Have you noticed any easing of the chip shortage?

[Doctorandus_P]

I had been waiting for about a year to buy a new PC locally.
I refuse to buy either intel (because of their anti-competitive behavior) or Nvidia (hostile to open source), so AMD is pretty much the only option for me for a "mainstream" pc.
For quite a long time it was nearly impossible to buy the parts for a PC (I can't buy a complete PC because I don't wand windoze)

I bought the parts for a new PC in December 2021, and a Ryzen 5600G was pretty much the only affordable option, and to be fair, it is also quite near my ideal price / performance compromise.
Already in December I had noticed prices of the AMD processors was coming down a bit. Prices from November to now (2022-04) are pretty much stable for AMD processors. I think they peaked in the summer. AMD mostly focused on the top processors during the shortage.  In February and March some budged processors from AMD were available again. I just checked two local stores and those budget processors have seemed to dry up again. This may be because of a new processor line instead of the shortage though. I don't know. I'm not an "AMD fanboy", I just have a vehemently dislike for intel.

Affordable AMD video cards have been completely unobtanium for a year or more. Recently there were times that you could only buy two or three models, and only for completely absurd prices (> EUR1500). This was only partly because the shortage, Those things have been popular for the coin mining craze for a while. This seems to have cooled down. At the moment I could buy an AMD video card again. There is plenty of stock (70+ models) and prices start around EUR 200 for a decent video card.

Main boards, memory and SSD's do not seem to have been affected much.

In the microcontroller world the picture apparently looks differently.
I think the shortages are only getting worse there.
It looks like people are forced to buy any microcontroller they can get their hands on and just make do with how to get some firmware into it.

[Andrew1588]

This problem has been going on for a long time, and I always keep in touch with multiple suppliers to maintain inventory stability, but the purchase cost is high.

[Nortek-Chris]

Its not just a Chip Shortage any more though is it!. Now getting lead times of 12+ months on some higher wattage Zener Diodes, had my first 2024 delivery date (due to allocation) on a Diodes inc part and Panasonic Electrolytic caps seem to be out of stock everywhere. Even bog standard 74HCT165 IC's seem to be fetching five times their usual price from Distribution - if you can find stock.

T.I also now seem to have stopped even giving anticipated w/c delivery dates now - just using the "Out of Stock" flag on a lot of their lines.

[Kean]

I've been trying to get some black nylon M4 thumb nuts for a client, a very specific part from Essentra.  I can get them in white, but the client really wants black.
Several suppliers have been trying to get me some since September 2021, giving all the standard excuses.  I ended up just putting in a backorder with Mouser, and ETA is early July 2022.
As a solution I designed an even more suitable part and get them 3D printed in black nylon by JLCPCB, but they cost a couple of dollars each getting them that way (no bulk discounts).

[Mangozac]

Its not just a Chip Shortage any more though is it!. Now getting lead times of 12+ months on some higher wattage Zener Diodes, had my first 2024 delivery date (due to allocation) on a Diodes inc part and Panasonic Electrolytic caps seem to be out of stock everywhere. Even bog standard 74HCT165 IC's seem to be fetching five times their usual price from Distribution - if you can find stock.

T.I also now seem to have stopped even giving anticipated w/c delivery dates now - just using the "Out of Stock" flag on a lot of their lines.

Yes I've noticed all of these too. Even 12 month TI backorders through Digikey aren't safe from further delays.

[IanJ]

LCDs are a new issue for me. I could find stock the past couple of years, but as of a few weeks ago its a nightmare. End of year apparently.

[IconicPCB]

Kean,

Try

https://www.npa.com.au/

They may have what you need.

[Kean]

@IconicPCB

Thanks, I've been dealing with NPA from the beginning, and even Essentra Australia - both have been helpful, but neither can get the black nylon parts for me (only white).

Raw material shortages, staff shortages, and a general backlog of work, all seem to have meant other parts/customers are getting priority.

[twospoons]

Its hitting passives now too. Went looking for a 47uF 35V electrolytic SMD - out of about 35 possibles at digikey there was only one in stock!
We're spending more and more time scrambling for substitutes, with the purchasing dept grabbing whatever they can get.

[FrankBuss]

I think it is getting worse. Got a few jobs from clients who need redesigns of microcontroller circuits I've developed for them. For example with Attiny, first idea was PIC, but also not available, which would be unheard if a few years ago. Now using a Padauk chip. And replacing a MSP430 with a Nuvonik chip. Looks like some of the lesser known far east chips are more likely to be available.

[mikehaider]

No, I have been in a disgusting cycle of looking for alternatives, rebuilding and modifying plans, and looking for electronic component channels. F*** chip scammer

[tonyjacksonw]

There is still a shortage, and the product production cycle has been extended by 2 weeks.

[Andrew1588]

No. And I've noticed that my usual transistor are out of stock.
If you check distributors page, 60% of the ICs are out of stock.

The cost of obtaining electronic components from China is now several times higher than before

[Mangozac]

I just had a new personal record: RS485 transceivers from TI with a lead time of 84 weeks :O

[Psi]

Most of the shortages I have been able to work around. Really annoying but not a deal breaker.

But the STM mcu shortage has left one product dead once we sell all our current stock.
Thankful it's not a huge seller and we have some chips left. Will probably run out this year though.

I may have to port the code to some other MCU, however that would be quite a mission considering how dependent it is on the STM32 timers.  Will probably just accept the loss of sales and wait for more stock to eventually come.

[SilverSolder]

I think it is getting worse. Got a few jobs from clients who need redesigns of microcontroller circuits I've developed for them. For example with Attiny, first idea was PIC, but also not available, which would be unheard if a few years ago. Now using a Padauk chip. And replacing a MSP430 with a Nuvonik chip. Looks like some of the lesser known far east chips are more likely to be available.

Are Padauk and other unfamiliar brands a good alternative?  Any issues?

Are there alternatives for passive components as well?

[mikeselectricstuff]

I just had a new personal record: RS485 transceivers from TI with a lead time of 84 weeks :O

I've found substitutes for a few general-purpose parts like that at LCSC, as well as for dual MOSFETS in SOT23-6 and SO8
Can be a bit of a trek finding them due to poor parametric search.
e.g. this sub for my normal ST3485
https://lcsc.com/product-detail/RS-span-style-background-color-ff0-485-span-RS-422-ICs_span-style-background-color-ff0-SIT-span-SIT3485ESA_C313015.html

[FrankBuss]

Are Padauk and other unfamiliar brands a good alternative?  Any issues?

The documentation of the Padauk parts is not as good as e.g. for Microchip, and sometimes there are problems, as I described here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/timer16-problem-with-pms150c/
But in general, there are no problems once the firmware runs. Another problem is the unusual custom language which they use, but there is a pretty advanced port of SDCC to program them C.

I have a client who uses it in larger quantities, and no problems so far in the field. A bigger project I did for him was this, using the PWM feature to implement a soft fade-in and fade-out and some patterns, and soft-off/on, with a high frequency to avoid any flickering:

[dietert1]

Concerning STM32 i had the impression that cheap Cortex M0 and M0+ parts may never come back and that we should use STM32L4x or STM32U5x parts instead. Some days ago i saw that digikey or mouser had 1500 STM32U575 on stack.

Regards, Dieter

[AndyC_772]

It is rather odd that there's stock out there of brand new devices - presumably just because nobody has designed them into any products yet. It feels misguided somehow.

I wish instead that they'd concentrate production efforts on existing parts, and put the new stuff on hold for now. Reading about how excited they are about some fancy new product, when I still can't buy the STM32F4xx parts I so desperately need, is immensely frustrating.

[voltsandjolts]

^^ totally agree.

Browse the ST website and you would think everything was just fine and dandy.
Erm, hello, we are in the shit here, WTF are you doing about it?

I wish they would come out and say 'we are focusing on production of one micro e.g. STM32F4xxxx for shipments to distributors, and commit to keeping it in stock'. At least it would be something to focus on.

[jonpaul]

Bonjour à tous in  recent months , Severe worsening of stock and lead time of passiv, transformers, EMI filters céramique MLC capacité.

Decades ago the Japanese manufacturers offshore factories too China

The Covid-19 Zeero policy of Mr Xi locked down Shinzen, thus lead times pushing from 16...48 weeks out  to 2023...2024.

Next shortages will be power supplies, and EMI filters

Bon courage


Jon

[tszaboo]

It is rather odd that there's stock out there of brand new devices - presumably just because nobody has designed them into any products yet. It feels misguided somehow.

I wish instead that they'd concentrate production efforts on existing parts, and put the new stuff on hold for now. Reading about how excited they are about some fancy new product, when I still can't buy the STM32F4xx parts I so desperately need, is immensely frustrating.

ST has multiple manufacturing sites, TSMC, Samsung, but also smaller ones in the EU, that they own. I think they don't get the capacity in the far east. At least someone with insider info was hinting me something like this. For example their wireless microcontrollers are all made here, and they are supposed to be better stocked.

[Psi]

Concerning STM32 i had the impression that cheap Cortex M0 and M0+ parts may never come back and that we should use STM32L4x or STM32U5x parts instead. Some days ago i saw that digikey or mouser had 1500 STM32U575 on stack.

Sadly STM32F042 is the one im after.

[Keith956]

Might not have reached hobbyists but there are signs that inventory is growing: https://www-theregister-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.theregister.com/AMP/2022/05/26/sharp_chip_inventory_correction_looms/