http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3pcs-Rea … 267.oaVIpM
ordering an increasing number seems to either
add a postage charge or
the delivery changes from 15-29 to 39-60 days.
in this case delivery tripped at 8 and a discount at 10, so is it 5, 8 or 10.. … …3.25, 5.20 or 6.20 and wait longer(maybe) … & holidays as well …
looking at that link again it starts 3pcs- so ??? page says 1 off though
stephen
very late clarification what i meant was 5 with p&p £3.25 or 8 and p&p at £5.20 etc, watch out for a jump up in delivery time.
Thats worth noting.
Perhaps China post is cutting back on its special deals.
As an experiment on eBay, I paid to upgrade from economy to Standard, postage on a $30 item, as it was $3.50 extra and it would be better if it was here sooner.
So i will see if it comes in 2 weeks, or whether Standard postage is not really any different from Economy
“sellers shipping method” is often a random game. Some sellers are shipping their stuff via Malaysia and THEN to Europe, very annoying. With all those “seller shipping method” I got a really high “failure rate”. I also believe that there are – so called – tracking websites, they are a totally fake. They always do the normal shipping way and end up “your parcel is arrived in Austria”. Never got them!
Personally I know (I’m a A3-member of ali, with more than 300+ parcels), that if a parcel isn’t arrived within 30-35 days, it won’t ever arrived.
Conclusion: I would prefer China post or Singapore post, they are a little bit slow, but the parcel will arrive.
It’s always a wise idea NOT to buy too much quantity, because of the size and weight of the parcel depends on different (means: slower) shipping methods. Sounds very uneconomic: If shipping is free and you need 50 parts of servos (as example), then buy 10 on one day, 10 three days later and so on. (This is also a “trick” to pass by the import turnover tax in the EU, but Austria’s custom office is fortunately very lazy in contrast to Germany (for example))
Another aliexpress trick: Install the aliexpress mobile app and search for mobile offers only. I got bargains about 50% less!
Last Aliexpress tip: NEVER accept a parcel (“confirm order received”) if something is faulty use “open a dispute” instead. I use this (open dispute) for nearly everything if the seller won’t answer me within 48 hours. It’s really interesting how fast they could answer you, if you do that
Another aliexpress trick: Install the aliexpress mobile app and search for mobile offers only. I got bargains about 50% less!
Last Aliexpress tip: NEVER accept a parcel (“confirm order received”) if something is faulty use “open a dispute” instead. I use this (open dispute) for nearly everything if the seller won’t answer me within 48 hours. It’s really interesting how fast they could answer you, if you do that
We often hurt our ownselves by elevating the value of a penny; many folks will simply walk past a penny on the street, but will jump-ship on a known good seller for that same penny value on a part. Use the option “My Favorite Stores” even if an item is a few cents more than an unknown dealer; unless you are just looking for that bottom price. I branch out often on things I order that I have no immediate need or sample items I may never use. If my experience is positive, I will try them again and two or three good experiences gets them into my personal choice list – one screwup and they are out.
Direct consumer to China trade is a form of gambling… never gamble more than you can afford to loose.
If you absolutely need an item under $20 U.S.D. then buy 2 from separate dealers – Ray’s rule of hardware is: always have two of everything; one to explore and one to use to validate the other unit good (statistically speaking.) Example: My xyz board used to blink, now it will not… is my board bad?
(Adjust the $20 amount to your means or whatever vakue your spouse had stated.)
Ray
how do know you’re an A3?
I currently have 29 pages at 11 or 12 per page, so I should be close!
stephen
how do know you’re an A3?
I currently have 29 pages at 11 or 12 per page, so I should be close!
stephen
i did think of going off and buying paper clips, better idea would be rubber bands.
i keep finding those from the post/postman, rather useful applied to assorted bits(eg st-links) hanging off bread boards,
also bread boards to shelves … …
sadly their lifespan is not that long, maybe 3 weeks before giving up.
srp
i did think of going off and buying paper clips, better idea would be rubber bands.
i keep finding those from the post/postman, rather useful applied to assorted bits(eg st-links) hanging off bread boards,
also bread boards to shelves … …
sadly their lifespan is not that long, maybe 3 weeks before giving up.
srp
We often hurt our ownselves by elevating the value of a penny; many folks will simply walk past a penny on the street, but will jump-ship on a known good seller for that same penny value on a part. Use the option “My Favorite Stores” even if an item is a few cents more than an unknown dealer; unless you are just looking for that bottom price. I branch out often on things I order that I have no immediate need or sample items I may never use. If my experience is positive, I will try them again and two or three good experiences gets them into my personal choice list – one screwup and they are out.
Direct consumer to China trade is a form of gambling… never gamble more than you can afford to loose.
If you absolutely need an item under $20 U.S.D. then buy 2 from separate dealers – Ray’s rule of hardware is: always have two of everything; one to explore and one to use to validate the other unit good (statistically speaking.) Example: My xyz board used to blink, now it will not… is my board bad?
(Adjust the $20 amount to your means or whatever vakue your spouse had stated.)
Ray
If you can be willing to wait, its sometimes to simply say you have not received an item if you get it and its faulty.
I know that perhaps this could be abused by people, but as a lot of vendors are also abusing the system, by often sending out substandard or miss advertised products, and some vendors (especially on eBay) don’t care if you give negative feedback, there is no other recourse to get your money back, apart from perhaps the long way around via your credit card company (but that takes loads of paperwork)
primary cause was the bubble wrap was tightly wrapped with tape, squashing all the bubbles flat, the box was a
constructed one with zero spare space.
since that, any glass i order has a message to the supplier requesting extra bubbles and no tape with a 1cm gap all round.
so far it’s worked
on another order for a lcd/card reader, the reader metal had surface corrosion of the plating.
i sent a message saying if they use shipping, they should use the maritime version.
apologies to red storm rising / tom clancy
that’s been about it in horror stories
stephen
They sent me another one, and I can still use the first one for some testing as it still works (at the moment)
I often get packages where the pins from modules have been press right though the envelope / packet, which is not good for me or the postman as they are sharp. They often also get bent, but I can normally bend them back.
<…>They often also get bent, but I can normally bend them back.
it took me hours to extract the stripped off insulation from their embedded state in the synthetic carpet.
one by one with needle nose pliers, bit like scrubbing the bathroom with a toothbrush. 
btw i found that tool almost useless, memories of crushed ‘turns’, wrap or unwrap.
i borrowed an air automatic strip and wrap gun, concocted a compressor and tank – good for
10-15 wraps and then wait.
stephen
it took me hours to extract the stripped off insulation from their embedded state in the synthetic carpet.
one by one with needle nose pliers, bit like scrubbing the bathroom with a toothbrush.
i borrowed an air automatic strip and wrap gun, concocted a compressor and tank – good for
10-15 wraps and then wait.
stephen
more offers, better offers, more spam … … …
srp
srp
more offers, better offers, more spam … … …
srp
stephen
stephen
stephen
quote adapted from a book of calculus
a few iterations down will be blue pills, maple mini’s … level shifters …. resistors … … smd resistors — … drawers with built in magnifying glasses
indexing might be a problem, memory is failing.
stephen
stephen
Sometimes i’m brute force searching the entire room for something i know i have, but don’t remember where i put it XD
Ray
when i do do a search, i tend to put interesting bits or newly found bits in a separate box, adding the arrivals to
them as and when.
slowly things like mains cables, usb leads tend to congeal into their own boxes, bar the 15 or so usb leads dangling
off my lamps on a thin 3/4″ stand with a very heavy base.
Dad, Jean have seen my xyz? i’ve lost xyz, where is it?
Mum, it’s where you last saw/put/had it
Dad, i’ve lost xyz, where is it?
Mum, it’s where you’ll find it
she did have a helpful streak(?sp)
stephen
<…>
stephen
I recently saw sparkfun had pcb’s with traces in the same way as a breadboard, which would make transferring a breadboard design to a pcb easier, it took me some searching on aliexpress, but i finally found someone selling them:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-DIY- … 73250.html
Haven’t tried them yet (received them last week), but it seems like a nice idea, and i’m going to give it a try
. For some projects it can be easier than just the standard experiment pcb’s that just have a bunch of islands.the pen was plastic, thin wire running over plastic with tension equals cutting edge; i recall making a brass version of the end and epoxying it on as a replacement.
re-reading my opening post i’m confused by it; what i meant with 6,29 etc was ordering 6 and a delivery window of 29 days after the processing time.
stephen
The sum of the items ordered was $20.52 USD. I received the order yesterday (19/04/2016) p.m. here in Atlanta and delivery was by USPS.
Guys and Gals, that is less than 2 weeks! In addition, the entire order was no-shipping cost. There were 10 items in the shipment and the items were received postmarked from Shenzhen and were all packed in a nice hard cardboard shipping box with enough bubble-wrap to reuse.
- Shenzhen.jpg (246.62 KiB) Viewed 456 times
Shenzhen.jpg
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/6pcs-ESD … 88704.html
Sadly, I melted my plastic tweezers attempting to nudge and SMT cap into place after it peaked! So, plastic to retrieve stuff from acid, but stainless steel to use with the hot air gun. 
Ray
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/6pcs-ESD … 88704.html
Sadly, I melted my plastic tweezers attempting to nudge and SMT cap into place after it peaked! So, plastic to retrieve stuff from acid, but stainless steel to use with the hot air gun.
Ray
6 x antistatic tweezers ordered… impulse buy… I can’t even get one pair of tweezers locally for that price.
I’m not sure what else I can recommend, perhaps a multimeter… which I confess I ordered purely to see if I could hack it and get access to the serial port… watch this space. It appears to be based on the DTM0660 chip, (in the form of an epoxy blob).
I need to dump that 24C02 and see if it matches the expected contents for the DTM0660. More hackery details here. If so, I can solder an IR LED and resistor on to the test pads surrounding the epoxy blob, modify the contents of the 24C02 to enable the serial port, and we are off to the races.
I may have time to perform the surgery later this month once the flack from moving offices dies down. I already have a meter with a serial port, but as I may have said before, you can never have too many multimeters. If you do order this meter, get the one marked “True RMS” on the front, as there appear to be several variants with different innards.
they break inside the the probe, which does come apart for repairs. now where’s the soldering iron?
that’s a pricey DVM, think mine were £2.25, before this list though
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Best-Qua … 54765.html
you seem to be missing an image, no-entry sign
stephen
6 x antistatic tweezers ordered… impulse buy… I can’t even get one pair of tweezers locally for that price.
Digital wrench (I own also the smaller one): http://www.aliexpress.com/item/150mm-6i … 79619.html
3×4 Button module: Best of it: You can remove the clear caps and give a little sheet of paper under it, must have while development: http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/7148 … 7504339252
offtopic: Little guitar/ukuele/violin tuner, cheap and working awesome: http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6984 … 8415959252
Hollow needles desoldering tools: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/8PCS-Lot … 73322.html
HK MECHANIC 42g Sn63/Pb67 Solder Paste – I’m loving it! -> http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HK-MECHA … 59211.html
TSSOP16 SSOP16 to DIP adapter – you will always need one of them
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/FREE-SHI … 52906.htmllittle 8-segment voltmeter, more useful as I thought: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/R1B1-Por … 47711.html
Warning! This list is partially very old, so look for newer/cheaper ones!
Thats an interesting list.. Thankyou…
I have some 3 digit volt meters, and some of them have STM8’s on them, so are re-programmable, but not with our core
I’m not sure how those hollow core needles work, but they look interesting.
I bought one of those “digital wrenches” from LIDL when I was in the UK, but I think it cost more than I could have paid on AliExpress. Nevertheless, its very handy for both the 3D printer and even for measuring distances on other things. e.g. PCB’s .
The guitar tuner looks good. I have several of tuners, but they don’t have the nice progressive display which that one does, mine just have an High or Low (up / down) arrow on them, so its hard to know how far off key you are.
but generally, I just do relative tuning until it sounds right, as I have a reasonable ear for pitch 
About the digital wrench. I believe that the name is digital caliper. It seems that they have a serial output too, there are many pages with connections between these digital calipers and Arduino.
Thanks.
oh, thank you very much for the list, my card appreciates the business
some are retired needing a search or updated with better price.
it’ll keep the postie (post person) happy.
already had the needles or similar.
an alternative to those is a pin or a needle, really as in hand sewing types. doesn’t remove the solder, but does displace it sufficiently for it then to be dragged away with the iron tip.
stephen
I already mentioned these pcb’s that have the same layout as a breadboard: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-DIY- … 73250.html
Yet to see how useful they are, but it looks like a great idea
.To have a good worklight, i bought a 20W floodlight: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Waterpro … 21317.html . So happy i got this above my bench XD
Some colored pinheaders so you can make some visual cues on your board : http://www.aliexpress.com/item/FREE-SHI … 14225.html (or in my case, make my blue pill with an f303 put onto it another color
.)And these guys are my supplier of high quality push buttons: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/737142
I already mentioned these pcb’s that have the same layout as a breadboard: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-DIY- … 73250.html
Yet to see how useful they are, but it looks like a great idea
.To have a good worklight, i bought a 20W floodlight: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Waterpro … 21317.html . So happy i got this above my bench XD
Some colored pinheaders so you can make some visual cues on your board : http://www.aliexpress.com/item/FREE-SHI … 14225.html (or in my case, make my blue pill with an f303 put onto it another color
.)And these guys are my supplier of high quality push buttons: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/737142
I have a lighter fuel (gas) powered one I take on road trips etc, but I think this USB iron would be more usable, as the gas one gets really hot and isn’t that controllable.
What is puzzling is how 6W gets the iron so hot so quickly.
I have a hot glue gun that 5W and it takes ages to get to 100 deg C (or whatever temp it works at)
I’m not sure how those hollow core needles work, but they look interesting.
Thanks.
I normally use desoldering braid.
BTW. I got scammed with desoldering braid from eBay. They looked Ok so I accepted them in ebay without trying it.
But then found there was no flux in the braid, so it was useless to desolder.
Yet another Chinese eBay con to look out for…
BTW. I got scammed with desoldering braid from eBay. They looked Ok so I accepted them in ebay without trying it.
But then found there was no flux in the braid, so it was useless to desolder.
<…>
I got “scammed” with desoldering braid from Conrad (big and expensive electronic mega seller in europe) years before. 3 expensive rolls without flux. Totally useless – why they produce such things?
The tick course stuff would probably work better if I added flux, but I still think someone is making money by putting short lengths of regular braid into the desoldering reels and passing it off as desoldering braid.
The stuff I have will be great for solding to the back of a high power mains dimmer I’m building, to increase the current the tracks can handle, but I doubt I will ever use it for desoldering.
I have a vacuum desoldering tool, so it is rare that I use braid… just thinking, I have had the same 3 small spools since the mid-90’s. But I certainly disapprove of scrap shielding being soldfor new quality braid. Like you said, it can akways be hsed for shield ground, AC ground, or other strapping.
Ray
I have a vacuum desoldering tool
ditto, mine is a standard spring loaded type with button release, but with a hot (40W) holed tip.
<…>
It was more than a little temperamental, and required almost constant tweaking, cleaning, repairing, and tip reaming to keep it remotely functional. It also had a small glass vessel with a plug of fiberglass in it to filter out the hot crud to stop it ending up in the vacuum pump, this too was less than 100% effective, so I was a dab hand at cleaning and repairing the pump too.
Having said all that, when it worked, it could suck like a collapsing neutron star. Generally it was very effective, but it did have a tendency to suck small tracks off PCBs if you applied a little too much heat.
<…>
I’ve an AOYUE Int 701A++. Not bad… With a more powerful vacuum pump would be better…
- aoyue-701a-plus-plus.jpg (16.1 KiB) Viewed 603 times
I’m not sure if this will end up well, but since aliexpress covers your ass pretty well (even more so with my A4 status), i sure as hell ordered them an lets hope they arrive XD. some 1Gbit flash chips sound awesome to play around with XD, and at that price, who can resist XD.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/IC-FLASH … 81238.html
I’m not sure if this will end up well, but since aliexpress covers your ass pretty well (even more so with my A4 status), i sure as hell ordered them an lets hope they arrive XD. some 1Gbit flash chips sound awesome to play around with XD, and at that price, who can resist XD.
I’m not sure if this will end up well, but since aliexpress covers your ass pretty well (even more so with my A4 status), i sure as heck ordered them an lets hope they arrive XD. some 1Gbit flash chips sound awesome to play around with XD, and at that price, who can resist XD.
