are a UK based distributor so I guess the cost of shipping will make it a no go.

[keantoken]