Where do you buy SMD passives in bulk?

[george graves]

Mouser/Digikey seem to have really high prices on SMD passives.  I'm looking for good quality - not the lowest price.  By "bulk" I'm thinking anywere between 500 to 4000.

I've looked on ebay, but wasn't sure if I should trust their quality.  Someone mentioned http://www.taydaelectronics.com/ - seems ok...

....but I wanted to know where you are sourcing your smd passives.  Who do you trust, with good pricing?  Thanks!

[ddavidebor]

Dx.com kits

[sleemanj]

For hobby or commerce? 

Do you want 500 of a single value [thing], or a selection pack with 500 [things] of various values, or a selection of [things] 500 of each....

What physical size [things] do you want?

...

You need to be a bit more specific to get a good answer

[johansen]

search ebay for reels of something close to what you need and re-design your circuit to handle the difference?

[Dago]

I'm not sure how Digi-key SMD passive prices can be classified as high. A small 5000 piece reel of 0603 resistors costs about 7-9€ (10-12$) which is a whopping ~tenth of a cent each. I usually just buy a whole reel if the value is common and not bother with random quantities.

But if you mean an assortment of different values then eBay is your friend. The assortments on regular suppliers like Digi-key are quite expensive for some reason.

[george graves]

For hobby or commerce? 

Commercial.  Size 0805.  Not an "assortment" - but discrete values for a small run of boards, and more to keep for later.

[sleemanj]

Commercial. 

In that case, I'd advise to stick with the big names, RS, Element14, Mouser, Digikey, passives in 0805 are not that expensive from even those places.

Buying from "alternative" sources is great for personal hobby use, but if it's going into a commercial product, you want the relative assurance that what you are paying for is exactly what you are getting, that the component meets the datasheet specifications, that there is indeed a datasheet at all.  Otherwise, it's just going to bite you, and you'll only be "saving" a few cents at most.

[AndyC_772]

4000x 0805 SMD passives isn't really 'bulk', it's just a single reel.

If you can't find what you're looking for at the right price from one of the catalogue companies, go to one of the big distributors instead - Arrow, Avnet and Future spring immediately to mind.

[george graves]

4000x 0805 SMD passives isn't really 'bulk', it's just a single reel.

Ha!  Yea.  I hear ya.  But 1000 of something, well,  I consider that "bulk" - I'm sure a major manufacture would scoff at 4000 or 10,000 (or 100,000?)!  I guess it's all relative - by orders of magnitude.

If you can't find what you're looking for at the right price from one of the catalogue companies, go to one of the big distributors instead - Arrow, Avnet and Future spring immediately to mind.

Thanks all - very helpful.  Andy - I'll give that a go.  I think that was what I was missing.  Thanks.

As far as Digikey, I could not find reels for $10-$15.  Something line a 1uF 10% 0805 x7r 50v was still in the $0.20USD range.

The more I look into it - I'm getting a better handle on the prices.

*I just assumed there was a one stop shop that most people when to for decent SMD caps (resistors seems to be easy, but quality caps are a bit harder to find)

[mikeselectricstuff]

Once you get over 1-2000 or so it can often cost no more to buy a full reel. In the UK, Rapid are very cheap for reels - e.g. GBP6 for a 5K reel of 1% resistors.

Also bear in mind it is just not worth anyone's time  to spend forever looking for the absolute cheapest source for a part that is a tiny proportion of the BOM cost.

[Monkeh]

Rapid are very cheap for both full reels and packs (100 and 1000 piece) of resistors. I tend to stock up on odd values if I'm making an order with them, they're so cheap you can buy a few dozen odd values just to pad out an order to free delivery.

[george graves]

Once you get over 1-2000 or so it can often cost no more to buy a full reel. In the UK, Rapid are very cheap for reels - e.g. GBP6 for a 5K reel of 1% resistors.

Also bear in mind it is just not worth anyone's time  to spend forever looking for the absolute cheapest source for a part that is a tiny proportion of the BOM cost.

So I'm learning.  But it's a much less then mouser/digikey at $0.20/per - mouser is my default "go-to".....so this is new to me.  Thanks for the advice.

[Dago]

4000x 0805 SMD passives isn't really 'bulk', it's just a single reel.

Ha!  Yea.  I hear ya.  But 1000 of something, well,  I consider that "bulk" - I'm sure a major manufacture would scoff at 4000 or 10,000 (or 100,000?)!  I guess it's all relative - by orders of magnitude.

If you can't find what you're looking for at the right price from one of the catalogue companies, go to one of the big distributors instead - Arrow, Avnet and Future spring immediately to mind.

Thanks all - very helpful.  Andy - I'll give that a go.  I think that was what I was missing.  Thanks.

As far as Digikey, I could not find reels for $10-$15.  Something line a 1uF 10% 0805 x7r 50v was still in the $0.20USD range.

The more I look into it - I'm getting a better handle on the prices.

*I just assumed there was a one stop shop that most people when to for decent SMD caps (resistors seems to be easy, but quality caps are a bit harder to find)

Do you really need 50V ceramics? Does it have to be 0805? Every factory should be able to do 0603 and they're about half the price of 0805.

Cheapest 1µF X7R 0603 ceramic (10V) from digikey is 0.00626€/pcs in quantities of 4000 (25€ per reel). Cheapest 50V 1µF X7R 0805 model is 0.01096€/pcs @ 4000pcs (44€ per reel). Not sure where you got 0.2$/pcs from

[mazurov]

My local surplus electronics store stocks reels, some of them full, other half-empty. The prices are very good.

[marshallh]

Don't bother with cheap caps. Or you'll find that you'll have dead shorts across them after a reflow. 

[tszaboo]

If you want good prices for medium-small production runs, you need to buy a full reel, there is no workaround. But then they are really cheap. Farnell also stock full reels if you need them quick.
If it is only for development, then why bother? I mean, the time I'm spending to search for a capacitor, which is cheaper is not worth it. Send the full BOM list, correct it to MOQ and after throw the surplus to the trash can, or the storage (and the trash can 10 years later). What you loose on time to market is much much more if you wait. Your bosses should understand it.
I really hope that ebay or DX was only a joke.

[Simon]

In the UK farnel and Rs are quite cheap if you buy in quantities like 5000. SMD parts are even cheaper than through hole. On ebay SMD tend to be more expensive because of the lower turn over relative to through hole because it's more of a hobbiest market although I've had small companies buy from me I've sold very little SMD.

[senso]

I will tell you a secret, all those ultra cheap reels of caps from eBay and the likes, they are not x7r, and 10 cents for a 1uF x7r, you must be doing the search wrong.

[ddavidebor]

If you want good prices for medium-small production runs, you need to buy a full reel, there is no workaround. But then they are really cheap. Farnell also stock full reels if you need them quick.
If it is only for development, then why bother? I mean, the time I'm spending to search for a capacitor, which is cheaper is not worth it. Send the full BOM list, correct it to MOQ and after throw the surplus to the trash can, or the storage (and the trash can 10 years later). What you loose on time to market is much much more if you wait. Your bosses should understand it.
I really hope that ebay or DX was only a joke.

They're not a joke for kit of a lot lf smd values

[tszaboo]

I really hope that ebay or DX was only a joke.

They're not a joke for kit of a lot lf smd values

They are a joke. You must understand that price is not the most important, if you buy something. The most important, is that you get what you paid for. In this case, as someone else already mentioned, you might get y dielectrics instead of x5r.
We had a batch of bad boards. There were X5R or X7R caps on the board instead of NP0. A firmware guy spent days tracing that problem back. What was the costs of that capacitor? 1EUR for the components, 1000 EUR for the man-hour ,and thousands of euros for the time to market. Even, if you measure type by type, if they are good, still the time you spent worth lot more than the price difference.

[ConKbot]

As far as Digikey, I could not find reels for $10-$15.  Something line a 1uF 10% 0805 x7r 50v was still in the $0.20USD range.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/CL21B105KBFNNNE/1276-1029-2-ND/3886687

$0.015? or did you miss type or misread a decimal point in there?

[ddavidebor]

You are a living joke if you buy from dx for work.

If you need something precise... But if you need a few component for repairing, test, small prototyping, hobby or just to keep them as spares, yes, they're cheap, good, and with the value on.

They're of the same quality of the cheapest cap on digikey, but still they're probably going to work.

[tszaboo]

You are a living joke if you buy from dx for work.

That was a farnell mess-up, DX is even worse... Are you intentionally offending me, or do you think I'm just plain stupid?

mod: but even, being 17 you might just have no idea how the industry works. You know, there are people designated to buy stuff, and there are people designated to design stuff, and I am the latter.

[ddavidebor]

i'm agreeing with you.

that you was not you but "everyone". that sentences is not offensive in italian (well, just a bit).

simply the reliability of your instrument, consumables, component (and information) depend on what you use them for.

nobody says, for what i've seen, that those "smd passives in bulk" will be used for build spacecraft.

[echen1024]

Digikey is quite a good price. Where I normally buy.