Their new tool catalogue arrived yesterday. An expanding range of power tools suitable for hobby, DIY or professional use to suit all tastes, prejudices and pockets, form Pound Shop favourites Blackspur through RVFM (Rapid Value For Money) to AEG, Bosch, deWalt, Draper, Milwaukee, Ryobi (in alphabetical order) to name a few. From barely functional to desireable (I wanted to say designer but I don't think it's quite that bad yet).
Also a good range of hand tools.
MBQ
That's an interesting list. I currently order most of my stuff from Maplin and RS, but I will try some of the others. Have you considered adding Edmund Optics at
I did, but now mainly use Rapid. I don't spend a fortune with them as it's just a (sometimes) paying hobby. They are generous with their catalogue - unlike RS.
Just about sums it up in my opinion. Ideal if you want chav bling gadgets but useless for anything a hobbyist might want. Far better off supporting your favourite online components shop, I'm extremely lucky in having a local independent component supplier who are actually very knowledgeable although they don't open Saturdays.
Yep.
I found Cricklewood electronics was teh best place to buy enamelled copper wire, for example.
Paper catalogues tend to be cyclic:
2a. "Here is your paper catalogue, and please tell your friends."
2b. "Here is your paper catalogue, and please tell your friends." 2c. "Here is your paper catalogue, and please tell your friends."
Loop until cynical.
Thanks - I'll have look.
At our local trade counter they are generous with catalogues on CD-ROM. I can scarcely pick up the box containing the multiple volume paper catalogue we get nowadays.
The "Radiospares" Catalogue used to be a folder about the size of a book of log tables that hung on a nail in every electronic workshop, and the company penetrated the market by issuing enough of them such that a service engineer always had one within his reach without getting up off his seat.
In those days components were typically re-marked RS and it was commonly speculated that semiconductor manufacturers sold their in-spec devices under their own brand name and their out of spec devices ...
DG
Funny, I was just about to say that...
...to clive sinclair.
A friend of mine bought a ZX80 or XZ81 kit (can't recall which). The diodes for the power supply bridge rectifier were rejects because the band was marked on the wrong end, it turned out after he powered the thing up...
Ah...
Remember the germanium "micro alloy transistors" used in many of his earlier efforts (I still have an original X10 (PWM) amplifier somewhere)? Those are documented somewhere as being a job lot of rejects he bought from AEI.
In article , Derek ^ writes
Blimey, I remember when the Radiospares cat was no thicker than the Beano;!....
Did it work? I was at uni at the time studying electronics. The lecturers poured scorn on it because the output transistors and diodes did not have good enough characteristics to switch off the current pulse through the inductive voice coil of the speaker without a lot of power loss. Sure enough the only one I ever saw had burnt out output transistors.
Legend has it they had been used as hard core under a new drive. Sinclair bought them and paid to have them dug up.
Thinking back it must have been just before the UK semiconductor industry went over to silicon. They could have been the tail end of Ge. transistor production ??
DG
I often wondered how much their insistence on re-marking cost RS.
Often it was obvious that the manufacture hade modified the mould to obliterate their own name and add RS.
Then there was their insistence on all plastic being grey, so different materials were needed as well as moulds.
You could usually tell who made most components just by comparing samples.
I remember when they introduced their first range is TTL DIL ICs (7400 series). The original markings were covered up by a layer of black gloss paint with just the type number stamped on top in white (but so large that it was much easier to read than most, if not all, other ICs!)
Often our rep would tell you the original manufacturer if you asked nicely. However, when I changed jobs, the RS rep there was a snotty so-and-so who would only answer "RS" to every query.
I remember when he turned up the day after I'd returned from a visit to Wales with his little sample case of new 'goodies'. When I asked "who makes that?", pointing to a particular component, he promptly answered "RS!".
So I asked "who makes your pots?". "RS!" he said. "Strange," said I, "yesterday I was looking at some of your pots undergoing life-testing at AB Electronics factory at Abercynon!" We didn't get much of a response, but the look on his face was very interesting!
Terry
"The Maplin catalogue is available in major magazine shops and shows VAT-inclusive prices. There is also a CD-ROM."
You have to buy their catalogue, at about £3.50 and its revised quarterly I think. I tried their early CD version and it was hopeless. The website 'more details' generally brings up an almost illegible scan of a complete catalogue page. And of course 'bigger image' just brings up the same size one in a separate window... duh!!
Well done for list, extremely useful, thanks.
Phil The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at
Work? Not in any meaningful way, no. The output devices didn't blow up, but did run "rather warm" and any audio output I managed to achieve was grossly distorted. Also the output was completely unfiltered with the result that reception of the Light Programme on 200 kHz was completely wiped out. I went back to EF86s and EL84s after that experience...
I've never heard that one before. I thought the "transistors as hardcore" story related to Mullard Research Labs (later PRL) at Redhill?
I suspect that came later. The Mullard/Philips alloy junction devices (AF115/6/7) had a long run in portable radios and also TV IF strips. Then the early transistorised UHF TV tuners had Ge devices (AF186, IIRC).
Sadly there are many customers looking for the former, and relatively few hobbyists after the latter I would guess.
(Let's face it, they used to supply the whole countries hobbyist market with a small shop in Westcliff-on-Sea, and a central warehouse - no way is that market going to support the number of outlets they now have)
In message , John Rumm writes
No, I agree, but they used to be able to order bits in to the store for you from a decent range of bits in a warehouse somewhere, nowadays they don't actually have a range of components, they have a sort of random splatter which spends more time out of stock than in (or so it seems). Even the catalogue was useful, worth paying for, now I object to paying for their marketing material which is of little practical use, so I don't.
I used to drive 60 miles each way to that shop. Since they went nationwide, I don't think I have been in more than 3 times.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.