Obsolete VERY COMMON Pedal Parts? (What will we do?)

[sevenisthenumber]

Just noticed that the 2n5457, J201 are obsolete on Mouser. The MPF102 is "end of life"..... Is there a part to replace these with hole through???

[lonewolf]

mammoth has them for around 48 cents..so does small bear..you can get 20 of them for under 4.00 shipped on ebay...

[Paul Marossy]

Looks to me like it's just a matter of time until thru-holes parts will not exist anymore.

[skrunk]

the mojo of the future?
wonder will there be people stockpiling masses of J201's.  

[Seljer]

Or just bit the bullet and learn how to solder surface mount devices, on the slightly larger compoents its not as hard as you think  

And you can make little adapter boards if you need to use them on a breadboard for prototyping/testing

[chi_boy]

Speaking of surface mount, is there a FAQ file anywhere, or maybe a primer page on how to select componants?  I know there are YouTube videos on how to solder, but the sizes are a little confusing right now. 

[FiveseveN]

the sizes are a little confusing right now.

I second that. Switching to SMD is starting to sound pretty attractive. No more drilling those friggin' holes!

[LucifersTrip]

if you can still  get many 30-40+ year old parts now very easily at reasonable prices, I wouldn't worry about common modern stuff that's going obsolete...for many years to come...

[Cliff Schecht]

Whoa, I never thought I'd see the day when you guys considered switching to SMD's.. I have most resistor and cap values for both SMD and through-hole (and most IC's) and while I still use a lot of through-hole parts in both tube amp builds and most repair work, most effects I actually design a board for are SMD (unless I'm doing a layout for someone else). The density you can get with SMD vs. through hole stuff is unreal and honestly, with just a little practice one can become proficient at working with the smaller packages. One can build SMD boards much quicker than through-hole too because you save time on all of the prep work (and clipping leads after installation) which does take a good chunk of building time.

There are of course annoyances to working with SMD's too. I find my eyes get strained quicker because I'm always trying to read the tiny print on the resistors. It's nice to have a stereo microscope to work with SMD stuff but who the heck wants to always have an expensive and bulky microscope on their bench. Also a good quality soldering station is always a good upgrade because of the ability to control the temperature accurately (too hot of an iron will ruin pads quickly!).

with higher accuracy but this is not a cheap investment.

[boogietone]

I have boatloads of these and can make them available as soon as a few day job projects give me the time.

[smallbearelec]

I'm posting again on this topic because I see that the word has not gotten around widely enough.

There will be no shortage of the couple of dozen devices that are most important for DIY FX buiilding. I had enough notice of Fairchild's "Last Buy" to pick up enough for immediate needs, and I have been investing--more slowly--for the long-term. It will take me a few months to accumulate the quantities I want of all the items I want, but I will have it all together before year end. SBE will have enough stock to support both DIY and the FX community of small manufacturers for some years. Within that time, I am guessing that more builders will make the transition to surface-mount, and/or more through-adaptations of SMD parts will appear so that people can prototype without having to squint.

The growly noises will continue...

Regards
SD

[nascarbean_97]

Looks to me like it's just a matter of time until thru-holes parts will not exist anymore.

If this happens, boutique pedal makers will have yet another way of advertising.


Unless they go smd. 

[Paul Marossy]

Looks to me like it's just a matter of time until thru-holes parts will not exist anymore.

If this happens, boutique pedal makers will have yet another way of advertising.


Unless they go smd. 

If it goes that way, my guess is that a lot of them will at least have the PCBs made and populated in China and then they'll say "hand made in the USA", which means that they assembled it by hand in the USA.

[DougH]

My issue with going SMD is I couldn't use perfboard. Then it would back to making PCBs for one-off hobby circuits, killing some of the fun of the hobby for me. Oh well, I don't build many pedals anymore anyway, what do I care? 

Anyway it sounds like Steve is going to have the thru-hole stuff for a while, so not to worry.

[Paul Marossy]

Then it would back to making PCBs for one-off hobby circuits, killing some of the fun of the hobby for me. Oh well, I don't build many pedals anymore anyway, what do I care?  

I don't either, but I still have an opinion about the looming disappearance of any newly manufactured thru-hole parts.  

[Mark Hammer]

Imagine you are a company like Fairchild, and have invested large sums of money in equipment and instruments for your production line.  You decide that, in the long run, the customer base for SMD will clearly outstrip that for through hole parts, so you decide to wind down production on through-hole components.

Okay, now on the last 5 production days, just how many do you expect to fabricate?  20, 50, 500?  I suspect you simply make them at the same rate you always did, in the 10's of thousands, if not more.    They may go out of production, but that doesn't mean they go out of stock.  And if Uli Behringer doesn't want them anymore, that just leaves more in the bins for the rest of us.

[defaced]

Okay, now on the last 5 production days, just how many do you expect to fabricate?  20, 50, 500?  I suspect you simply make them at the same rate you always did, in the 10's of thousands, if not more.    They may go out of production, but that doesn't mean they go out of stock.

Anyone know if Fairchild (or other large semi companies) have gone to a "build to order" manufacturing scheme?  If they were set up to only produce parts that were ordered, then there may not be as many free parts floating around as we'd like to think.  Unsold stock = unusable money, and in today's manufacturing environment, keeping stock is not as popular as it once was.  I didn't read the final buy notice, so I don't know if some possible clues were in there. 

[Paul Marossy]

Anyone know if Fairchild (or other large semi companies) have gone to a "build to order" manufacturing scheme?  If they were set up to only produce parts that were ordered, then there may not be as many free parts floating around as we'd like to think.  Unsold stock = unusable money, and in today's manufacturing environment, keeping stock is not as popular as it once was. 

That's a good point you bring up. I wonder...

[asatbluesboy]

Many of the Teese wahs are already SMD. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Where's the thru-hole mojo?

[Paul Marossy]

Many of the Teese wahs are already SMD. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Where's the thru-hole mojo?

Really? I didn't know he went to SMD. That's a move to increase profit by decreasing labor costs.