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Is Electronics Worth It Any More?
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Wilksey:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on March 29, 2022, 12:27:01 pm ---
--- Quote from: Wilksey on March 29, 2022, 11:34:59 am ---I do wonder if it will ever get back on track again or if something else will come along and cause more hassle, when I was in college many moons back I had to design a small amplifier board for my final project, no idea what you have to design now maybe it is free choice, but the company I work for is having a hard time getting PICs and AVRs lead times on some parts are over a year with customers wanting their devices by mid April, it is almost a case of design around the parts you can get and buy everything you can whilst available, but long standing legacy products that are still being built are up the creak without a paddle.

And as I have said in my original post the cost of components have astronomically grown in a few years, just makes hobby stuff and low volume in most cases unviable, at least with a decent margin on.  A 2x16 LCD that I used to buy was £3 odd postage included, now the cheapest I can get the same display is £12.99 + £2 postage, it's cheaper to buy a "module" from China and get the LCD than it is to buy an LCD, whilst this has been true for some parts in the past (MAX LED driver) it has never been the case for LCDs (not for me anyway).

--- End quote ---
You must be joking. Parts are much cheaper than when I started 30 years ago. I remember seeing red LEDs for £1 for a packet of 2, plain old BJTs for £0.79 each, jellybean ICs such as the 555 timer or 741 for £1 each, electret microphone capsules for £2.50 each, at my local Tandy. Nowadays I can buy red LEDs for £0.32 each, a 555 for £0.43 each, even from RS Components. They're cheaper in larger quantities, even less from ebay.

--- End quote ---

I am certainly not joking, I am not talking 30 years ago I am talking 2 or 3, yes parts and PCB's and such were very expensive, Tandy are no more, Maplin are no more (local shops anyway), RS components are of no use unless you get free postage or have a trade counter near you which I do not, my particular case was shopping on eBay.
Kasper:
Is it worth it? I think it depends on what your other options are.
EEVblog:

--- Quote from: Wilksey on March 28, 2022, 10:25:10 pm ---A friend of mine was looking for a storage unit, worked out it'd be cheaper to rent a house and use that as storage than a warehouse, yet a lot of these warehouses have been derelict for years.

--- End quote ---

Woah, where is this?
I've looked at the economics of buying a commercial office vs a house, but no way that would work around here for storage.

Wilksey:
UK, a storage unit - bearing in mind you have to pay business rates etc costed at the time around £1500 a month (excl business rates / tax etc) for not that much space, I don't recall the sq/ft but a 3 bedroom large house within 1 mile of the industrial estate was (at the time) £1200 a month, it just seemed very bizarre, with a house as is it is very divided in space however.

An ex colleague of mine used to work out of a converted house in the middle of Bristol for a number of years, it was converted into a workshop / offices etc, when the CEO sold up he converted it back into a house and sold it, he stated that it was cheaper to buy a house than an actual workshop at the time, and that was around 2002 ish, he retired in 2016 so they had it a good few years, before the house the owner had a large portacabin on a farm which belonged to a friend of his, the farmer's wife died, he couldn't keep it going and sold the farm and the new owners gave him notice to move on.  There are also people who I know who have said that the killer isn't the rent but the business rates, no idea how they calculate it but one building can be 2 x more than another just because of location, same size etc.
strawberry:
parts got ~30% more expensive than year prior . and shipping as well. MCUs and other fun farts out of stock. carbon resistors and stuff still available in any value/size.
maybe market will normalize and adopt to new prices and stuff.
maybe not , "You will own nothing and you will be happy." who knows


--- Quote from: EEVblog on March 30, 2022, 06:43:20 am ---
--- Quote from: Wilksey on March 28, 2022, 10:25:10 pm ---A friend of mine was looking for a storage unit, worked out it'd be cheaper to rent a house and use that as storage than a warehouse, yet a lot of these warehouses have been derelict for years.

--- End quote ---

Woah, where is this?
I've looked at the economics of buying a commercial office vs a house, but no way that would work around here for storage.



--- End quote ---
chinese people/cartels/opportunists already figured out how to convert house in australia,usa... to transport hub for exporting 3M masks , baby food , ...
houses packet top-bottom with narrow hallways
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