This is how it works now...

[robsworld78]

Thought I would share how the part shortage is going as something I could never imagine happening just happened.

Bonus, as most of you know one part of this shortage is Raspberry Pi's, the SEO or similar just stated a couple weeks ago he's going to stop giving out possible dates as to when it might ease up, not good...

To my point of the post, there's about 4-5 components I use that can be a little difficult to get but I've always managed, if nobody had one a backorder was always filled quicker than expected. The other day I placed an order with Mouser for some non related items but didn't hit the $100 free shipping so I thought I'll get some more ATtiny85's as they had some in stock, about 1,000 which was nice to see. So I ordered 50 of them which is what I normally get. Two days later I get an email stating this for the ATtiny85. "The following item(s) have been cancelled from your order due to either the manufacturers’ distributor sales restrictions or Mousers’ distributor sales restrictions".

Well obviously that was worrying and not really sure what it meant so I replied to it. After a few messages back and forth I was informed this was due to covid shortages and their system is locked so no exceptions. I was deemed a reseller, which I argued, and now my account is blocked for some parts. Everything was vague, I forgot to ask how long but we all know what the answer would have been, no answer...

So this is what it's coming down to, distributors / manufactures are starting to pick who can have parts and who can't. Oh and cherry on top is China for the last 3 weeks have been doing sweeping gridlocking lockdowns which will ensure things don't improve anytime soon...

Good news, spring is almost here.

Here's the conversation in full.

From: Mouser Electronics <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 9:32 AM
To:
Subject: Status of Your Purchase Order from Mouser Electronics

​

​ View Online​ ​ ​ Local Customer Support​ (800) 346-6873​ Purchase Order Number: 25041296 The following item(s) have been cancelled from your order due to either the manufacturers’ distributor sales restrictions or Mousers’ distributor sales restrictions: ATTINY85-20SU If any items remain on your order, they are being processed for shipment. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Best Regards, Mouser Distributor Support Team ​ mouser.com​ ​ ​ Privacy Policy To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add [email protected] to your address book. © 2022 Mouser and Mouser Electronics. All rights reserved. Mouser Electronics Inc. - 137 Glasgow Street, Unit 475A, Kitchener, Ontario N2G 4X8, Canada | [email protected]​

From:

Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 2:45:26 PM

To: [email protected]

CC:

Subject: RE: Status of Your Purchase Order from Mouser Electronics

Hi, sorry I don’t know what this means? I’ve order this part many times in the past with no issue.

Thanks
Rob

From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2022 5:27 AM
To: Rob Fowler
Subject: Re: Status of Your Purchase Order from Mouser Electronics

Hello Rob,

Having checked the status of the order, I am sorry to inform that the parts are restricted for distributors.

Restrictions can be as per the supplier’s contractual requirement .Others can be a Mouser choice due to issues our system flags such as allocation or supply chain delays that can make crucial parts for ongoing projects scarce.

Please check the below mentioned links to sign up for our APIs to use the new API app in order to check the status of the parts. Please sign up for both the Search and Order History APIs, or the tool will not work correctly.

Search API:
https://www.mouser.com/api-search/#signup

Order API:
https://www.mouser.com/api-order/

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. We look forward to helping you with your future orders.

Best Regards,

Sharon KS, Mouser Customer Service
MOUSER ELECTRONICS
www.mouser.com
The Newest Products for Your Newest Designs®

From:

Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at 12:46:57 PM

To: [email protected]

CC:

Subject: RE: Status of Your Purchase Order from Mouser Electronics

Hi Sharon, thanks for your reply, I’m still confused though as I’ve ordered these parts just a couple months ago or less. I also use the pca9685, is this something I’m also restricted from buying? Sorry very confused as to what has changed?

Thanks
Rob

From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2022 4:13 AM
To: Rob Fowler
Subject: Re: Status of Your Purchase Order from Mouser Electronics

Hello Rob,

Thank you for your email.

My apologies that you are experiencing a rise in distribution restrictions. Our system is programmed to not allow certain parts to be sold to resellers. Restrictions can be per the supplier’s contractual requirement .Others can be a
Mouser choice due to issues our system flags such as allocation or supply chain delays that can make crucial parts for ongoing projects scarce.

You may notice more items are restricted than you may have experienced prior to late 2020, this likely a direct result of the pandemic. We have seen global closures of factories that swept the globe in late 2020. Even though most have reopened, we must additionally consider their backlogs stemming from the closure. This event has had a strong effect and will have some longer lasting effects on our industry. This is not only for the manufacturers, but raw material sources at the manufacturing level as well.

My apologies, but we cannot work around these restrictions, per your company’s website procurement is an offered services therefore you account is classified as a resell account and our system will not allow the sale.

Best Regards,

Sharon KS, Mouser Customer Service
MOUSER ELECTRONICS
www.mouser.com
The Newest Products for Your Newest Designs®

From:

Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 5:19:41 AM

To: [email protected]

CC:

Subject: RE: Status of Your Purchase Order from Mouser Electronics

Hi Sharon, would I even be a reseller? I don’t think I fall in that category as I’m not reselling the parts. I manufacture aquarium controllers, these parts I mount on the PCB’s and sell as a fully packaged aquarium controller. Here is my website.

https://www.robo-tank.ca/

Thanks
Rob

Hello Rob,

Thank you for your e-mail.
My apologies, if a company’s main or one of their main functions is procurement/sourcing, we must classify them as a reseller. Our system is programmed to enforce the restrictions so we do not have a way to work around the restriction to apply them on a case-by-case basis. Some items cannot be sold to resellers due to our contractual agreement with the manufacturer that we must honor. Others can also be restricted are due to reasons like allocation, in which the system also enforces and applies to all resellers fairly.

If you would wish to verify the same with our classificaion team kindly send your company website.
I do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

We look forward to helping you with your future orders.
Best Regards,

Sharon KS, Mouser Customer Service
MOUSER ELECTRONICS
www.mouser.com
The Newest Products for Your Newest Designs®

I get a kick out of her final sign off, "We look forward to helping you with your future orders."

 

[blaxsun]

Yeah, except if you're ordering 50 at a time you're not exactly a consumer, either.

And yes, companies have been picking and choosing for years now. It's just getting to point that there aren't enough components to even pick and choose anymore...

 

[robsworld78]

Yeah, except if you're ordering 50 at a time you're not exactly a consumer, either.

And yes, companies have been picking and choosing for years now. It's just getting to point that there aren't enough components to even pick and choose anymore...

Yeah but wouldn't anyone buying parts then be deemed a reseller? Yes technically parts are being resold but that applies for any scenario. In this context I would say reseller means you buy components and resell as is on say ebay or the like. It's definitely not I'm buying too many, more like not enough.

My question is who bought those parts, and why aren't they classified as a reseller. Bottom line, someone is choosing who gets them.

 

[blaxsun]

Yeah but wouldn't anyone buying parts then be deemed a reseller? Yes technically parts are being resold but that applies for any scenario. In this context I would say reseller means you buy components and resell as is on say ebay or the like. It's definitely not I'm buying too many, more like not enough.

My question is who bought those parts, and why aren't they classified as a reseller. Bottom line, someone is choosing who gets them.

It's more likely they're just limiting purchases to a few units (max) because they don't know when they're going to be resupplied. The whole "reseller" aspect is just their way of outwardly justifying it.

Or they could very well be favoring other larger suppliers (just not you).

 

[Sral]

That's unfortunate, guess I might have to wait for my reef-Pi project ...

Does anybody have experience with or oppinion about a second-hand Pi Zero W ?
Does it even make sense to set up a reef-Pi with a Zero W or should I wait for a zero 2 W or Pi 3 ?
Current plan is to only run Reef-Pi with a few sensors and a camera on it.

 

[Sral]

(...) Does anybody have experience with or oppinion about a second-hand Pi Zero W ? (...)

Strike that, my fingers got itchy and I ordered a second-hand supposedly unused Pi, wish me luck ^^

 

[robsworld78]

That's unfortunate, guess I might have to wait for my reef-Pi project ...

Does anybody have experience with or oppinion about a second-hand Pi Zero W ?
Does it even make sense to set up a reef-Pi with a Zero W or should I wait for a zero 2 W or Pi 3 ?
Current plan is to only run Reef-Pi with a few sensors and a camera on it.

Yeah not the best time to be buying these, thankfully I've been able to keep everything stocked including Pi Zero 2 W's but I only package those in the full kits as I'm paying premiums. Glad you were able to find something, any of the Pi's has enough power to run reef-pi, if you want to connect a display you would want Pi3 or greater.

 

[Sral]

Yeah not the best time to be buying these, thankfully I've been able to keep everything stocked including Pi Zero 2 W's but I only package those in the full kits as I'm paying premiums. Glad you were able to find something, any of the Pi's has enough power to run reef-pi, if you want to connect a display you would want Pi3 or greater.

Thx for the info ! I think I am fine with the web-interface for starters and can still upgrade down the line if I leave the space, right ?

 

[robsworld78]

Thx for the info ! I think I am fine with the web-interface for starters and can still upgrade down the line if I leave the space, right ?

Yeah for sure, the wifi is a little slower but it works fine, my guess is 50% use Zero / Zero 2 for reef-pi. Reef-pi alone uses very little resources when running the lite operating system. To upgrade you can download the reef-pi database from UI and import into another installation so you have all your settings.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Thought I would share how the part shortage is going as something I could never imagine happening just happened.

Bonus, as most of you know one part of this shortage is Raspberry Pi's, the SEO or similar just stated a couple weeks ago he's going to stop giving out possible dates as to when it might ease up, not good...

To my point of the post, there's about 4-5 components I use that can be a little difficult to get but I've always managed, if nobody had one a backorder was always filled quicker than expected. The other day I placed an order with Mouser for some non related items but didn't hit the $100 free shipping so I thought I'll get some more ATtiny85's as they had some in stock, about 1,000 which was nice to see. So I ordered 50 of them which is what I normally get. Two days later I get an email stating this for the ATtiny85. "The following item(s) have been cancelled from your order due to either the manufacturers’ distributor sales restrictions or Mousers’ distributor sales restrictions".

Well obviously that was worrying and not really sure what it meant so I replied to it. After a few messages back and forth I was informed this was due to covid shortages and their system is locked so no exceptions. I was deemed a reseller, which I argued, and now my account is blocked for some parts. Everything was vague, I forgot to ask how long but we all know what the answer would have been, no answer...

So this is what it's coming down to, distributors / manufactures are starting to pick who can have parts and who can't. Oh and cherry on top is China for the last 3 weeks have been doing sweeping gridlocking lockdowns which will ensure things don't improve anytime soon...

Good news, spring is almost here.

Here's the conversation in full.















I get a kick out of her final sign off, "We look forward to helping you with your future orders."

Thank you for posting. Too much crap getting swept under the rug these days

 

[Sral]

Thank you for posting. Too much crap getting swept under the rug these days

Well, one shouldn't get too angry about it in my oppinion, since it seems to me that this is a side-effect of "erring on the side of caution", which isn't necessarily an optimal strategy, but people tend to be risk-averse.

Yeah for sure, the wifi is a little slower but it works fine, my guess is 50% use Zero / Zero 2 for reef-pi. Reef-pi alone uses very little resources when running the lite operating system. To upgrade you can download the reef-pi database from UI and import into another installation so you have all your settings.

Great ! The Pi arrived yesterday. The seller made a naming error and I didn't check thoroughly enough on the photos: it's a Pi Zero v1.3 not a Zero WH v1.3 ... so I'll have to wire an Ethernet adapter to the SPI ports. Not a big deal though, since the Reep-Pi will basically sit right next to my router and at least I have a PI that I can start with ^^

 

[robsworld78]

Well, one shouldn't get too angry about it in my oppinion, since it seems to me that this is a side-effect of "erring on the side of caution", which isn't necessarily an optimal strategy, but people tend to be risk-averse.


Great ! The Pi arrived yesterday. The seller made a naming error and I didn't check thoroughly enough on the photos: it's a Pi Zero v1.3 not a Zero WH v1.3 ... so I'll have to wire an Ethernet adapter to the SPI ports. Not a big deal though, since the Reep-Pi will basically sit right next to my router and at least I have a PI that I can start with ^^

You can also use a USB to ethernet adapter instead of SPI, I think that's better as SPI is prone to noise issues as well.

 

[Sral]

You can also use a USB to ethernet adapter instead of SPI, I think that's better as SPI is prone to noise issues as well.

Probably a good idea, even though I'd like the option to include the ethernet socket in the case instead of having it hanging around. There is one from adafruit that also has 3 USB ports, sounds usefull for setting up the Pi, even though it draws 280 mA by itself ^^

Another question about the 12V power supply in your bargain bin: I guess that doesn't work with 230/240 V european net, right ? I'm having trouble finding something similar to this one that has an acceptable price. I basically want enough 12V power together with the ground lead from the power socket. 12V and 5V DC in the same block would be bolar, but hey, you can't get everything ^^

 

[robsworld78]

Probably a good idea, even though I'd like the option to include the ethernet socket in the case instead of having it hanging around. There is one from adafruit that also has 3 USB ports, sounds usefull for setting up the Pi, even though it draws 280 mA by itself ^^

Another question about the 12V power supply in your bargain bin: I guess that doesn't work with 230/240 V european net, right ? I'm having trouble finding something similar to this one that has an acceptable price. I basically want enough 12V power together with the ground lead from the power socket. 12V and 5V DC in the same block would be bolar, but hey, you can't get everything ^^

The adapter I have has the 3 USB ports as well, seems to work ok but you don't really need the USB ports, when you setup reef-pi you can do it headless as you won't be installing the desktop OS on the Pi Zero.

I just updated that power supply listing, it's actually 85v-265v input and 3.0 amps output according to label. I can throw in a couple adjustable 3amp DC/DC regulators so you can have 5v and 3.3v as well.

Mini DC-DC 3amp Step Down Buck Regulator Converter - Adjustable

This is a DC power step down converter module that is ultra light weight, just the size of a finger nail.This Mini DC-DC Adjustable Step Down Converter is used for DIY mobile power, monitor powe

www.robo-tank.ca

 

[Sral]

The adapter I have has the 3 USB ports as well, seems to work ok but you don't really need the USB ports, when you setup reef-pi you can do it headless as you won't be installing the desktop OS on the Pi Zero.

I just updated that power supply listing, it's actually 85v-265v input and 3.0 amps output according to label. I can throw in a couple adjustable 3amp DC/DC regulators so you can have 5v and 3.3v as well.(...)

I'll go with the USB Ethernet Adapter, it's the safest option, even if it's not the most energy and space saving one.

Great news about the powet supply, fits my intended style pretty well. How much does it cost in time and money to ship to germany ?

About the Buck converters: I'm currently thinking about getting either two variable 20W ones or a static 5V 3.2A and 3.3V 2.5A each. Strangely the static ones are way more expensive (20$ instead of 4$) but only have 4% accuracy. So I'm probably going with the variable ones.

 

[robsworld78]

I'll go with the USB Ethernet Adapter, it's the safest option, even if it's not the most energy and space saving one.

Great news about the powet supply, fits my intended style pretty well. How much does it cost in time and money to ship to germany ?

About the Buck converters: I'm currently thinking about getting either two variable 20W ones or a static 5V 3.2A and 3.3V 2.5A each. Strangely the static ones are way more expensive (20$ instead of 4$) but only have 4% accuracy. So I'm probably going with the variable ones.

Shipping is about 2-4 weeks, probably around $15 fully tracked and insured, you can get an exact price on my website. Those prices are odd, these little bucks I have I used for years and really impressed with them.

 

[Sral]

@robsworld78 Now to all the other countless components: I can't seem to find the L293D solenoid/DC motor/stepper motor driver circuits. At least not without 30 weeks of wait. If I just want to run the DC motors monodirectionally: can I simply exchange them with a ULN2803A and put protection-diodes in front myself ?
Also thinking whether a low-pass filter might work as well, just put the onset frequency lower than half the PWM frequency and I should be good to go.

 

[robsworld78]

@robsworld78 Now to all the other countless components: I can't seem to find the L293D solenoid/DC motor/stepper motor driver circuits. At least not without 30 weeks of wait. If I just want to run the DC motors monodirectionally: can I simply exchange them with a ULN2803A and put protection-diodes in front myself ?
Also thinking whether a low-pass filter might work as well, just put the onset frequency lower than half the PWM frequency and I should be good to go.

Yeah parts can be hard to find, the uln2803a will work and already has clamp diodes built in but if you have never hurts to add external ones too. You can run PWM into the uln2803a without any filtering, it'll still switch on/off based on the voltage.

 

[Sral]

Yeah parts can be hard to find, the uln2803a will work and already has clamp diodes built in but if you have never hurts to add external ones too. You can run PWM into the uln2803a without any filtering, it'll still switch on/off based on the voltage.

Thx !
Regarding the low-pass filter: I was thinking to low-pass filter the "output" of the ULN2803A. That way I get rid of the high-frequency PWM flanks, which should be easier on the hardware involved (both the ULN2803A and the DC pump). I would have to test whether that changes the fluid output vs PWM duty cycle non-linearly, but that's something you have to do anyway I guess.

Downside is, of course, that I have a up to 1V drop across the ULN2803A which eats into the supply for the pump. Not sure if that would be different with the L293D though. I would also have to chain another MOSFET Array into the circuit if I want to use one PWM signal for all pumps and switch them using GPIO pins.

 

[robsworld78]

Thx !
Regarding the low-pass filter: I was thinking to low-pass filter the "output" of the ULN2803A. That way I get rid of the high-frequency PWM flanks, which should be easier on the hardware involved (both the ULN2803A and the DC pump). I would have to test whether that changes the fluid output vs PWM duty cycle non-linearly, but that's something you have to do anyway I guess.

Downside is, of course, that I have a up to 1V drop across the ULN2803A which eats into the supply for the pump. Not sure if that would be different with the L293D though. I would also have to chain another MOSFET Array into the circuit if I want to use one PWM signal for all pumps and switch them using GPIO pins.

I think the L293D has a larger voltage drop. If you just use mosfets you have very little. I got your order, thanks, I'll add some extra components including mosfets as you seem to enjoy them although most are SMD, I have lots I'll never use, maybe one day you can.