BARGAINS!

[alltrax74]

Just ordered 20 enclosures
Shipping was 40$ to France via China post for a total cost of 82$

[Dave]

Just ordered some of these 1n34a germanium diodes after finding my Tayda ones were all faulty. I know they're more expensive than at Tayda but they're still a pretty decent price I think (around 29p each).
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121107580983?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Thanks
Dave

[GoranP]

Let us know if those work out!

[Vince]

Just nabbed me some of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251010129767?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

[Dave]

Well just this morning received my new germanium diodes! hows that for quick postage! They all work and seem to be on spec between 320-420mv which sounds about right to me.
Thanks
Dave

[ichilton]

Shouldn't 1N34A's be a bit lower than that?

I just remembered I went through and measured one of my batches from Tayda here:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5273.msg81910#msg81910

0.239
0.229
0.227
0.232
0.227
0.238
0.241 (only had a single black band, oddly)
0.247
0.235

[Dave]

I guess they are a little high, hmm not quite sure what to do now.
Thanks
Dave

[ichilton]

Or maybe mine are too low?

[Dave]

I don't know, i'm wondering if it's just the natural variation. The new ones I got are different in appearance to the Tayda ones so perhaps the different batches have slightly different characteristics.
Thanks
Dave

[ichilton]

I've got some at home from ebay, as well as Tayda ones, so i'll have to measure them and see what I get.

In the meantime, i've dropped a message to midwayfair who is a diode/clipping expert :) - he'll know!

Ian

[Dave]

Cool, I look foward to hearing the outcome.
Thanks
Dave

[ichilton]

He said:

Depends on your multimeter. Mine measure like what you got. Someone else might have a multimeter with some internal resistance. Some people say that Atlas meters read germanium as twice as high no matter what they do. Best thing is to just compare them against a silicon ...

[GoranP]

OK, just got 5 1n34a from Tayda. Two black lines, no other markings.

My multimeter at diode setting says 1700 for one of them, higher (obviously more than 2000, value out of range) for all the others.

Crap.

Are they completely useless or can they now be substituted for some other diode?

[Dave]

I dont know, those values seem a good bit higher than any other diodes we use commonly. I wonder if they're going through a big bad batch, Im going to let them know later, might be more effective if others do to if these issues are widespread.
Thanks
Dave

[GoranP]

I found 5 more in my last batch (a month ago), same two stripes, same thing. All 5 over 2V (God knows how high they actually are).
Just for reference, I still have 10 I got from guitarpcb way back, they are single black line and every one of them measures 250-255.

I opened a ticket with Tayda, if it's a bad batch it must be quite a large batch.

[ichilton]

Where do people get the more expensive op-amps (OPA2604, OPA2134, OP275, TLC2272) from? - any bargains around on a small quantity - 5 or 10?

[adstrum]

I've bought some of those more expensive opamps from Tayda. At $2-3 each, they make pretty stark comparison to TL072s at 22c.

[ichilton]

What do you mean by pretty stark? - a lot of difference or not much?

[GoranP]

Well ten times the price seems pretty "stark" to me...

[IvIark]

I didn't think they did them this big, but these make a nice alternative to electros if you want to save a bit of space:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370725909522