I’ve reached the point of starting to running wire to my Tortises’ and beginning wiring. It’s been some time since I’ve odered any electronic supplies online or via mailorder. I sent for the Newark Electronics and Jameco catalogs,the two mailorder suppliers I remeber from the past. I’m curious about any others I might have forgotten,or even any I may not of heard of. I’m particularly interested in wire and edge connectors (for the Tortises’,50 to start) at this point,with miniture toggles in the near future. Any advice on where to look,or good surplus electronic surplus suppliers,other thab the two I mentioned, would be appreciated.
I have been using All Electronics Corp., www. allelectronics.com. They have been very fast in sending the edge connectors and mini toggle switches and any number of LEDs for wiring my Tortise machines and control panels. Their prices are very good and usually things are shipped the same day. Forgot to add that they don’t have 8 pin edge connectors so I ordered 10 pin connectors and blocked the end connections with a piece of styrene and some super glue. The work just fine a were significantly less that some suppliers for 8 pin connectors. Dick Foster Arrow Creek and Western
When ordering, try to put together a big order to minimize the shipping charges. Think about other things to get, like LEDs, resistors for the LEDs, panel mounts for LEDs, terminal strips or blocks, toggle switches for control panels, hookup wire and all those other little parts that you’d otherwise pay top dollar for at Radio Shack.
Thanks Dick and MB. I’m going to send for both of their catalogs. MB has very good advice about the large order. May cost more up front,but saving on the shipping saves $$$. I just received my order for 50 Tortises which cost $11 each,no tax or shipping! I will probably go the same route as you,use the 10 contact connector with a spacer,that’s what I did previously with no problems whatsoever.
I’m curious about any other electronic surplus sellers. For some reason I’m thinking there was a large, quite popular one I did business with in the early 90’s,but I can’t remember it’s name for the life of me. I’m sure the reccomended dealers will fit my needs though. Again,thanks for taking the time to respond.
Also, look at the price breaks. Cost each usually go down as the number of units purchased increases. For example, you only need 7 LEDs, but if you buy 10 at the price break, they will cost the same.
For full line electronics I use Mouser: http://www.mouser.com/ or Digi-Key: http://www.digikey.com/. Both companies carry every component you can think of, although they do cost more.
Most of the edge connectors you’ll find, especially at the surplus houses, will be 10-position. You can make shims from .060 styrene to either center or shift the connector to get the eight positions in alignment. You can also get eight-position connectors here: http://www.parkadehobbies.com/edgeConnector.html
I used the eight-position edge connectors from Parkade in the past, but I’m doing a major rebuild right now and I’m considering a different approach. Even with the edge connectors, you find yourself either soldering under the benchwork, or soldering pigtails to the edge connectors and using barrier terminals under the layout to connect those pigtails to the layout.
To avoid those situations, I’ve been thinking about attaching an 8-position barrier strip to the back of the Tortii with double-sided tape and wiring that up on the bench. Then I’ll avoid both soldering under the layout, and double connectors (edge and barrier) under the layout.
I buy parts from www.allelectronics.com. I get my DPDT switches, LEDs, and 10 pint edge connectors there. I bought a spool (1000’) of Cat 5 network cable (it was 50% off as the store was going out of business). I measure the rough distance that i need then I cut a piece about 2 feet longer than that. I wire this at the bench and then feed it where it needs to go and cut of the extra if not needed ( I save it for small things like wiring lights in buildings).
Thanks Nick! You jogged my memory. DigiKey was the name of the dealer I couldn’t remember. I’ll have to send for their catalog also.Renegade…the cat5 cable sounds interesting.Two questions. Is it less expensive than buying equal length 22 gauge wire? ie…500’ wire for 100’ of cat5 ? Second,since I have no experience using cat5,is it easy to separate the individual wires and to strip,or is there an even easier method I’m not aware of?