You would think in these days it would be a simple task to source something you want to have made. After all, MAKE, the Internet and the world "getting smaller" would have you think that it'd be an easy task. Sometime it is, and sometimes it's like this!
We've been to Hong Kong and China a few times on business (and wow, HK is an amazing place to shop/visit), so we're not amateurs at the whole global-sourcing thing, but we've recently tripped up on a few purchases, and thought I'd share the story, and share some lessons learned.
The Heat Sink: Years ago, we developed the "Compact Motor Driver" breakout board for the L298 IC. It has a strange, breadboard-hostile footprint, and so we made it usable, and it's become a popular product (if not evolved and well-duplicated by others - yay OSHW!). But many of these derivatives use a nice-sized heat-sink that we'd also like to adopt into our design.
It's been a tedious search, finding extrusion & heat-sink manufactures and digging through the datasheets (not the best use of my time, but fun, nonetheless!). Finally, we've been able to locate a few factories by asking makers of the derivatives and found ones in in India (almost exactly 1/2 around the globe), but they're not interested in shipping outside of India. Other candidate manufactures either don't follow up multiple requests, or have dead contact links. Even domestic suppliers like the usually-excellent Aavid Thermalloy has let us down by not having the right footprint, but similar L298 / T0220 heat-sinks are on Ebay, but the lack of accountability and quality-assurance scares us from buying volumes there. They've got to be manufactured somewhere, but finding a source is harder than it seems! The search continues...
Lessons learned in this process:
- Ebay vendors tend to be "department stores". They may have the part you want, but also sell everything from cellphone accessories to lingerie at the same time. Expect low quality-control and low supply reliability. Expect to pay 2 or 3 levels of markup on products from here.
- In addition to "department stores", Globalsources.com & Alibaba.com also attract "representatives", who sell families of similar product. You should be able to find better quality & supply reliability, but not usually at a price savings over Ebay (where you get what you pay for).
- Factory level suppliers are ideal, if you are able to buy the "MOQ" (Minimum Order Quantities) the factory deals with. You won't get a response for a request of 200 pieces; Maybe for 2,000. Prices & quality will be the best, but they'll expect you to know what you're talking about, and will build/deliver precisely to your communications. Can be an expensive learning curve!
The Screwdriver: Ever find a really cool tool, and then not be able to find it again? This is sort of like that. Like all hackers, a quality tool is worth holding onto, and this one came from the toolbox of Mark W. Tilden when he sold it to me as part of his household reduction before moving off to Hong Kong. What a great little device. It's a house-brand MasterCraft (of Canadian Tire, here in Canada). Nice size for holding onto 4-40 bolts with your finger tip with lots of control. Trust me, use it for an hour, and you'll be hooked. I want to share this design with the world, as giveaways, for sale, in kits - whatever. It's that good.
You'd think there would be a tool manufacturer somewhere that has these or a similar version. After fruitless search going through traditional Asian source websites (alibaba.com, globalsources.com), the rapid realization was that this was the place to buy crappy tools. Un-heat-treated tool tips are a dead-giveaway that this won't last longer than your first stuck screw. Continuing the search to several of the prime tool manufactures in North America came back with "Well, we have this one that's sorta the same... but longer. And fatter. But other than that, it's the same thing." Sigh.
The search continues, but there is hope! Thanks to today's MAKE Tool Review, I have hope that indeed quality tools can still be sourced... somewhere!
Lessons learned:
So when you see your favourite vendors featuring something new and cool they've found to resell, keep in mind it isn't as easy as flipping open a catalog and pointing. It often takes surprising effort to find, sample, evaluate, ship, and stock the cool tools & toys!
Solarbotics will be at the Calgary City Teachers' Convention Thursday & Friday, February 16 and 17, 2017. We will demo a variety of educational kits for teachers to use in classrooms, including introductory kits to develop skills in programming, mechanical construction, and soldering. Come put a face to the name at booth 727 at Calgary […]
Time to stock up on Solarcells and Capacitors! Once again, we have our Solarcell Christmas Specials 1 & 2, and our Capacitor Christmas Specials online. Check the "Sale Items" menu pick for details!
We just got the PDF documentation up for the SunSwinger, so you'll see it listed as a resource under the SunSwinger product info page. Hope you all enjoyed April Fool's. The Spazovore was only a partial joke - anybody who ordered one will be receiving one!
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.