Second Tier Part Sources

[gnuarm]

I have a design using the LM8272MM op amp.  I'm having a hard time finding them other than at second tier sources like Win-source, Heisener, Star River and Utmel.  I have serious concerns about the validity of the parts.  Do these guys have good track records?  Do they work with escrow or are you completely at their mercy?

I'm also not finding much in the way of drop in replacements.  I need the rail to rail I/O and 100 mA drive current.  The LM8272MM is also stable driving high capacitance loads like cables.  Input offsets and bias are not a major issue.  The circuit is AC coupled. 

Can anyone offer advice regarding either issue?

[cortex_m0]

TI.com has approx. 500 stock of the LM8262MM/NOPB, which is quite similar.
LT1810IMS8 seems like a reasonable cross. No personal experience with that part. Digikey has some of these.

My track record with brokers is mixed. Many times they will be fine, but I've definitely had fake parts. The only one of those I have personally done business with is Win-Source. Be advised they are famous for putting some price (say $4.90) on parts search engines, and not honoring that price when you try to buy. But I don't recall having problems with fakes from them.

[gnuarm]

TI.com has approx. 500 stock of the LM8262MM/NOPB, which is quite similar.
LT1810IMS8 seems like a reasonable cross. No personal experience with that part. Digikey has some of these.

My track record with brokers is mixed. Many times they will be fine, but I've definitely had fake parts. The only one of those I have personally done business with is Win-Source. Be advised they are famous for putting some price (say $4.90) on parts search engines, and not honoring that price when you try to buy. But I don't recall having problems with fakes from them.

Win-Source has a really high price on the web, so they had better not try to ramp it up. 

The LM8262MM is a bit shy on current drive, short circuit limiting below the required 100 mA drive.  Even with 500 at TI, we need 10,000 each, so far short.  They are shipping 7,000 to Digikey, but not until end of Sept.  I doubt I could get my customer to live with the lower drive anyway.  Hmmm...  maybe I could mix and match.  Two parts don't need the high drive and two do.  We've got 22k on hand, so that would work. 

Thanks for the brain stimulation.  I hadn't thought of that until now!

[Andrew1588]

I am not limited to vertical websites, others such as alibaba, chipdip, amazon can find the chips I need.

[gnuarm]

I am not limited to vertical websites, others such as alibaba, chipdip, amazon can find the chips I need.

I don't know about the others, but Alibaba provides no protection from fraud.  I know this from experience.  They claim to have Trade Assurance for protection, but they simply will not decide in favor of the buyer.  My experience is they continued to ask for more and more "evidence" which included videos of inanimate objects and ever shorter time frames.  When they only give you two days to respond and it is the weekend with everything being located at work and you are not in town... it's hard to give them what they want.  I was never able to get a decision in my favor in spite of the fact that the chips are clearly fake. 

I will never buy from Alibaba again.  They are clearly not an honorable or trustworthy company.

[gnuarm]

Recently, AiPCBA, a new device procurement channel, was discovered, and many out-of-stock chips were solved here.

You didn't get the name right, but they are not a parts supplier.  They are a turnkey PCB manufacturer and assembly house.  I don't see any sign they will sell parts without soldering them on your PCB.

[gnuarm]

I've been chasing the LM8262MM at Win-Source where they are a lot cheaper than the 8272 parts.  Then I saw them available at an even lower price.  The 8262 has been tested on our test fixture.  I've sent a couple of them to my customer to be tested in their equipment.  I'm really glad this came up.  I expect I'll be ordering them in another week.

[gnuarm]

The LM8262MM seems to be a winner.  I tried to order 10,000 pieces from Winsource, but had to split the order to get under the credit cards max.  Winsource shipped one of the three orders, without commenting on the other two.  I tried contacting them several times, several ways, but they simply never responded.  Finally, in frustration I said if they could not ship the remaining two orders I would cancel them on the credit card.  They responded by saying they canceled the two remaining orders.

I know they had the parts in stock, so I have no idea why they would not ship them. That's ok.  In the meantime I found tons of this part at Rochester and at a lower price.  I was able to get the remaining chips on a single order and they should be here this week.

[cortex_m0]

The LM8262MM seems to be a winner.  I tried to order 10,000 pieces from Winsource, but had to split the order to get under the credit cards max. 

Nice. Glad you were able to find a solution.

I know they had the parts in stock, so I have no idea why they would not ship them. That's ok.  In the meantime I found tons of this part at Rochester and at a lower price.  I was able to get the remaining chips on a single order and they should be here this week.

Certainly some companies have been known to inflate their stock. I don't recall having this problem with Win-Source. But it's useful to know.