Hey guys,
I'd only post something like this here because, well, the moderators on 'the other forum' tend to be a bit delete / move happy. however if its out of place, please delete it.
I know generally we're all happy with Tayda, they price blind-sight me everytime. I always harp onto to new builders about them, cheap, have a wide range of stuff, fast shipping, etc.
But what about poor quality stuff? A few examples.
I ordered some 1n34a's from them. They looked a little different to the ones i've bought before (a small black band on one side, instead of thick dark green band). Bending one of the leads snapped it off. I wasnt using that much force either. Tried another one, this time even more carefully. Glass cracked. The diode still works, but yeah, the quality is concerning.
I just recieved some bat41's. Havent used them yet but they are red inside of blue. They just reminded me of those little chinese 1n914's they sell.
And then lastly is probably the resistors. Their leads are ridiculously thin, even when you compare them to something like a mammoth xicon. Does it matter if your soldering in it once and thats it? Probably not. But if you have to remove it, breadboard it, or use it offboard, they become a bit of a PITA to use and snap easily.
I'm not out to defame them, their a great resource! Just looking for opinions / experiences I guess with some of their, not so great quality stuff. They get alot of praise threads (started even by myself!) lets balance that out :D
Paul
I've never had any leads break on any of my components. The resistor leads are pretty thin but it's never been a problem.
I've had mixed experience with their Ge diodes, but they made up for it with a generous voucher. Now, it was still a bummer — when I order stuff, I'd like it to work right on so as not to place a second order and wait again — but at least I did not have to argue and send tons of email (everything was settled in less than two hours).
Regarding their resistors, they're so cheap I don't mind throwing them away after desoldering them. So the thin lugs are not a problem for me. But yeah, they must be annoying for breadboarding.
There might be other components to avoid buying from them, but on the other hand they have killer prices on pots, I found their vero board & copper clad to be quite good. In the end I think it's just a matter of selecting what you're buying. Their prices are low for a reason. If I want to be sure of the quality of the stuff I buy, I buy from Mouser or Smallbear. But for resistors, box caps, pots or some other things, Tayda is still rather good.
Yeah, look, I know there cheap, and you have to take that into consideration when your talking about quality of course. Im just interested more so in cheap stuff thats i guess, too cheap (and best to avoid) in your opinion.
i like their pots and box caps. They have 9mm pots! OMG...ive waited this long for a source for 9mm that doesnt cost 3 bucks +. This may have been a result of the thread that i started on diysb forum "things you wish tayda stocked". There were alot of requests for 9mm so maybe they listened!? I emailed them and directed them to the thread and someone responded in nutshell "we will be watching the thread, thanks for letting us know".
I do like handling resistors with thicker leads though. I've had a few snap. Maybe im just rough with them.
Also, not a fan of their pcb. Maybe im just used to FR4. I can solder onto FR4 pads all day long and they never lift. Their FR2 lifts almost guarranteed on the 2nd reheat. Might just be my etch process or something though.
the vishay bat41's look a lot like 1n914's. it's most likely a quality part in that instance.
None of the 1n34a's I bought from them had the legs break. That's because they measured open before I even tried to bend them. One of the wasn't open, but it was so far out of spec I didn't use it.
I skip most of their mechanical switches as they are clearly lower quality. The only exception so far is their DC jacks, which seem reasonably good. I also skip their ceramic caps (incredibly low quality) and their electrolytics. No direct bad experience with the lytics, I just stick to name brands to avoid problems in the future.
But yeah, the 9mm pots are great. That addition was fantastic.
Oh, and their 1/4" plugs (both straight and pancake style) are the worst I've seen. I'd recommend skipping those as well.
Quote from: Haberdasher on August 06, 2013, 12:52:24 AM
the vishay bat41's look a lot like 1n914's. it's most likely a quality part in that instance.
Interesting! Not sure they would be selling vishay though :D Still they are probably good hah...
I didnt want to touch electro's but yeah...they are pretty much 'whatever we can source the cheapest' quality. Does it matter in a guitar pedal though? I thought i would just jump in there before someone else raises the question :D
Paul
Cheap electros often go wrong. They might be fine, but I'd rather spend the money on known quality. If someone else feels like rolling the dice and is willing to fix them if they blow or leak, that's fine, it's just not worth it to me.
I have found that their 3PDT switches are not worth the hassle. Lugs tend to fold over once heat is applied. I only buy outty DC jacks, 1/4" jacks, diodes, resistors, box caps, & electros. Never had any problems with the exception of diodes glass cracking and the switches. I tend to buy my switches from bitches love MY switches.
Quote from: pickdropper on August 06, 2013, 01:04:52 AM
Cheap electros often go wrong. They might be fine, but I'd rather spend the money on known quality. If someone else feels like rolling the dice and is willing to fix them if they blow or leak, that's fine, it's just not worth it to me.
Dont get me wrong pickdropper i agree:
http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9
(at the bottom)
Was just wondering what your reasoning for it was.
For me, for the sake of an extra 9c-14c, i dont think its worth it.
Paul
Their 8-pin machine sockets are really shitty. The openings of the pins are often different sizes, and I've had to "ream" out the openings in a few cases to get the IC to fit. So save yourself the 9 cents and get the cheap-ass leaf sockets.
I've not had any issues with their electrolytics. Yet.
The knobs are kinda crappy, generally.
And yeah, the resistors tend to be on the flimsy side mostly.
Still a great place to order from, though. Most of the rest of their stuff is of adequate quality.
Quote from: culturejam on August 06, 2013, 02:11:52 AM
Their 8-pin machine sockets are really shitty. The openings of the pins are often different sizes, and I've had to "ream" out the openings in a few cases to get the IC to fit. So save yourself the 9 cents and get the cheap-ass leaf sockets.
Ive always perferred the leaf 'econo' sockets over the machined type, in general. The machine type are ridged to insert and i often snap pins on them. The econo type are larger, but not enough to discourgage me from using them. They are just so much easier to get ic's in and out of.
If you buy decent machine pin sockets, they are nice to work with.
maybe ive just been unlucky....every machine socket ive tried (for a few sources) have been bent on bending ic leads. Pun very much intended.
I've had the little legs of the econo sockets push out as I put them into the holes of the circuit board.
I've had some resistor legs break, but it's generally from over-handling on my part. I've been building up a stock of resistors from Mouser with the 200 unit deal, anyway.
Sometimes the threads on the 1/4" jacks are stripped. I'll order those from BitchesLoveMySwitches from now on.
I've always measured the caps I get from them, and never had a problem. Always within spec, but the electros do seem a bit cheap compared to name brand.
Even with the problems, it's still a great resource for the hobbyist.
Yeh the only down I have had is the 1/4 jack skts they are really poor, but most items I get are fine :)
I seem to recall someone saying those jacks were good so its interesting to see a couple of people saying they aren't.
I remember reading that one type of mono jack (stereo insulated with pcb lugs maybe) was fine, and the rest was junk. I got a few to try them, the Neutrik/Switchcraft enclosed knockoffs were okay (although the nut was very thin, but a Switchcraft nut fits and helps a bit), and so was the other one (stereo insulated), safe for the fact that they are meant for panels thicker than the typical enclosure wall, so you have to use an extra washer.
The thing is, their jacks are not exceedingly cheaper than NYS2343's from Mouser, so I just go with that now.
I love the stereo jacks tayda sells, the switched PCB mount ones. Never had a problem with them, and they seem the same quality as the ones I get from Rapid Electronics, but a much cheaper price. I also love their pots and knobs, can't fault them, especially at the prices they are!
I find the LED holders are complete and utter crap, and would rather spend a fair bit more to get better ones.
Just got loads of resistors from them, they seem ok and they few I've used I've had no problems with. The box caps, haven't used them yet, but look good quality.
I've never read anything good about their 3PDT switches, but there is a seller in China that sells them on eBay cheap, and I've used at least 50 of them and never had a problem.
All in all though, I would be lost without Tayda!
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Quote from: stevie1556 on August 06, 2013, 10:10:10 AM
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Me too. I cringe at the idea of shopping back at futurlec / jaycar.... :|
The box film caps are Kemet branded by the way (except for the red/pink colored ones which are wima). Both brands are perfectly fine (from my experience).
Paul
Quote from: chromesphere on August 06, 2013, 12:12:34 AM
I ordered some 1n34a's from them. They looked a little different to the ones i've bought before (a small black band on one side, instead of thick dark green band). Bending one of the leads snapped it off. I wasnt using that much force either. Tried another one, this time even more carefully. Glass cracked. The diode still works, but yeah, the quality is concerning.
I just had this issue. I had a bag of 5 and only one gave any reading on the diode tester. The ones that were dead would shatter with the slightest pressure. I also have some 1n270 and they all tested correctly and were in spec.
Thanks for the heads up. It saved a headache on my orange squeezer.
I had a bag of dead 1n34as as well, most were cloudy and some slightly misshapen.
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Forgot to mention that I got a bad batch of 5v regulators from them a couple years ago. Took me weeks to figure out that I wasn't going moronic with my breadboarding skills.
Has anyone had good 1n34's from them lately? I bought about 50 from them a bit ago and they've all tested/worked fine.
One the side of low quality being a good thing, I got some of their PCB blanks and I've just etched them to do some breakout modules. The board feels pretty cheap but etches fine and it is so much easier to drill than some of the good PCB blanks I have.
Got my order in today. Classic Tayda:
I ordered 1n5 box caps, and instead I got screw-type terminal blocks. ;D
Gotta say, order accuaracy with tayda (for me) has been spot on...i dont think i've ever recieved a component mix up! Would have to be luck...
Order accuracy has always been great for me too..... Until yesterday. My 8n2 caps are 240nFs... Sigh
Only issues I've had are box cap values. Everything else is normally right.
same here. i get what i order every time.
their 1n34as however... got 20 in the last order, all measuring over 2v. 20 in the order before that, half dead half at way over 1v.
i got store credit refund on both without question but i need my germs. :)
-any lead on verified sources for 34a's?
-any use for those high voltage ones or can i just forward them to the thrash can?
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Quote from: chromesphere on August 09, 2013, 12:30:39 AM
Gotta say, order accuaracy with tayda (for me) has been spot on...i dont think i've ever recieved a component mix up! Would have to be luck...
I get some kind of mixup every couple orders. And usually it's waaaaaay off, like what happened yesterday. I prefer that to a mistake is close enough to almost not notice.
I have gotten a few wrong resistor values in the past, but I'd say 95% of parts are correct. For the price, i'm willing to sacrifice the 5%.
Weird, I've never had a single part wrong or missing from Tayda. I'm beginning to wonder if they have multiple spots they ship from. The packages I get have all been shipped to me from one town over, but I'd assumed that they were doing a bulk shipment to there and then they were repacked for local shipment. I'm still guessing that this is what they do, but maybe there's something more involved.
I'm soldering up a distortion this morning, so I had the Ge diodes out and figured I'd test them to see what mine are like. For the 1N34a's, I had about a 4% failure rate with half being dead and the other half having a forward voltage of around 0.9V. Mine were ordered around 4 months ago. I was wondering when the batches of bad diodes were ordered. I'll have to put a few in with my next order from Tayda to see what I get now.
I'm going to have some tayda 1n34a in a couple of weeks, they are back home at the moment. I'll test them and post results here.
George
Rob, what can you do with out-of-spec ones? any part of a circuit they are still good enough for?
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I think midwayfair told in another topic that high Fv germanium diodes were great in overdrives and fuzzes (provided they're actually germanium with high Fv, not Si).
Quote from: croquet hoop on August 09, 2013, 02:59:13 PM
I think midwayfair told in another topic that high Fv germanium diodes were great in overdrives and fuzzes (provided they're actually germanium with high Fv, not Si).
Cool! My broken useless Ge diodes are now "hand selected" distortion beasts.
Seriously though, I need to put these in a breadboard and see how they sound.
If I'm not mistaken a fv of 1-2v is led territory, you might want to try them in some overdrives or distortions if you have sockets.
I haven't really experienced any super bad quality on things. Generally, like people have noted, we know we're buying inexpensive, Chinese manufactured, electronic components. I don't think my expectations have been high, but generally the exceed my expectations.
The stuff I've received from Mammoth has been below my expectations occaisionally, but even they have always tried to make things right. Generally, all the companies I've ordered from have been as good as, or better than expectations.
Jacob
@ch: cool. i socket all my diodes anyways so some experimentation is gonna happen.
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Quote from: gingataff on August 09, 2013, 03:23:21 PM
If I'm not mistaken a fv of 1-2v is led territory
That's correct. So a 1n34a @ 2v is like stringing 3-4 ge's in series I guess.
My biggest concern is WHY the thing is measuring that high? A fracture within the PN junction? I'd hesitant to not even use them incase they start misbehaving. Although you could just keep note that you used one and if the effect starts getting all flakey, swap it out, no big deal.
Same here on the 1n34s. I ordered 50 about a month ago. 15 were dead and the lowest reading from any of the others was .74 they gave me a refund. I used to order quite a bit from them but now it is pretty much TL072s, 1N4001s, and DC jacks.
The only one that even gave a measurement for me came in at an even .5v
Luck, I guess.
The only real mix up I've had is, once I ordered some black stranded wire, and instead they sent green solid core wire. The bonus was, I'd never used solid, really liked it, and have used it ever since.
George
DAG-FLABBIT!! My only 1n34a just shattered as I was putting it into the socket of my orange squeezer.
What hfe do you guys get on their 2n5088s?
Mine all measure about 330 which I think is a bit low isn't it?
They're the ones with a tiny "f" to look like fairchild but it's not the same font.
edit: I just read the datasheet and perhaps that's fine. I do have some other 2n5088s that are about 700 though.
I got 20 or so of them in June, they were all between 495-515 hfe.
edit : forget it, those were not from Tayda, I never actually got 5088s from them.
If Mouser is convenient, you may want to check out their pricing. Last time I ordered 2n5088's, I got them from mouser because they are so inexpensive in bulk.
... that's precisely where these ~500 hfe 5088s come from, by the way.
I need to go to my "box of fail" circuits and recheck all the ones with germanium diodes. Tayda, ....... Argh!
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I just worked with my first sheet of copper clad from Tayda today..... Excellent!
So much easier to work with than some of the others I have used, it's "softer" than any other boards I've used and doesn't seem to eat up my drill bits / razor blades.
I just ordered a bunch more of em.
As a test, I ordered ten 1n34a Ge diodes in my last Tayda order. I got them out this morning and tested them and all ten are within spec and functioning fine. They look identical to the 1n34a's I've ordered from them in the past too. It does make me wonder if they ship from multiple warehouses.
I always order from tayda and everything was fine just one time my alpha pot had a broken off legg i dont know how that happened but the little bit was in the bag so it probably broke off in shipping even thought i dont know how :/ and i remember i order 1n34a and once when i was bending the leggs the diode broke in half and im always careful and once a 1n4001 legg broke off straight away i bearly touched it. All in all nothing weird if you consider how many parts they ship some are bound to be faulty. Im always happy with tayda and i will order again :)
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I've bought thousands of parts from them now and every order has been correct and the only problem I've had with a part was a switch I overheated and one of the terminals pulled out. My last order of almost 1000 parts showed up at my door in under a week too.
Quote from: BuGG on August 12, 2013, 03:00:00 AM
I just worked with my first sheet of copper clad from Tayda today..... Excellent!
So much easier to work with than some of the others I have used, it's "softer" than any other boards I've used and doesn't seem to eat up my drill bits / razor blades.
I just ordered a bunch more of em.
Hey bug, have you had issues with pads lifting? Man, the copper on their FR2 lifts off with no effort. I'm actually not much of a fan of their copper board. Personal preference i guess but i perfer FR4.
Can anyone share their thoughts on the 2n3904s from Tayda? I just used some (socketed) on a wolf computer circuit and they don't sound as good as those in the clone I use to compare it with - one I built years ago with parts (and 3904s) from Small Bear.
Quote from: Beedoola on September 04, 2013, 03:40:34 AM
Can anyone share their thoughts on the 2n3904s from Tayda? I just used some (socketed) on a wolf computer circuit and they don't sound as good as those in the clone I use to compare it with - one I built years ago with parts (and 3904s) from Small Bear.
It could be batch to batch variation.
2n3904 are so cheap and available, I am sure they are real, but it is possible they are slightly out of spec. I've noticed that on some of the FETs I've gotten from Tayda.
I think they just get whatever is cheapest, wherever it comes from.
Quote from: chromesphere on September 02, 2013, 11:13:53 PMHey bug, have you had issues with pads lifting? Man, the copper on their FR2 lifts off with no effort. I'm actually not much of a fan of their copper board. Personal preference i guess but i perfer FR4.
Nope, no foil lifting problems at all. The only issue I've had is a little bit of "blow out" on the opposite side of my PCB when drilling but my bit was getting dull... After replacing it I've had no more problems.
So the boards Tayda sells are FR2? That probably explains why they cut so much easier... I know my previous batch of boards were FR4 and those things ate up my razor blades quick. Overall I'm quite happy with them, in fact just ordered another batch.
Quote from: BuGG on September 04, 2013, 04:19:09 AM
Quote from: chromesphere on September 02, 2013, 11:13:53 PMHey bug, have you had issues with pads lifting? Man, the copper on their FR2 lifts off with no effort. I'm actually not much of a fan of their copper board. Personal preference i guess but i perfer FR4.
Nope, no foil lifting problems at all. The only issue I've had is a little bit of "blow out" on the opposite side of my PCB when drilling but my bit was getting dull... After replacing it I've had no more problems.
So the boards Tayda sells are FR2? That probably explains why they cut so much easier... I know my previous batch of boards were FR4 and those things ate up my razor blades quick. Overall I'm quite happy with them, in fact just ordered another batch.
Yeah i get that blow out as well. That's interesting. I have 3 main issues with the tayda board, 1) blow out 2) pads lift easily (resolder once and their gone) and 3) they snap easy as well, particularly long boards, for obvious reasons.
Maybe i'm just used to FR4 and I'm man handling it. Either way, i did find a use for it recently. Those little smd j201 boards. Couldn't have done it with fr4 because i had to trim them down to a few mm at a time.
Paul