As I suspect with most folks in production of gizmos, I have stocked up on the parts I need for the foreseeable future and am designing around the parts I can’t get.
Now what usually happens during a parts shortage is many folks order the full quantity of what they need from several sources. So when the first source delivers, they cancel all the other orders. Then all of a sudden long back orders go away and there is a sudden surplus of parts.
I am currently redesigning one product to use available parts. Not going well, as I discovered my prototype PCBs are defective! Four layer boards that have internal shorts! (Took a while to trace it down to manufacturing defects and not layout errors.)
Now what usually happens during a parts shortage is many folks order the full quantity of what they need from several sources. So when the first source delivers, they cancel all the other orders. Then all of a sudden long back orders go away and there is a sudden surplus of parts.
I am currently redesigning one product to use available parts. Not going well, as I discovered my prototype PCBs are defective! Four layer boards that have internal shorts! (Took a while to trace it down to manufacturing defects and not layout errors.)
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Maybe, but Aliexpress is DEFINITELY not one of them.
Of course, it´s your time and money, use/waste as you wish.
By the way, I would buy one from tomchr if he ever offered them , go figure.
Oh, fun! Hopefully you're using electrical testing of the boards in production. It does add cost, but usually not that much. At least not at the Western vendors/manufacturers.
Yeah. There're definitely some known bad vendors.
I think we've had that conversation in email at some point. I'd love to help but I was only able to secure enough LM3886 to keep my business running. Unfortunately not enough to support other businesses as well.
It'll be interesting to watch once the supply levels recover and people start cancelling orders. I suspect a lot of grey market vendors who're now charging $100+ for an LM3886 will suddenly have lots and lots of inventory gathering dust. I'm somehow OK with that.
Tom
Tom,
They are selling them at high prices. They didn’t pay that. So break even could be as few as one unit!
They are selling them at high prices. They didn’t pay that. So break even could be as few as one unit!
You would be surprised 🙂
We wouldn´t pay that, nor any manufacturer, but in certain situations servicing is forced to use some parts (not their own decision or choice of course).
I used to work with the Argentine version of "Recycler" second hand stuff magazine (before widespread EBay, Craigslist, etc. , they were King of the Hill) and for bureaucratic reasons they were stuck with whatever equipment they already had, Accountant´s opinion was that "stuff had to be used and not replaced until fully depreciated" which amounted to 8 years.
Sensible in some equipment such as a lathe or hydraulic press, nonsense in theComputer World where stuff becomes obsolete within a year or two.
So they were stuck with a bank of 4 or 6 Texas Instruments Laser printers, (which in a Press environment get used to death) , very good quality, but obviously after 2 or 3 years started failing.
They could NOT plain replace them, nor sell them because they were registered into the Inventory, a mess.
So they had to keep repairing them, no matter what, no matter the cost or complication of getting spare parts.
Every year they spent well above new printer cost, let alone current value, so I can very well imagine somebody paying through the nose to get a real LM3886 for such repairs, where nothing else will do.
By the same token, I worked with Municipal/City Theaters and Cultural Centers, also Schools, where they could not plain "buy" anything (they don´t handle purchase money, only the the City Treasury does, and it must be already included in Annual Budget) so they had to jump through hoops to pay.
Same thing, "officially" I could only "repair" their stuff for outrageous prices.
Oh well.
We wouldn´t pay that, nor any manufacturer, but in certain situations servicing is forced to use some parts (not their own decision or choice of course).
I used to work with the Argentine version of "Recycler" second hand stuff magazine (before widespread EBay, Craigslist, etc. , they were King of the Hill) and for bureaucratic reasons they were stuck with whatever equipment they already had, Accountant´s opinion was that "stuff had to be used and not replaced until fully depreciated" which amounted to 8 years.
Sensible in some equipment such as a lathe or hydraulic press, nonsense in theComputer World where stuff becomes obsolete within a year or two.
So they were stuck with a bank of 4 or 6 Texas Instruments Laser printers, (which in a Press environment get used to death) , very good quality, but obviously after 2 or 3 years started failing.
They could NOT plain replace them, nor sell them because they were registered into the Inventory, a mess.
So they had to keep repairing them, no matter what, no matter the cost or complication of getting spare parts.
Every year they spent well above new printer cost, let alone current value, so I can very well imagine somebody paying through the nose to get a real LM3886 for such repairs, where nothing else will do.
By the same token, I worked with Municipal/City Theaters and Cultural Centers, also Schools, where they could not plain "buy" anything (they don´t handle purchase money, only the the City Treasury does, and it must be already included in Annual Budget) so they had to jump through hoops to pay.
Same thing, "officially" I could only "repair" their stuff for outrageous prices.
Oh well.
Many would indeed be surprised by what goes on in large corporations run by bean counters and lawyers. While working for such a corporation, I once spent nine months ordering $5500 worth of test equipment. Or actually, I spent nine months going through various approval loops before throwing it at our applications engineer so he could continue to jump through the corporate hoops. After more than a year the purchase was finally approved. I actually needed this piece of equipment to do my job well.
In my case it turned out that $5k was the limit for a "capital equipment purchase", which triggered a Capital Equipment Purchase Process. Had I known I would have had the vendor break the invoice into two. Then each invoice would be below $5k and the whole thing could have been purchased on a company credit card.
Note that $5k is cheap in the test equipment world. We had three $150k+ phase noise analyzers in the lab along with several high-end o'scopes and whatever else. I'm sure some of the o'scope probes were in the multiple kilobuck range.
I'm also reminded of the military where a first echelon electronics tech was not allowed to perform any soldering. Yep. You read that right! The electronics tech would be allowed to take a microphone connector apart and conclude that the reason the mic didn't work was that a wire had broken, but he wasn't allowed to fix it. That was the job of the second echelon electronics tech. So paperwork was created and the mic was sent off to 2ECH for repair. Three weeks later we'd get the mic back ... sometimes repaired. At least that was how the system was supposed to work. In reality, we hid an "illegal" soldering iron in a desk drawer and just fixed the broken wire ourselves.
It is possible that the $100+ price for an LM3886 is just a teaser rate, but I have asked some grey market vendors for prices on some parts that I needed. Even at QTY 250-500 they want real money for jellybean parts. I recall receiving a quote for something like $5/each for an ULN2003 (QTY 500), which normally costs about 10 cents from TI. I recall grumbling something about packing sand before finding a substitute part that was available from TI.
Tom
In my case it turned out that $5k was the limit for a "capital equipment purchase", which triggered a Capital Equipment Purchase Process. Had I known I would have had the vendor break the invoice into two. Then each invoice would be below $5k and the whole thing could have been purchased on a company credit card.
Note that $5k is cheap in the test equipment world. We had three $150k+ phase noise analyzers in the lab along with several high-end o'scopes and whatever else. I'm sure some of the o'scope probes were in the multiple kilobuck range.
I'm also reminded of the military where a first echelon electronics tech was not allowed to perform any soldering. Yep. You read that right! The electronics tech would be allowed to take a microphone connector apart and conclude that the reason the mic didn't work was that a wire had broken, but he wasn't allowed to fix it. That was the job of the second echelon electronics tech. So paperwork was created and the mic was sent off to 2ECH for repair. Three weeks later we'd get the mic back ... sometimes repaired. At least that was how the system was supposed to work. In reality, we hid an "illegal" soldering iron in a desk drawer and just fixed the broken wire ourselves.
It is possible that the $100+ price for an LM3886 is just a teaser rate, but I have asked some grey market vendors for prices on some parts that I needed. Even at QTY 250-500 they want real money for jellybean parts. I recall receiving a quote for something like $5/each for an ULN2003 (QTY 500), which normally costs about 10 cents from TI. I recall grumbling something about packing sand before finding a substitute part that was available from TI.
Tom
Just great. I get back into DIY after a couple years and decided to build a MOD86 so ordered boards, chassis and PS. Now I look at parts and the ubiquitous LM3886 is out of stock.
Guess I'll be selling boards and PS then. I'm not taking a chance on China ebay vendors and the build cost is high enough already. Not going to pay $50+ per chip.
Guess I'll be selling boards and PS then. I'm not taking a chance on China ebay vendors and the build cost is high enough already. Not going to pay $50+ per chip.
also check TI website every now and again up to10 off per customer are available. seen this 3 times since spring. I got a set from them myself, back in spring.
Ok. thanks. If Tom doesn't have any on hand I will just move on to something else.
I had a few LM3886 on back order for some time now and today I got an email from RS (UK) saying 'the item has been discontinued'.
Ouch!!!
I typically make 100W and higher Guitar amps, and the odd 60W one actually gets the 100W board and full 100W rated PT, only amp is loaded witgh a single 8 ohm speaker instead of two, putting oit some 70-75W RMS
Cheaper faster "wasting" higher rated but available parts than doing custom ones.
But now the Guitar World shrank 🙁 and 50W amps must be included ... so LM3886 fit the bill ... only it disappeared.
TDA7294 is fine, but I feared the same fate (we are talking Pandemic beginnings) so I played it safe and designed a small board around a couple TIP121/126, about same footprint, so I can also replace chipamps in an emergency repair and it works like a charm.
I typically make 100W and higher Guitar amps, and the odd 60W one actually gets the 100W board and full 100W rated PT, only amp is loaded witgh a single 8 ohm speaker instead of two, putting oit some 70-75W RMS
Cheaper faster "wasting" higher rated but available parts than doing custom ones.
But now the Guitar World shrank 🙁 and 50W amps must be included ... so LM3886 fit the bill ... only it disappeared.
TDA7294 is fine, but I feared the same fate (we are talking Pandemic beginnings) so I played it safe and designed a small board around a couple TIP121/126, about same footprint, so I can also replace chipamps in an emergency repair and it works like a charm.
Well TDA7294 has reached the ₹1000 + point on Element14 and Mouser. I guess your prediction maybe true coz earlier those chips were either half or little lesser than half.
Not much of a "prediction" really, who am I to know the future? ... it´s just that those were VERY uncertain days and I played it safe.
TIP121/126 are semi obsolete also, but in low demand, so current stocks will last for some time.
For emergencies I have a not so compact but "takes anything" power board, can take TO3 metallic, any of its plastic siblings , Single case Darlingtons or make them out adding TIP(29/31 family) pr BC639 type TO92, etc.
It even can be used single supply, has required biasing up front and output cap pads.
The board is full of extra holes but has saved my bacon many times.
TIP121/126 are semi obsolete also, but in low demand, so current stocks will last for some time.
For emergencies I have a not so compact but "takes anything" power board, can take TO3 metallic, any of its plastic siblings , Single case Darlingtons or make them out adding TIP(29/31 family) pr BC639 type TO92, etc.
It even can be used single supply, has required biasing up front and output cap pads.
The board is full of extra holes but has saved my bacon many times.
True, hunch
Have you tried TDA7296 - 60Watts similar construction like the TDA7294/93. same package.
Why do folks not go to to the mfgs web site to confirm product status? I just went to the TI web site for lm3886, the device is still listed as active.
I did notice but this has been on and off several times since spring. I also would suggest purchasing from here and I got my "allocation" of 10 just in case.
That’s a sensible way to deal with parts shortages, put them on allocation.
Challenging times at TI for sure. As I see it from what parts I use is that TI seem to be one of the worst semi supplier recovering from the lock downs. They need to find a new neon supplier or make their own 🙂 Nichicon is bad for ecaps, they are having continued shortages and long lead times, dropping parts is one way to deal with it 🙂
Challenging times at TI for sure. As I see it from what parts I use is that TI seem to be one of the worst semi supplier recovering from the lock downs. They need to find a new neon supplier or make their own 🙂 Nichicon is bad for ecaps, they are having continued shortages and long lead times, dropping parts is one way to deal with it 🙂
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I have signed up with TI so they should notify me when LM3886 are in stock but they haven't been for over 6 months now.