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Ask HN: eBay alternatives for computers, embedded components, and tools

31 points by Dracophoenix ↗ HN
Amazon, NewEgg, Best Buy and Microcenter offer many options for PC-building components. But what stores currently provide FPGAs and soldering stations for the hobbyist for cheap outside of academic supply companies?

19 comments

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reginold
Would love to hear responses here. Thoughts...are Adafruit or Digikey what you're looking for?
juice_bus
I'm not sure about "cheap" but Mouser would be another to add to this list.
Dracophoenix
I should have specified, but by cheap I mean comparable to Radioshack prices in the store's better days.
[dead] threshold
None. eBay for its many faults, is the single place you can acquire advanced technologies on a budget. The commercial products the stores you listed provide, at a crushing markup, don’t compare to what can be had at auction. Of course if you’re paying top dollar sometimes it’s better to go to Amazon with their very liberal return policies. But when you want to maximize value for money, eBay.
imachine1980_
idk if you want a yellow page, craigslist, or eBay(this type of site have web effects meaning if you don't know probably don't exist), and probably what I THINK YOU SEARCH (at least in Argentina) happens in fb marketplace and parts exchange groups(idk to much people using fb outside of this) probably search a group of hobby who focus on that, communities selling "garbage electronics for cheap" and "hacking space like" who can help you sometimes in exchange for money or share passion, i wish this be helpful if not sorry.
cassianoleal
Mouser Electronics and RS Electronics are 2 that I have used for 3D printing electronics parts, soldering and all that stuff. They might have what you're looking for.
Giorgi
I don't think anything can beat eBay. Especially if you are looking for second-hand, used, or refurbished tools/devices.
AussieWog93
Digi-Key, Element14 (Farnell), RS Components and Mouser are all big suppliers that offer reasonably priced components in any volume you want. They're widely used by professional engineers for both retail and wholesale orders, as well as BOM cost estimates.

Octopart lets you compare prices across all of them (and more).

For components that you can tolerate the occasional issue with, AliExpress is also a plausible option.

Specifically for tinkering with FPGAs, I'd recommend looking into Numato. They're a small-ish business based out of India that produce cheap and cheerful FPGA boards. The products are well-made and support is great.

For the soldering station, I'd recommend just Googling "Hakko FX-888" and ponying up the US$100 or so to get one from a reputable supplier. There are cheaper products such as the YiHua 936 you can get for, say, $30 that seem similar to the Hakko on the surface, but all of them will break within 2 years while the Hakko will last many decades. If you're just getting started and don't want to drop $100, just stick to the $10 40W pencil irons and you'll be fine.

Whatever route you go, make sure to get good solder (e.g. Multicore). I used cheap DealExtreme solder for repairs back in the day, and after a couple of years all of the joints cracked and I had to re-do them. Some of the stuff had been repaired for friends and I'm sure at least some of it was binned. If you're strapped for cash, I would seriously recommend buying a cheaper soldering iron in order to get good solder.

Final thing, if you're looking for a cheap oscilloscope for getting started, check out EspoTek (disclaimer: I own the business). It's cheap and cheerful, and designed for newbies just getting into the hobby. A lot of effort has been put into the product, and it's still (semi) actively maintained on GitHub.

https://espotek.com/labrador.

Dracophoenix
>Specifically for tinkering with FPGAs, I'd recommend looking into Numato. They're a small-ish business based out of India that produce cheap and cheerful FPGA boards. The products are well-made and support is great.

How comparable are they in power and featureset to chips from Xilinx and Altera?

>Whatever route you go, make sure to get good solder (e.g. Multicore).

With or without lead?

>Final thing, if you're looking for a cheap oscilloscope for getting started, check out EspoTek (disclaimer: I own the business). It's cheap and cheerful, and designed for newbies just getting into the hobby. A lot of effort has been put into the product, and it's still (semi) actively maintained on GitHub. https://espotek.com/labrador.

I'll be sure to consider it!

detaro
They don't make their own FPGAs, they make boards with Xilinx and Altera/Intel chips.
rameshs
Thank you for developing Labrador! I was searching for a cheap pc connected oscilloscope. Nothing i could find was of the expected quality. Labrador checks all boxes for me. Will get one shortly.
hakfoo
Don't knock the Yihua. I've had mine for a few years, replaced the tip a couple times when it gets too scrungy, but it's been adequate for a modest volume of through-hole work (a few keyboards, recapping a couple stereo recievers, etc.)

Temperature control-- even in a rudimentary analogue way-- is a huge win over the $10 pencil irons. It's nice to know when you're up to temperature, and that it's not at a pad-lifting level.

You might also be able to find a local vendor. I tend to be fond of Circuit Specialists (circuitspecialists.com) because, pre-COVID, they were within driving distance so you didn't have to spend postage when you wanted $1.50 worth of LEDs. They're mail-order only right now, but you might have a similar vendor in your town. They have a lot of soldering products, some of which look suspiciously like rebadged Yihua gear.

AussieWog93
Perhaps I use my gear more heavily than most! I chewed through both a YiHua and a Duratech over the course of 5 years before dropping the coin on the Hakko.
GhettoComputers
Do you need multiple soldering stations? Why not just get one good one? Pine64 has a programmable soldering iron. Aliepress is great, the search just sucks!
sobkas
I always liked tme.eu