| Electronics > Manufacturing & Assembly |
| Product manufacture in England! :) |
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| Zero999:
What suppliers do you have in Zimbabwe? Is it the same as the UK? Can you pop down Maplins, if you're run out of something you need now? |
| Kibi:
--- Quote from: Hero999 on August 04, 2011, 08:27:44 pm ---What suppliers do you have in Zimbabwe? Is it the same as the UK? Can you pop down Maplins, if you're run out of something you need now? --- End quote --- Until the early 90's it was really bad. There were a few electrical shops that sold 741's and 555 timers, but that was about it. Anything fancy like a CMOS or TTL logic IC had to be scavenged from old boards or wait until relatives came over from abroad. I had loads of old boards in my lab when I was a kid and got very good at de-soldering. In the early 90's a proper electronics component supplier opened. He stocked what seemed like everything. He had resistors, capacitors, loads of discreet semiconductors and all sorts of IC's. You could buy everything you needed to etch your own PCB's which was a quantum leap! He even had tools for electronics, soldering irons, proper solder and test gear. He didn't sell gadgets like Maplin do, just components. If there was something he didn't have, he'd be able to get it in for you. His shop was always very busy, within a year of opening, he had to move to bigger premises. It was a dream come true and the prices were very reasonable. When I left Zim, a few other independent suppliers had sprung up, but I havn't been back there for almost 8 years, so I don't know what the status is now. The severe state of the economy would affect electronics suppliers like that in one of two ways. 1) They could thrive even better as more people get things repaired rather than buy new ones or 2) the severe rises in import duty and extreme devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar would put them out of business. I hope they didn't go out of business and things are much better now that Zimbabwe has adopted the $US. |
| logictom:
There was a series on the BBC a few weeks ago, Made in Britain with Evan Davis. I watched it because they visit Arm in the second episode, was pretty good |
| Zero999:
Yes, I saw that too. I do think we're in for a fal over the next decade or so as China will start to be able to out compete us on everything, including design and quality manufacturing. |
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