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Perhaps this is in reaction to Maplin’s troubles? That would previously have been the only place I would have thought of to buy a Raspberry Pi on the high stree
by adav 8y ago
Perhaps this is in reaction to Maplin’s troubles? That would previously have been the only place I would have thought of to buy a Raspberry Pi on the high street.
- yardstick 8y agoIt was sad to see Maplin go. Does anyone know of any other DIY electronics stores / chains in the UK? (I miss JayCar in AU, or what DSE/Dick Smiths used to be before it went under)
- wlll 8y agoRapid Electronics or Farnell are the ones I use. Online only as far as I know, but that's fine by me, the Maplin staff rarely knew anything of use IME, and delivery is fast enough.
- daddylonglegs 8y agoThere is also RS Components - the RS / Farnell rivalry (or duopoly) is the big one for low volume electronic components in the UK. RS do have trade counters in a couple of dozen industrial estates around the country but I think they are only open office hours.
- yardstick 8y agoYes I’ve used RS and Farnell in the past. Hoping for someplace that I could easily reach same day to buy parts, rather than wait for delivery etc. Last one I needed was some small screws to attach a mSATA, but pointless to wait a day and was preventing me from working on the project. Could imagine the same thing with SATA adapters, power cables, etc.
- tonylemesmer 8y agoIt would be ace to be able to walk into a RPi shop and be able to purchase LEDs, resistors, OLED screens, ESP8266 modules, breadboards etc. Maplin was a great shop and open on the weekends was often a lifesaver.
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoIf they don't sell all that, what do they sell? Just RPi? In which case it probably is just an advert, not a store as such.
- H1Supreme 8y agoWhen Radio Shack in the US still had components for sale, they were absurdly more expensive than Digikey or Mouser. I think I remember a 5 pack of 220ohm resistors being $2.99. Digikey will sell you 100 for under two dollars. I suppose it would have to do if you're in a pinch, but there's a reason walk-in electronics stores have mostly vanished.
- fenwick67 8y agoIt was still a lifesaver when I wanted resistors, LEDs or other components ASAP. $3 is still cheaper than digikey shipping.
- new299 8y agoMaplin mostly stocked poor quality products and massively overcharged. I think charging x10 what a product would cost on eBay is reasonable. But often you’d be charged x100 to x1000 times more for cheap components (resistors etc.). I mostly ended up buying larger packs of parts which might come in handy, because I didn’t want to be overcharged to that degree. I wouldn’t mind so much if they stocked good quality soldering irons (e.g. Hakko) or good quality hand tools. But they didn’t. It’s a shame there are no good electronics high street shops left, but I’m not particularly sad to see Maplin go personally.