Tayda's germanium diodes

[Dave]

Hey all.
Spent an hour and half wondering why on earth my harmonic jerculator prototype wasnt working properly earlier, eventually got around to testing the germanium clipping diodes I used in it (1n34a) and nothing, they weren't working. I then tested the rest of them in the batch I ordered recently (20 diodes) and guess how many worked....Thats right, not one! One of them gave a forward voltage of ~900mv which is clearly way of what it should be (~300), the rest of them didn't give a measurement, man I'm angry. Got to order a bunch more now, might see if I can get a refund for them. Anyone else had this experience?
Thanks
Dave

[GoranP]

Not really... I have 1n34a in a few of my builds and never had any issues with them.
Now that you mention it, I'll probably check the ones I have left just to make sure...

Thanks!

[Madferret]

Send me an email Dave, I've got a few hundred 1n34a's so I'll happily send you some over so you can get your prototype up and running.

[Dave]

Hi Mf,
Thanks for the very kind offer mate but I just ordered 20 from ebay so no worries. Thanks anyway though, out of curiosity, where do you get yours?
Thanks
Dave

[johnk]

bummer! I just ordered 50 of them from tayda yesterday.
I bought 50 of them from a  different seller on ebay and not a single one worked! (I tested all 50 on my fluke 87 MKV and in two fuzz pedals). I got a refund from the ebay seller but was still pretty disappointed.

I also ordered 20 of them from a seller in the USA on ebay that are pre-tested and are made telefunken so I at least know that those ones will be good.

[ichilton]

Odd - the ones i've had and used/tested from Tayda have been fine.

I might do a bit of testing of ones in my box to double check they are ok.

It doesn't help when you need the parts for a build, but Tayda are good at giving credit to your account if you e-mail them about faulty/missing parts.

Ian

[Madferret]

I bought them from a seller on Ali Express, they're just generic 1n34a diodes but I've used them in a few pedals without problems. I've not done any extensive tests on them but I figure if they sound good there can't be too much wrong with them.  They were dirt cheap too, I think they worked out at a penny each.

[Yehudi]

After this post I decided to test my last order from tayda (just 10) - Results: 1 dead and 1 reading 800 (wich is not right for theese).

[johnk]

how are the other 8?

[JaviCAP]

I have never purchased 1n34a's  at Tayda, for two reason:

--I've read many complains from many different sources that their 1N34a's are faulty and  that they're not real germanium diodes.

-- Their price is pretty high. You can get real 1n34a's  working  fine at about  15 euro cents  and less. Last batch I purchased was something like 50 units= 6 euros or something like this.


On the other hand, I still have a bunch of AA143 that have showed really great in all the builds where have been used.

So, IMO, get your 1N34's at some other place, you'll save money and avoid problems.

BR

[GoranP]

Do you still have a seller name?

[Yehudi]

The other 8 turned out readings between 284 and 320! I never used to check diodes when building (don't know why, since I allways double check everything). Live and learn.

[ichilton]

Wonder if these will be any good.... they are listed as Panasonic!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260964809138

Ian

[GoranP]

I wonder whether that's an actual picture... if it is, it looks exactly as the ones from Tayda that don't work.

Barry's ones (ones that work) had one thick black line at the very end.

[GoranP]

I just received info from Tayda regarding my 10 faulty 1n34a's... They are very sorry that sometimes things get broken in transit and offered $3 refund on Paypal or $6 in store credit. Since I do bulk of my shopping at Tayda anyways, that's 12 pots right there...

[Dave]

I just received the same reply, also took the $6 store cred. Funny how they said they were damaged in transit, I doubt that was the case....
Thanks
Dave

[ichilton]

After this thread, I sat down last night and went back and tested a load in my pot.

Oddly, I found that the Tayda ones seemed good - I found two dead ones, but the others I tested from a few different batches of 10 I bought, were all in the 200's on the multimeter.

It was the ones i'd bought from ebay which were suspect and read 600-800...

Ian

[johnk]

just got my tayda order with the 50 1N34A's in it today. I tested all 50 of them with my fluke 87 MKV. 40 of them tested 'open' and the other 10 of them had way too high of a forward voltage (.780-.880V) so all of them are useless.  good/normal 1N34A's normally test within the .300-.340V range.

my suggestion, don't bother buying 1N34A's from Tayda!

[GoranP]

I just ordered 50 from some ebay place. Will report once they show up.

[Torpy10]

Hi,
I've been trying to make the suped-up Dist + for about 3 months now.
Ordered 10, 1n34a's - 9 x were o/circuit , 1 x 0.78v, no good .these had only the red stripes.From Australia.....no worries,got my money back.

Ordered 10 more from US on ebay ,they had the green stripes.....havent heard back from seller after 4 weeks. I sent them a nice message,"hi have you recieved payment etc. " no reply,took money...gone.

This may be a classic simple circuit but its the hardest stompbox I've attempted so far.