400 PIECE 7400 LOGIC SERIES GRAB BAG

[IonizedGears]

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_135280_-1

Is it too good to be true? As in has anybody ordered this before and if so would the chips be DOA due to them being rejects and such?

[Lightages]

I would guess that is just to get rid of old and obsolete stock that nobody wants. This stuff is old technology that nobody would design with anymore. The price seems high to me actually.

[c4757p]

There are a handful of 7400s that still get used, like 'HC595. I bet these are mostly useless ones that nobody wants.

[poorchava]

I keep a healthy stock of 7414, 74595, 74244, + also or and and gates (7432 and 7408 irrc). They always come in handy.

[dfmischler]

Wouldn't it suck to get 400 7400's (quad 2-input NAND gates)?

[robrenz]

Wouldn't it suck to get 400 7400's (quad 2-input NAND gates)?

At least if you get stuck with them you could technically   build up anything else you need.

[AndyC_772]

Quite an expensive way to lay an unusual gravel driveway IMHO... that's about all that a bag of random assorted parts is good for. Buy the parts you actually need as and when you need them, there's no point at all in having a big bag of scrap components taking up space. Space is valuable, junk parts aren't.

[edavid]

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_135280_-1

Is it too good to be true? As in has anybody ordered this before and if so would the chips be DOA due to them being rejects and such?

It's what it says it is... Jameco doesn't sell rejects or junk, and they stand behind what they sell.  As the other posters said, it may or may not be a good deal.  It doesn't cost very much to buy the chips you actually want, instead of a random assortment.

[c4757p]

Wouldn't it suck to get 400 7400's (quad 2-input NAND gates)?

I actually find them rather useful as a generic stock part for one-off projects. For example, I'm working on a frequency counter, and I need to be able to select between two 10 MHz clocks (internal and external reference input). One NAND got its inputs tied together to make an inverter, this became the crystal oscillator. Another was biased in a similar way to give the input amplifier for the external reference signal, a third buffered this to give a clean digital output, and then two more implemented the logic to select between clocks. One more cleaned up the clock select signal coming in from an optocoupler (isolated reference clock input, transformer-coupled). All for the price of two 74HC00 and a handful of passives.

Sure, a few transistors could have done the job cheaper, but the great thing about digital logic is that at low speeds, it just works. No computing bias resistors, I didn't even have to test it (except for the two that were biased into an analog mode, and even then I didn't have any doubt that it would work). Perfect for when you want a circuit in five minutes.

[fpliuzzi]

Of course, each Jameco grab-bag will have a different assortment of logic chips, but this may give you some idea of what you might get. Listed below are the ones that I received when I bought a similiar (maybe 200 piece) Jameco grab-bag a couple of years ago (they included a few of each component number).

SN74ALS29821NT
74F3037N
74ALS1032AN
SN74AS646NT
74LS541N
74F534N
74LS374N, 74AS374N, 74S374N
74F352N
74LS273N
74LS245, 74F245
74HCT244N, 74LS244N
74LS174P, 74LS174N
74LS173AN
74LS166AN
74LS163AN
74LS160AN
74F158AN
74HCT157E, 74ALS157AN
74LS139N
74LS138N, 74ALS138N
74LS125AN, 74LS125AB1
74LS107AN
74LS93N
74LS90N, 74LS90P
74LS86N
74LS74AN
74LS32N, 74ALS32N
74LS132N
74F14N
74HC10N
74LS09N
SN7407N
74LS04N
DM7400N

I'll leave it up to others to judge their actual usefulness.

Regards,
Frank

p.s. Producing the above list was quick since luckily I already had the components sorted into anti-static bags with large easy to read labels on them.

[ben_r_]

Yea who knows what youd get and if it would even be worth getting. Not to mention just thinking about sorting through all those and organizing them so I can actually see what Ive got and find them again just sounds like a headache to me.

[buck converter]

I think i would be a great way for a beginner such as myself to mess around with old school logic.

[Zero999]

I think i would be a great way for a beginner such as myself to mess around with old school logic.

The trouble is, you don't know what you're going to get and it's not even cheap. You're better off spending the same amount of money, on a smaller number of parts, which you know you'll use.

[rstofer]

So, they're 11 cents per chip.  Of course it's a good deal!

The thing is, what to do with them.  Unless you plan to do a massive wire-wrap project, they are probably worthless.  Back in the day, long before FPGAs, I played around quite a bit with TTL.  But I'm not going to do it today.  Wire-wrap is boring!

If you really plan to do some major TTL project, this bag will get you started no matter what it contains.  Other than that, I think the world has moved on.

Digital design is being done with FPGAs.  I can get the equivalent of a million logic gates in an hobby grade FPGA and it runs pretty fast (50 - 100 MHz, easily).

[StillTrying]

As the 1st post is from 4 years ago, I think they might have sold out by now.

[Ian.M]

As the 1st post is from 4 years ago, I think they might have sold out by now.

Apparently not.  The link is still good and  it says: "* Availability:  Ships Today"

However, the only way it makes sense is if Jameco use it to clear over-stock so chances are, the bulk of it is less popular logic chips.   I'd guesstimate that the average user will only find 10% (or maybe even less) of the chips useful, which pushes the cost per chip up to around $1.13.

[jmelson]

Wouldn't it suck to get 400 7400's (quad 2-input NAND gates)?

No, you could build a whole computer out of just those.  Somebody DID build a whole computer (except memory) entirely out of one type of gate -  I can't remember if it was all NAND or NOR gates.

(The IBM 360's were essentially done that way, too, although with discrete transistors.)

Jon

[Brumby]

That grab bag wouldn't interest me - for reasons that have already been expressed.  You don't know what you will get and it's not a cheap purchase.

I can see a beginner being tempted - but you would then be chasing circuits that would utilise the chips you got.

Far better to chase chips for a circuit you want to build.