Supply chain worries for hobbyists

[bitman]

I doubt anyone here aren't aware of how long/uncertain the electronic supply-chain is. And I certainly do not envy those who work in the EE industry sourcing components for products/services they sell. I don't know how you do it - because me as a simple clueless hobbyist is getting closer to the edge of "perhaps I need to do something else". It's impossible for me to find even jelly-bean components that's been around for 30-40 years or more. I just spent way too much time to find a simple DC -> DC switching IC, to take me away from using LDOs and "upgrade my knowledge". But there's NOTHING in stock! I can find some units that barely allow for a few voltage boost (right now I need to do a boost converter), and the dumb lambs that require me to boost voltage want 24v and very few mA. That's a zero sum game on Digikey right now, and if I lower my criteria to 12V output I get one chip at around $5.50 a piece - availability? 48 total units - pretty sure that even if I was willing to pay that much they would be sold out before I hit "order".

None of what I need to do is critical - it's just a hobby. But after struggling with this for hours and giving up for now (tried mouser and other sites too - no luck) - I started feeling sympathy and wondering how those of you who do this for a living "do it". How do you plan/survive making products with 50-80 weeks of lead time? And I cannot imagine what availability looks like if you have more rare stuff. Price-point being one thing, but availability is really getting to me. When I started my hobby I never checked the "in stock" option - it typically had tens of thousands in stock of the jelly-bean stuff I wanted to get. This year in particular it's been hard to find components for even simple projects. So how do the rest of you do this?

My experience with ebay is mixed and experience ordering direct from China is worse, so I must state I filter out direct sources like that on purpose.  I know I'm handicapped as I'm not smart enough to always judge if one component is a good substitute for another, but even when I use DigiKey's suggestions for alternatives, I see "0 in stock". Perhaps there are sources out there I don't know about that allows me to get my 5 ICs for a hobby project still?

[ledtester]

fwiw, Mouser has the tps6734ip in stock. Sites like octopart.com and findchips.com can help you search multiple distributors at once.

[RJSV]

Wait a sec. that's in U.S. right ?
  Can't you just tune in 'The News' each night ?
Each night, brows furrowed, announcers are distressed but apparently, recent disruptions are nothing, compared to uh,...better if you go look, for any real concern.
   A couple of news outlets explained: We (U.S.) VOTED for this.  Everything fine, (better save your cash, at $60 a bag (admittedly a heavy) bag of groceries, uh, maybe.

[mariush]

How much current? You say very few mA  but what does that mean?

The jellybean 34063, or the 33063 can probably do 24v if powered from 5v or something like that, and Digikey has nearly 500k of them : https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/diodes-incorporated/AZ34063UMTR-G1/4471007

There's 260k pieces of AP3012 in stock, a 1.5 mhz step-up regulator advertising up to 29v output voltage : https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/diodes-incorporated/AP3012KTR-G1/4470846
The datasheet even has on page  9,  an example circuit 5v to 24v ... Figure 12. LCD/OLED Display Bias Driver Typical Circuit
in another part of the datasheet there's a graph showing 80%-ish efficiency at 30mA with 5v 24v out so at least 30mA out is possible... minimum  input voltage is 2.6v

50 cents each, 27 cents if you get 100

AP3015 is also stocked, 65k pieces, lower output current but can go up to 34v and min 1.2v input voltage: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/diodes-incorporated/AP3015AKTR-G1/4470848
Can probably do 20mA or more with 3v+ input