Texas Instruments free samples

[Madferret]

Just a quick heads up to everyone that Texas Instruments offer a free sample service if you register an account with them.  I saw this a while back and requested a couple of chips just for a laugh but having just bought a microphone I was looking into designs for a mic preamp and a popular one is based around the INA217 chip from TI.  The chips seemed to be crazy prices on ebay and Farnell were selling them for around £6.  Seeing as they were made by TI I checked their site and they were offering samples of the chip and the op amp that accompanied it in the pre amp design.  I got 3 of the INA217s, 3 OPA137, 3 OPA1013 and 3 OPA2107, I ordered them on Monday night and they came this morning delivered by a courier.  All for free.  I wouldn't want to abuse this service but seeing as I go through some TI chips I don't feel too guilty and it beats paying over the odds for some of the more unusual chips out there.

Here's the site: http://www.ti.com/

[Geiri]

Woah nice find! Hey one free opamp is one free opamp. It's not like they're loosing anything by giving a few samples.

Cheers!

[Madferret]

The invoice included in the pack came to $48 and then just had it minused off as 'samples'.  Winner!

[Geiri]

I made a sample order myself of a few opamps. This is awesome!

[Madferret]

The thing that shocked me was that they post the things international next day delivery, it really is an amazing service.

[Geiri]

Yeah I agree!

[PStevenson]

they often send me samples for my stripboard site paulinthelab.com I spoke to one of their salespeople a while back and they explained how they don't mind sending out free samples to hobbyists which is really good practice because when you design in a chip into a little open source project potentially many people will get one offs. they are a great company AD used to send samples but don't now and Linear Technology do aswell however their ICs are quite specialized so you kind of need to know what you want with them. talking of the INA217 - there is a stripboard layout for a microphone Preamp here PREAMP

[Madferret]

Thanks for the link Paul, it's pretty similar to what I had in mind, did you adapt it from the circuit on the datasheet?  Nice sounding demo too!

[PStevenson]

I did yes but it went through a few layouts because there were issues with stripboard resistance which gave me issues with the balanced input.

there is also a second iteration of the preamp which is in the works and is abit more like a full preamp - stepped gain switch - all that kind of crap
I want to make that a dual output line and isolated balanced.

[Madferret]

That sounds pretty cool, I think I'll give the V1 a shot and as and when you put up V2 I'll take a look at it.  I don't really need anything too complex as it's only for recording a few things to mess about with at home.  I recently bought a SM57 after years of never having done any live recording but I'm finding that just plugging it straight into the soundcard doesn't really cut it, hence the recent interest in building a preamp.  Cheers for all the info, it's really appreciated.

[JaviCAP]

Wow, ordered on Sunday evening, and received the samples today early morning! LM384, TLC272, TLC274, LM358 and schotky bridge recifiers.

These people is just incredible. Not that these IC's are difficult to get or very expensive (bill was $14), but is a great way to try different IC's, and I'm getting very interested in rail to rail op amps.

Absolutely a must :)