Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [sourcing]

41 questions
39
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9 answers

Parts shortage, no stock, what now? (canonical reference question)

As a small business, student, or hobbyist, sometimes the parts I need are unavailable (no stock anywhere). Maybe authorized distributor will take order but they will not ship for 10, 20, 30 weeks, which is a very long time to wait. If I search on…
MarkU
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21
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6 answers

current sourcing, current sinking

I'm a student studying electronics and I'm having trouble understanding the concept behind current sourcing and current sinking. We've covered it in a lab using a 7404 and an LED and all that. Just having trouble getting an intuitive understanding…
user217
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17
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6 answers

How can I evaluate or speculate on a part's production lifetime for long term part sourcing?

Suppose I have an idea for a product, where if it were successful, would be in production for 5-10 years. How can I make decisions on what parts to use now such that they will still be available to order in the future? I'm not old enough to know,…
Jon L
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15
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4 answers

What to expect when sourcing parts

I know about SparkFun.com, but their product line is limited to general appeal for the average hobbyist. I appreciate them for that. But when I want a specialized component, I'm not sure if vendors don't sell or if I'm looking in the wrong…
Jason Kleban
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12
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8 answers

Sinking and sourcing current

I have been reading that NPN transistors are sinking and PNP are sourcing devices. I do not really understand this concept. It says current source device connects load to Vcc and current sinking device connects to ground (low voltage). So does…
Abhishek
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9
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2 answers

How to redesign a circuit to use a current sinking IC rather than a current sourcing IC

I'm building a serial servo controller to learn about electronics and assembly language as part of my hexapod robot project. Quite early on I decided that I needed more I/O channels than my ATTiny2313 that I was using at the time supported so I…
Len Holgate
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7
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5 answers

Good motor supplier?

I'm looking to start a few different projects and stock up on some basic components - I was just wondering if anyone knows a good supplier of DC motors, stepper motors and servos? I'm in vicinity of Sydney in Australia, so big pats on the back if…
Sketchy Fletchy
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7
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6 answers

Where can I source extra long headers from

I have recently purchased a sparkfun protoboard that I wish to stack above an ethernet shield. (I have 2 different ethernet shields, an Arduino one and a seeed studio enc28j60 shield.) The problem I have is that if I use the supplied headers, or…
Hamish Currie
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7
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1 answer

Proprietary Kinect connector

I'm looking for a source for the mating part to the proprietary USB connector on the Kinect, which includes standard USB signalling and power, and also the special 12V supply rail. The cable version of it comes on the dongle in the Kinect box, but…
mikepurvis
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7
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4 answers

Export restrictions when sourcing parts for PCB assembly in foreign country

If a company has a PCB design and wishes to assemble them economically, a natural choice is China. Some Chinese companies are asking for the parts (or some of them) to be shipped to them. This means buying the parts locally, shipping them…
apalopohapa
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6
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3 answers

Determining End-Of-Life for electronic components

What is the best way to determine the end-of-life time-line for ICs other than contacting the manufacturer directly? Is there a central registry or service where I can subscribe and get EOL notifications for the parts used in my designs? How does…
aghoras
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5
votes
4 answers

Prototype building route

Assume that you have a couple of ideas that you think are good enough to prototype into demonstrable devices. What option would you take and why? Option 1 - Build everything from scratch including designing and soldering the circuit, embedded…
Sushrut J Mair
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5
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2 answers

what kind of tape is used in electronic devices

I repair quite a few devices and one thing that bothers me is that when I remove some of the tape pieces they never go back down right. I was looking for some replacement tape and didn't know what to search for. In the image of a samsung note tablet…
mkrinblk
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5
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4 answers

Source for flexible, stranded wire

Can someone suggest a source and part number for insulated, stranded small-gauge wire (around 22AWG) that is flexible and doesn't hold its shape? Something along the lines of the wire found on multimeter probes. I want something to connect to my…
blalor
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4
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2 answers

3.5mm PCB mount male plug

I'm looking for a male 3.5mm audio plug (3 or 4 band) that can be mounted directly to a PCB. Both surface mount and through hole are fine. I'm surprised that all the usual suspects (Digikey, Farnell, Mouser) seem to have nothing like this. Any idea…
Antti
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