Every
now and then, you just want a list of suppliers that a maker has put together.
Something you can browse through and that helps you discover some new sources
of cool kits or parts. That's what this list is about -- big names and little
names of companies that serve the maker space. Let us know which suppliers you
use and love in the comments below. We'll include them in a future edition.
Don't
forget to tell your friends about this comprehensive list.
- Arnold
Grummer’s is
everything you need to make paper.
- Science Toy Maker is
a true DIY website that doesn’t sell parts or kits, but tells you how to
make stuff. Tons of Tutorials are available on how to make simple, fun
projects via the site and YouTube.
- West Florida Components (New
Port Richey, FL) is an online superstore of semiconductors, capacitors,
diodes, and those hard to find parts you thought were obsolete. Great
learning center and how-to guides.
- Amazon You have to search your term
under electronics (usually) to get faster, more precise results. For
example, if you search “Arduino” under Electronics you’ll pull 977 results
from all sorts of merchants along with the trust Amazon rating system.
- Adafruit (New York, NY) is one of the most
community-focused DIY electronics and kit providers in the world of
makers. You can’t go far without finding one of Ladyada’s tutorials and
comments in some maker forum. Think MintyBoost, Arduino kits, and cool
Skill Badges.
- Electronic
Goldmine (Scottsdale, AZ) is the official
name on the site, despite the URL being reversed. It is a veritable
goldmine feeling, too, as you scroll down for pages of various special
offers, rare products, and otherwise fun stuff. You can search by
category, too.
- Electronix
Express (Rahway, NJ) says it is
electronics for schools and industry. You’ll find oscilloscopes,
programmable power supplies and a fat catalog you can download in PDF
format. They have a very cool science-related site called Science Purchase
with rockets, centrifuges, and chemistry sets.
- Newark/Element14 is another electronics superstore
with hundreds of brand name parts and suppliers. It offers a logical
category breakdown (lighting, sensing, alternative energy, wireless) and has
a powerful search tool (lets you pick RoHS compliant right from the start,
for example).
- All
Electronics (Oxnard,
CA) is home to thousands of electronic and mechanical parts, including DIY
kits, LEDs, test equipment.
- Polulu is a great source for robot kits,
robot parts, and they’ll even custom laser cut stuff for you.
- Modern
Device offers Freeduino, Arduino,
JeeLabs, sensors and loads of cool, unique kits.
- Mouser - If you’re not familiar with
electronics, then a name like mouser connotes small or cat-like. But the
opposite is true; Mouser is one of the largest electronics suppliers in
the world.
- Frys is well known as an electronics
superstore, but they are few and far between with actual retail stores.
But thankfully, they have a good online store, too. This link gets you straight to the
electronic components section.
- Alibaba is an online marketplace that
connects you to manufacturers from around the world, mostly Asia, that can
help you source for larger volume parts purchases.
- Find
Chips is a powerful search engine at
the component level. If you know the part number, item number, you can
search for it and find the major manufacturers for it. The thing I like
best is you find other suppliers, too.
- Surplus
Shed is a retail store with 9,000
square feet of surplus in Maidencreek, PA, much of it in the optical and
electronic category. You
can expect to find scopes of all types, beam splitters, and mirror blanks.
- BG
Micro – if you cannot find a part here
to build your project, it may not exist. BG Micro has a pretty extensive
catalog for the DIY crowd. Don’t miss the “Virtual Sidewalk Sale” page of
specials where, at press time, there were a pile 500 capacitors for $7.73.
- Verical is a superstore of electronic
components from companies that are looking to move unsold inventory
(usually). You can see how many are in stock, search and compare, for
common and uncommon items.
- Reynolds Electronics (Daytona Beach, FL) offers remote
control parts, PIC microcontrollers, robotics and more. The store is
dated, but appears to work well. It has lots of projects and descriptions
of how someone built a project.
- Solarbotics (Canada) is one of the top
sources for small solar power packs and project kits including the Pum
Lantern kit, a Solar Xylophone, and the Mini-Sumo robot.
- Advancer Technologies offers DIY
muscle sensor kits - EMG circuits for a microcontroller.
- American
Science & Surplus has
an eclectic mix of hobbyist gear from insect kits (think butterflies and
ant farms) to earth science to batteries.
- Alltronics (Santa Clara, CA) inspires trust
with its 100% Ebay feedback rating. With 9,000+ products, they make it
easy for electronics and DIY types.
- Science Purchase looks like a teacher’s dream.
They have loads of kits in bulk packs for easy classroom use.
- Evil
Mad Science (Sunnyvale,
CA) is rather famous for its fun and unique kits. Plus, they have terrific
educational posts on their blog.
- Marlin
P. Jones & Assoc. (Lake Park, FL) is well known for
inexpensive soldering stations, but they provide power supplies, high
lumen LED boards, and loads of tech gear.
- NKC
Electronics (Weston, FL) is an Arduino
authorized distributor and microcontrollers dominates the home page. They
do have other electronic and robotics components as well.
- Sparkfun
Electronics (Boulder, CO) is another major
player in the DIY electronics world. Their kits and tutorials are famous
and comprehensive. If you’re a kit maker, Sparkfun will consider selling
your product or kit, too.
- Unicorn Electronics (Aliquippa, PA) promises board
level components at the lowest price. They have loads of specials – web
and back of the warehouse type savings.
- Hobby Engineering is a retail store/warehouse space
in South San Francisco. It covers a wide range of hobbies including model
trains, electronics, woodcraft, and even doll houses. Lots of hard to find
components and fun kits are here, plus the Gift Guide is helpful.
- Hobby
and Engineering Supplies (Australia) offers
thousands of products including remote controlled cars, planes, boats, and
helicopters. They also distribute the full range of miniature engineering
products from the Miniature Bearings store (link from main site). This
range includes small bearings, timing pulleys, and timing belts.
- Jameco
Electronics has been
around for 35 years and has over 50,000 parts in its inventory. Based in Silicon Valley
(CA), they are also well known for The Robot Store (acquired in 2005).
Click the Workshop link to get tech tips on electronics projects.
- DigiKey is one of the major suppliers to
the maker community. Many people check this site before looking anywhere
else. They have a BOM (bill of materials) tool that is quite useful if
you’re selling kits and buying lots of parts.
- Futurlec is based in Asia and keeps new
products flowing through its website. They also offer PCB design and
manufacturing services.
- Maplin is
the UK’s superstore for electronics, appliances, and gadgets.
- PJRC (Portland, OR) is the place to go
if you’re looking for the Teensy USB development board. The company and
site are run by Paul and Robin and it includes lots of info on the 8051
Assembler Tools.
- NightFire Electronic Kits has PCB (printed circuit board) kits and home to
a tutorial on making your own Surface Mount Technology (SMT) PCB.
- Sphere
Research Corporation (Kelowna,
BC) is the place for used electronic test equipment. They have a large
supply of prime quality electronic / component surplus, too.
- LaserBits (Phoenix, AZ) is one of the best laser cutter
supply shops. They have CerMark marking solution (hard to find in small
quantities) as well as acrylic shapes and cut pieces, metal, leather, and
other laser cutter accessories.
- Super Bright LEDs has lighting components, but also fully built
RV, Marine, and Landscape lighting. All LED, of course.
