1k resistor needed

[deft touch]

where can i buy 5 1/4w 1k resistors online without paying $5 for shipping. I don't want to go to radioshack and theres no other electronic store near me.

 

[agent420]

I can't think of any online shops that ship such a small order for less than $5. Might I ask why not Ratshack? Are you making some social-eco-political stand against them?

 

[RancidWAnnaRIot]

you're probabbly gonna have to pay $5 to get them shipped from anywhere...

i'd say just go to radioshack.. we all hate them.. but sometimes you just have to go to them...

 

[deft touch]

yeah i went to radioshack overpriced by a football field. I did get a nibbler that was on clearance.

 

[Royicus]

For that, I'd go to radishack as well. I know they suck, but that will be the most economical thing for you to do. You could also just throw in some extra parts in that order. That is probably would I would do.

 

[Whatsisname]

are there any surplus stores around?

 

[agent420]

yeah i went to radioshack overpriced by a football field. I did get a nibbler that was on clearance.

I'm not a Ratshack fan, they're hardly the electronics store they were when I was a kid. True, most items are pricey and most of the clerks are clueless. But they do offer local convenience for some parts in many areas that don't have any other local electronics retailer.

Towards that end, I'm not sure why you're complaining about a 99¢ pack of resistors that you were able to bring home the same day. You would definately wait longer and spend more in shipping if you ordered those online. In that sense, they saved you money.

It's not like they were a dollar each or something. If cost was of that much a concern, you could have probably desoldered them off some junk laying around, 1k is a common enough value.

 

[RancidWAnnaRIot]

I'm not a Ratshack fan, they're hardly the electronics store they were when I was a kid. True, most items are pricey and most of the clerks are clueless. But they do offer local convenience for some parts in many areas that don't have any other local electronics retailer.

Towards that end, I'm not sure why you're complaining about a 99¢ pack of resistors that you were able to bring home the same day. You would definately wait longer and spend more in shipping if you ordered those online. In that sense, they saved you money.

It's not like they were a dollar each or something. If cost was of that much a concern, you could have probably desoldered them off some junk laying around, 1k is a common enough value.

Radioshack use to be a well respected electronics shop?

 

[agent420]

Radioshack use to be a well respected electronics shop?

Sad, but true. Let's step into the Wheyback™ machine, shall we?

Back in the 70's they were more a radio and parts store; ham radios were very popular and CB's were the hottest thing next to pet rocks and mood rings. My grandfather bought me my first RS 100-in-1 electronics project kit back in '73 or '74 (with a genuine integrated circuit, not in chip form, but some epoxy covered wafer type of thing), it probably got me started in the hobby. Keep in mind that this was an era when most appliances were actually repairable rather than disposable, and the TV repairman made house calls. In the late 70's / early 80's they were the first retail computer store I ever saw, with a pretty impressive selection and geeky (but cool) clerks who knew what they were talking about. Many small businesses and schools used TRS Model 2's for word processing or accounting. This was years before I built my 1st mail order Timex Sinclair Z80 or got my first Vic20, and I was floored that you could hook up an acoustic modem and dial into a local BBS to play Wumpus or Adventure. I'd say this period was their glory days, they were actually quite well respected during this time. I still lust after a pair of Realistic Mach 3 speakers (with 15" woofers)... I think a lot of people have grown up with the consumer crap of the late 80's onwards, forgetting that speakers were once built well, rarely sized to fit on bookshelves and you didn't need no stinkin' subwoofer for good thumping sound. But that's another story

They had a battery club card, and if you were l33t you probably had multiple cards from all the stores in the area, because everything ran on carbon batteries, wall warts were uncommon and alkalines were still Nasa technology (lithium was just an atomic element). Getting a new RS catalog was akin to the Sears Wishbook (though I doubt many here will remember those either) . I nearly fell over a couple of years ago when I discovered they now charge for the catalogs, I guess nothing's free anymore.

They started going downhill fast in the late 80's, and by the 90's they were well on their way to the cheese we know today.

One thing I always thought was cool about Radio Shack stuff was that they always included a schematic in the instruction manual, so if the item needed repairs most of the time you could do it yourself - just drop down to the store for parts. Most clerks at the time were actually able to suggest alternative parts for anything they didn't stock (in other words, they could read and understand schematics). And if you were a young hacker-in-training, reverse engineering schematics was a great way to learn how stuff worked. I haven't purchased any consumer stuff from them in years, and I'd be surprised if they still do that.

I guess the best way to summarize it is that I remember thinking it would be so cool to work there!

 

[RancidWAnnaRIot]

Sad, but true. Let's step into the Wheyback™ machine, shall we?

Back in the 70's they were more a radio and parts store; ham radios were very popular and CB's were the hottest thing next to pet rocks and mood rings. My grandfather bought me my first RS 100-in-1 electronics project kit back in '73 or '74 (with a genuine integrated circuit, not in chip form, but some epoxy covered wafer type of thing), it probably got me started in the hobby. Keep in mind that this was an era when most appliances were actually repairable rather than disposable, and the TV repairman made house calls. In the late 70's / early 80's they were the first retail computer store I ever saw, with a pretty impressive selection and geeky (but cool) clerks who knew what they were talking about. Many small businesses and schools used TRS Model 2's for word processing or accounting. This was years before I built my 1st mail order Timex Sinclair Z80 or got my first Vic20, and I was floored that you could hook up an acoustic modem and dial into a local BBS to play Wumpus or Adventure. I'd say this period was their glory days, they were actually quite well respected during this time. I still lust after a pair of Realistic Mach 3 speakers (with 15" woofers)... I think a lot of people have grown up with the consumer crap of the late 80's onwards, forgetting that speakers were once built well, rarely sized to fit on bookshelves and you didn't need no stinkin' subwoofer for good thumping sound. But that's another story

They had a battery club card, and if you were l33t you probably had multiple cards from all the stores in the area, because everything ran on carbon batteries, wall warts were uncommon and alkalines were still Nasa technology (lithium was just an atomic element). Getting a new RS catalog was akin to the Sears Wishbook (though I doubt many here will remember those either) . I nearly fell over a couple of years ago when I discovered they now charge for the catalogs, I guess nothing's free anymore.

They started going downhill fast in the late 80's, and by the 90's they were well on their way to the cheese we know today.

One thing I always thought was cool about Radio Shack stuff was that they always included a schematic in the instruction manual, so if the item needed repairs most of the time you could do it yourself - just drop down to the store for parts. Most clerks at the time were actually able to suggest alternative parts for anything they didn't stock (in other words, they could read and understand schematics). And if you were a young hacker-in-training, reverse engineering schematics was a great way to learn how stuff worked. I haven't purchased any consumer stuff from them in years, and I'd be surprised if they still do that.

I guess the best way to summarize it is that I remember thinking it would be so cool to work there!

Wow.. interesting..

 

[Faction]

heh i do work there, and it does suck. our store doesnt even carry resistors of any sort anymore.

But we do carry overpriced LCD's now.

 

[Frank4d]

Sad, but true. Let's step into the Wheyback™ machine, shall we?

Back in the 70's they were more a radio and parts store; ham radios were very popular and CB's were the hottest thing next to pet rocks and mood rings.]

So you must be about 50 or so too? When I graduated from college I was voted the "#1 best of the best" of all students in electrical engineering at the college I attended. At an awards ceremony I was given a set of 10 or so data books containing 10,000 pages of datasheets (re-published by Radioshack) chock full of information for chips that were state of the art stuff in 1978. I used to buy parts there until about that time, before they didn't sell resistors anymore except by special order.

 

[agent420]

So you must be about 50 or so too? When I graduated from college I was voted the "#1 best of the best" of all students in electrical engineering at the college I attended. At an awards ceremony I was given a set of 10 or so data books containing 10,000 pages of datasheets (re-published by Radioshack) chock full of information for chips that were state of the art stuff in 1978. I used to buy parts there until about that time, before they didn't sell resistors anymore except by special order.

Within a standard deviation of 50... Just turned 40, but I started young You're only as old as you act, so I still get carded

I think I remember the 4000 series cmos was hi-tech around that time, but I probably still had DTL (diode-transistor-logic) parts in my bin. Don Lancanster's CMOS Cookbook was the definitive reference, I still open it up to this day!

heh i do work there, and it does suck. our store doesnt even carry resistors of any sort anymore.

But we do carry overpriced LCD's now.

I remember walking into a local Shack some years ago and they were rearranging the store, removing many of the parts bins. It was kind of sad to me, but I guess I understand a little from a business perspective... Electronics became a less popular hobby and the advent of the interweb increased competition from bigger supply houses.

Although I don't forsee places like the Shack returning to the parts business, I am optimistic that advances in things like affordable, easy-to-use micro-controllers such as PICS and AVR's are rejuvenating electronics as a hobby. It's a different mindset; in many of my recent projects a single AVR replaces what would have been a full board of discrete logic, but the ability to hack a lot of things with protocols like I2C or SPI is pretty cool. It's like a marriage between hardware and software. My local Shack still stocks some Basic Stamp packages, I guess I should keep an eye out for them to be liquidated and get a good deal.

Now if I ocould only get this surface mount thing down...

 

[RancidWAnnaRIot]

Within a standard deviation of 50... Just turned 40, but I started young You're only as old as you act, so I still get carded

I think I remember the 4000 series cmos was hi-tech around that time, but I probably still had DTL (diode-transistor-logic) parts in my bin. Don Lancanster's CMOS Cookbook was the definitive reference, I still open it up to this day!

I remember walking into a local Shack some years ago and they were rearranging the store, removing many of the parts bins. It was kind of sad to me, but I guess I understand a little from a business perspective... Electronics became a less popular hobby and the advent of the interweb increased competition from bigger supply houses.

Although I don't forsee places like the Shack returning to the parts business, I am optimistic that advances in things like affordable, easy-to-use micro-controllers such as PICS and AVR's are rejuvenating electronics as a hobby. It's a different mindset; in many of my recent projects a single AVR replaces what would have been a full board of discrete logic, but the ability to hack a lot of things with protocols like I2C or SPI is pretty cool. It's like a marriage between hardware and software. My local Shack still stocks some Basic Stamp packages, I guess I should keep an eye out for them to be liquidated and get a good deal.

Now if I ocould only get this surface mount thing down...

People actually used diodes in the past to make logic? wow.. i mean i know how to make basic logic with diodes. but didn't think it was a actually used back in the day lol..

this is a nice history lesson.. hehe

hehe sorry.. i'm new school

 

[agent420]

People actually used diodes in the past to make logic? wow.. i mean i know how to make basic logic with diodes. but didn't think it was a actually used back in the day lol..

this is a nice history lesson.. hehe

hehe sorry.. i'm new school

technology changes... sometime in the not too far off future kids will probably be amazed there were individual chips used for logic, rather than a whole device being integrated into a single entity like a fpga. And optical technology is just passed that...

Indiviidual diodes were used in some designs (it's still common in things like keyboard matrixes) at that time, and were certainly popular in the 50's before semiconductor technology really took off. But just for historical clarity, when I say DTL I am referring to a method of semiconductor construction... The chips themselves were made using diodes and transisors on the substrate, but they looked like standard DIP chips. Advances such as TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) and more recently the various flavors of CMOS have allowed increased speed and lower power consumption.

My Nixie Clock uses a lot of 70's era DTL chips. For all the components you see, all it does is keep track of the time (albeit fairy accurately ). If I were to design another today using an AVR, it would probably consist of only 2 or 3 chips but the functionality of what it could do would be magnitudes greater. Actually all the logic would be in the AVR, the other chip or two would be interfacing the Nixie high voltage.

Often times a good way of thinking how to do things is to see how they were done in the past. To this day I learn things when I work on tube equipment (like 400V hurts!). And I'd love to have the wherewithall to build a Relay Computer.

[edit]

btw... If this is a hobby that interests you, keep an eye out for any of the Forest Mims booklets that RS used to sell. Although they look 'cartoony', they're really very good with a lot of circuit examples. I've still got most of my set around somewhere, and several of my projects have portions straight out of the book.

Also keep your eye out for Paul Horowitz' The Art of Electronics, which I consider the bible. It's a hair old in the tooth for some modern technologies, but I'd snap up a used one in a heartbeat.

 

[plot]

it's amazing that radio shack went from an awesome electronic parts store... to a cellphone stand with doors.



threadstarter, when you bought your resistors, did they offer to sign you up with sprint?

edit: agent, i've always heard alot of good thing about that engineers mini notebook ratshack used to sell, but i've never been able to run across one...

 

[dan0813]

Been making a living in the electronics industy since I was 18yrs old (Army) and I'm 51 now so I agree it's sad to see the old hobby businesses change and go by the way side. Anybody remember PolyPacs that used to be advertised in Radio Electronics? I still have some of the parts I ordered from them in my shop. deft touch if you did get the resistors you needed I'll drop 5 in the mail to you if you'll pm me your address.

73's
Dan

 

[agent420]

73's
Dan

Now there's a term I ain't seen in a long time! Like a precursor to today's sms code L8R

Along with the demise of hobby stores like the Shack, I also miss a lot of the magazines I used to read as a kid like Popular Electronics (before PopTronics and all that). 73 used to have great radio articles, my granddad built a breadboard radio from magazine plans. It was pretty cool listening to folks from around the globe at night...

 

[Thor]

Now if I ocould only get this surface mount thing down...

totally depends on what your working on and how heat sensitive it is, with smt leds, i will heat sink the plastic part as best i can, get teh iron really hot and buld a good glob on the tip of the iron. have a soulder sucker ready, drop the soulder on, this suck it back off again real fast, it usually leaves enought on the part to leave it connected, the soulder wont bond to the plastic, so all you have to worry about is melting the package.

option #2, it works sometimes if your device is heat sensitive or you cant get the above method to work. buy some extra tips and regrind them into a shape that is better suited for your work, i will usually use a pair of tweasers to put the part in place, then use the tweezers to hold the part down buy just putting some pressure on the part. i.e. not acctually grasping the part. this keeps the tweesers out of the way, and the reground tip will allow out to heat the soulder pad, this will create a stronger bond that the above method... most times... it helps to have 3 hands for this however.. unless your a freek, preload out tip and work quick.

GG

 

[webdes03]

There is a store near me called Unicorn Electronics -- they're excellent for that stuff, and I imagine they'd mail you stuff if you asked. I don't know if they have their entire line of resistors and such online, but the store is big, about twice the size of my local radio shack, and they have about half of it lined with racks of resistors, capacitors, switches, etc.

http://www.unicornelex.com/

 

[jeffmoss26]

we have a great place here in cleveland...Electronic Surplus www.electronicsurplus.com
They have tons and tons of stuff...the place is unreal.
I too am disappointed with how RS has turned out in the last several years. And I'm only 19 so I don't even know the 'good old days!'
-Jeff

 

[Adisharr]

where can i buy 5 1/4w 1k resistors online without paying $5 for shipping. I don't want to go to radioshack and theres no other electronic store near me.

If you owned an electronics supply company would you want to take an order for 5 resistors?

 

[RancidWAnnaRIot]

If you owned an electronics supply company would you want to take an order for 5 resistors?

LOL!!!!