bbottomley

I’m starting this thread to collect together our recommendations, experiences, and questions involving sources of electronic parts and supplies. Let’s try to keep the thread tight to this subject. If you want to post about something of an electronic variety that doesn’t pertain to a supplier—either finding one or telling us about one, good or bad—then please post it separately in the Electronics and Interior Forum or the Lighting and Electrical Forum, as appropriate. That way it will get the unique attention that it deserves, and it won’t get in the way of searches for good suppliers, which is the whole purpose of this thread.

By “electronic parts and supplies” I mean things that are useful in working with car electronics that go beyond the typical offerings from dealers, auto part stores, or our participating vendors. Stuff like components, assemblies, cables and connectors, test equipment, and unique tools. Drifting a little bit into computer components perhaps, but those with more of a general electronics flavor that wouldn’t seem out of place on or near a Forester.

If you have further thoughts or additional info pertaining to anything you’ve posted here, try to go back and edit your original posts rather than adding new ones a few pages later on. We want this thread to be a reference work, not an ongoing chat.

I’ll kick it off with some of my favorites and be back from time to time with more. Please add your favorites, and be sure to include links to their Web sites and whatever information you might have about their shipping policies. Remember, this is an international forum, so try to include as much info as possible about the suppliers’ attitudes toward international shipping.


Marlin P. Jones & Associates (MPJA)

Nice LED panel lights in a number of different colors for under a dollar, individual LED bulbs, light hand tools (some quite specialized), soldering and breadboard supplies, crimp terminals, fuses, connectors and cables of all kinds, heat shrink tubing, PC boards (perfboards), car audio supplies, relays (both solid state and mechanical).

While MPJA is not big into multi-LED assemblies, I do especially like their array of 14 white LEDs (recently out of stock but now back in) just an inch in diameter, quite thin, and very bright. I have two, soon to be six, in my Forester. You can see more at this thread.

They have an especially large selection of power supplies: the common plug-in “wall warts,” “block” supplies like those used with laptops, embedded units, and also benchtop supplies, both fixed voltage and variable. Of special interest to automotive applications is their 4 Amp 13.8 volt benchtop supply, which features both cigarette lighter and binding post outputs.

Visit their Web site and sign up for their monthly special e-mail letter.

I recognize some of their stuff as being identical to that sold at Harbor Freight or the Hong Kong suppliers described below—LED flashlights, some small hand tools, that sort of stuff. You can probably get a better deal on these things at those places rather than at MPJA, especially when you consider shipping costs.

They have a $15 minimum order and ship UPS with a minimum cost of about $7. They offer nice quantity discounts for large buys. They ship internationally via UPS, but with a $100 minimum order.


MCM Electronics

Tools, car audio supplies, switches, fuses, cables, connectors, and crimp terminals. A great source for those little high-current, 12 volt cube relays and the associated sockets. (These are often called “Bosch relays” in homage to their original manufacturer. I first encountered them on Audis and VWs.) A lot of what could be called “consumer electronics” in addition to components. They offer their own house brand “Tenma” line of test equipment, reasonably priced and probably of Asian origin.

Their on-line catalog is nicely illustrated and pretty easy to use, but you can also sign up for hard copy and promotional mailings at their Contact Us link.

They are presently having a sale on 35mm (1-3/8") square 12 volt muffin fans that would be perfect for the famous Samiam climate control fix. List $19.95, sale price $1.19, limited quantities. I'll try to check back from time to time and will remove this from my post if they appear to be sold out.

MCM doesn’t appear to have a minimum order. Their shipping rates go by value, not by weight, and start at $7.99 for orders under $20 (though they do sometimes offer promotional shipping discounts). They ship to US states and territories (including APO/FPO) and elsewhere in North America.


Digikey

Digikey is a full-line supplier of electronic components to the industry—ICs, transistors, resistors, capacitors, LEDs, everything! Top quality, known brands. They’ve got so much stuff that their Web site is not very easy to search. Your best bet is to get their printed catalog, now at least 5/8” thick, thumb through it the old fashioned way, make your choices there, and then order on-line.

Digikey also ships by UPS, with minimum rates in the $7 range. They have branches worldwide and ship to over 140 countries.


Harbor Freight

We all know Harbor Freight, mostly for their Chinese-made hand and power tools that are normally pretty good as long as you don’t intend to stake the success of your professional career on their continued sturdiness and guaranteed functionality. But they also offer a few real gems for the car electronics type. My favorites include the digital multimeters that often go on sale in their stores for not much more than the cost of the 9 volt battery contained within, crimp tools, and their various assortments of crimp terminals, wire, heat shrink tubing, cable ties, and taps (AKA “vampire taps,” Scotchloks®, etc. HF calls them “quick splices.”).

Harbor Freight maintains two Web sites, one for their catalog sales and another for their brick & mortar stores. Offerings and catalog numbers are pretty much the same at both, though there could occasionally be unique items at one or the other. Prices could easily be different, especially since the stores run multi-page ad fliers every couple of weeks or so with good price reductions and the occasional percent off coupons. Sign up to have these delivered to your mailbox.

Shipping from their catalog sales site starts at about $7 and is based on value, not weight. Extra charges apply outside of the contiguous 48 states, and they do not appear to ship internationally.


All Electronics

I haven’t ordered from them in years (for no particular reason other than that I haven’t ordered from them in years), but they’re still around and on the Web. My previous experiences with them were all good. They offer components of all different varieties, along with special items that are clearly overstocks or surplus and won’t be around long. Their selection seems to be in the same general ballpark as MPJA’s, except for MPJA’s specialization in power supplies.

Their shipping fee also starts at $7. They will ship internationally when practical.


Sources of LEDs

MPJA, MCM, All Electronics, and Digikey are all good sources of bare LEDs, useful for custom applications. Here are a few places that specialize in LED assemblies that are easy plug-in replacements for standard automotive bulbs. All three of these have featured in numerous discussions here.

Autolumination

Superbriteleds

V-LEDS (also on eBay as vleds)

They all ship internationally, though with varying policies regarding fees and minimum purchase.

You can also find LEDs from eBay sellers, mostly in Hong Kong or China. They typically offer both bare LEDs and LED assemblies. These sellers come and go and some of them charge pretty high S&H, so use eBay's search function to locate who’s selling what at the moment and what it will cost to get it delivered.


Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

These have a pretty good selection of the more common crimp terminals and cable ties, with a good price on bulk quantities. Not quite the deals you can find on-line, but no shipping charge and no waiting. Sometimes you can find a bargain on odd lots of leftover wire.


Hong Kong suppliers

Our fellow member Sheepish put me onto a couple of his most favorite suppliers of all sorts of really cheap electronic stuff, both located in Hong Kong and both offering free shipping anywhere in the world! And they accept PayPal.

Deal Extreme

Kaidomain

I recognize a lot of what they sell as being similar or identical to things I’ve seen on eBay, but with none of eBay’s dreaded Shipping and Handling charges, which are usually just sources of extra profit for the eBay sellers.

I would expect Sheepish to be checking in soon and will leave it to him to describe the offerings of these places in greater detail. They’re really big in LEDs and flashlights. Huge even!


eBay Sellers

You can find anything on eBay. I’ll list a few sellers here as they come to mind, chosen because they seem to be really good in whatever piece of the market they serve and because their fees appear to be reasonable. Unless stated otherwise, I do have personal experience buying from each of them.

tocana11 sells heat shrink tubing in all lengths and sizes and an assortment of colors. In a quick check as I was writing this, they were offering over 250 separate items. S&H is reasonable, they combine shipping, and they ship worldwide. While I have never bought from them, they have a great feedback rating so I’d have no problem recommending them.

Here are a couple of eBay sellers that deal in the most basic items—diodes, transistors, capacitors, resistors, 555 ICs, and the like.

Experimenters Discount Warehouse

ProtoGuy

Typical prices at one or both of these places are like $2.25 for 100 1N4001 diodes, $3 for 50 2N3906 PNP general purpose transistors (anybody remember the $4.50 CK722?), $3 for 10 555 ICs, $4.99 for 50 3 Amp NPN power transistors, and the like. Pretty darn reasonable. Lifetime supply!

I have bought some stuff from Experimenters Discount Warehouse but none yet from ProtoGuy. So I can't recommend the latter from direct experience, but they both offer reasonable S&H, combined shipping, and a great eBay feedback record. EDW does tend toward offering a lot of surface mounted stuff, which isn't the easiest to work with in a one off application. But don't let that get in the way of searching for the things that you want to work with.

More to follow ...

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sheepish

Well, what can I say? If you're after a torch/flashlight then both DX and KD have a huge range. For those wanting to make their own or mod and existing light or vehicle, they also have a large range of LEDs, drop-in LED modules, LED light strips and ropes, drivers and regulators suitable for car voltage, and small power inverters.

Shipping can sometimes take a while, particularly if they don't have the items in stock (although KD does list items as in stock when it doesn't), but they ship internationally for no extra cost. BB, do the others you list ship internationally? You don't make that clear for all of them.

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98 S/tb AT 100Mm stock but 4 the odd gorse scratch

sea-scooby

The site where i buy 90% of my stuff is Parts-Express.com - Speakers, Speaker Building, Home Audio and Video, Pro Audio, Electronic Parts & Accessories. LEDs, cables, speaker building stuff, circuit boards, installion parts and tools and just about anything that involves home, car or pro audio can be found there. Lots of wierd little things you can't find at most sites or stores.

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