Trying to like Arrow...

[Willybomb]

 

Man, I'm trying to find relatively simple things on the Arrow site, but I can't even find 16mm pots. When I do find what I want (I needed some ICs for an Arcadiator), it has a "quote" button next to it.

I'm guessing that they're probably not aiming at the hobbyist wanting quantities of 2-3, that's fair enough.  And what's this "Per unit" business?  How many is in a unit?  Maybe I'm just not patient enough.

At least with Tayda I can get a build something resembling the ideal finished product, regardless of tolerances, and I can generally get the delivery covered by the discount codes.

[somnif]

They don't carry Alpha stuff, so you're rather out of luck on the pots. As for "units", some things are sold in minimum batches of 2,000/5,000/10,000 etc. So it could be 2 cents per unit (per item) but you need to buy thousands at a time. Other items they don't have in stock, but can get if necessary, hence the "quote" thing (typically large batches). You can fix that by checking the "in stock: yes" option up top.

Yeah Arrow is fantastic for SOME things, but its never going to be the end all be all of pedal suppliers.


As for the arcadiator ICs, they have the 4069 in SMD (or 7$ for a through hole), the 4070 is in stock in through hole for 0.44$ (only 10 in stock though), and the 4024 in stock for 0.43$

[BryGuy]

I order some stuff from them a few weeks back. Their filters took me a little while to figure out. After that it was pretty easy. Anything with a minimum quantity of 1 can be purchased in any quantity. I ordered enough stuff to get the free shipping including some single items. It was crazy that they shipped everything in 5 different shipments. Seriously I got a box with 1 trimmer in it. Not sure how that makes financial sense for them but overall I was happy with my order. I'll be ordering from them again I'm sure.

[somnif]

I order some stuff from them a few weeks back. Their filters took me a little while to figure out. After that it was pretty easy. Anything with a minimum quantity of 1 can be purchased in any quantity. I ordered enough stuff to get the free shipping including some single items. It was crazy that they shipped everything in 5 different shipments. Seriously I got a box with 1 trimmer in it. Not sure how that makes financial sense for them but overall I was happy with my order. I'll be ordering from them again I'm sure.

There is no minimum for free shipping, 25$ just gets you free overnight. I've made sub-1$ order's and yeah, still free (just 3 day)

[BryGuy]

I guess I didn't realize that before. Definitely good to know.

[matmosphere]

Just like every other parts supplier it has its place.

Unfortunately from what I've found there is not a place you can typically get everything you need for a project.

Maybe smallbear, but resistors and caps are cost prohibitive there. Mammoth only has pretty common parts. Tayda has most stuff but definitely not everything. Arrow is kinda like mouser, they have a lot of stuff but not the alpha pots or enclosures.

I typically use arrow when I forgot a few parts on a large order so that I don't have to pay more shipping cost for a few bucks in parts. I've been wondering recently if I could do everything between arrow and BLMS.

[BrianS]

I've been buying from them for awhile.  Their website has improved 3 fold from what it was a year and a half ago.  As one of the guys said "once you get it down" it's fairly simple.  The free shipping is a great deal especially when you only need a couple of items you're missing.  Caps, resistors, ICs and some jacks are what I mostly buy from them.  I have purchased a few enclosures when I had a coupon but I've never seen them keep a huge number in stock. 

[EBRAddict]

They are great for many things but connectors, pots, cabling, anything mechanical, they don't seem to stock much. That web site... I can't imagine being a commercial customer trying to use that chiclet-style Windows 8 interface.