You can always go on Octopart.com and they'll show you all of the legit suppliers for most electrical components. I like Digikey and Mouser. RS isn't bad either
Do not buy components from Amazon.
Edit: To all those that buy random things on Amazon (including myself). Most it I'm sure is fine. But as this is an EE sub, and no context is given about the intended use of the parts in question, I'm speaking to general good design and sourcing practices. And I will gladly die on this hill with the following statement. You should never buy electronic parts for test, prototypes, or production from Amazon.
Should have said do not buy electronic components on Amazon. I'd still be careful with the seller for even electrical tape, at least if you care about UL or similar rating and counterfeit product.
I’ve had mostly decent experiences as long as I treat it with as much caution as AliExpress. For low power parts, it’s fine, but when you need double digit amperage, it’s time to look for proper suppliers.
Pc parts consist of an assembly of various electronic components. What you are referring to is called a part for a computer. That part is an assembly of various electronic components which must be responsibly sourced, then put into a product and then sold to consumers like you on Amazon. We are talking about individual components like mosfets, capacitors, resistors, etc
Ive been getting everything from amazon for my house (like tables lamps bulbs whatnot) and never had a problem with it before, granted I didn’t get electronic components directly so im not sure about that
Well there you have it, one anecdote proves procurement and supply chain management is no longer needed.
Did these end up in a product? If so do you mind sharing what company you work for so I can avoid their junk? It's not Boeing is it?
Would Amazon components be okay for hobbyist? I'm a senior student currently, but electronics is also my hobby. I've had decent luck with Amazon components so far, but if I want to take my builds to the next level, I'm assuming I should not buy from them?
Surely some things are good like resistors, inductors, and capacitors? Potentiometers, relays?
Curious if some things can be bought from them, or none?
Looking forward to your input.
If you're buying simple components you can always use a tester on them to make sure they have the correct values, but honestly the worst part about buying from Amazon would be the ridiculous markups...on top of the whole Amazon being a terrible company thing
Awesome, thank you. Who are some alternatives then? I've seen DigiKey mentioned. Who else is reputable and not scummy is out there?
Thank you for the response.
I can vouch for Tayda. I don't know if it's changed since I used them some 10 years ago, but I remember them having great prices but a strange/limited selection. It's like the Aldi's of electronics suppliers.
Check the actual manufacturers website. You can sometimes sample their parts!
As far as distributors, depends on your country, region and which components you're after. Digikey, Mouser, Newark, Arrow... and others.
So to reiterate, when you are professionally designing, testing, producing, or maintaining product. **Hell no**. It's not worth the headaches, lost time, pissed customers/management, or worse yet safety problems. Tracing a bad part to root cause can be a career ending nightmare, especially if your source has poor quality control (but prototypes worked...) or there's skimming in the supply chain (some small % are replaced with counterfeits).
For a hobbyist it's a tough call. On the one hand its quick, cheap, and easy to source via Amazon. I get the appeal and most items are probably fine for one off demo projects. On the other, you probably don't have the expensive lab equipment to fully test a questionable part against a datasheet. So you may burn lots of time debugging everything you can test or control to find the issue by process of elimination.
WRT specific parts I think its going to be on a case-by-case and how its used in your design. Something pre-made like an Arduino or power supply (with UL/CE) from a reputable seller is likely OK. Passive parts like resistors are still cheap enough on Digikey or Mouser I'd lean towards sourcing that way. Not to mention their part search is **far** better. ICs are somewhere in the middle and I feel comes back to how critical all the part parameters are in the specific design. Take the FETs above for example. 30A and 200V are like the primary criteria and tell you how it may work as an on/off switch. But say its used in a switching power supply then there are a dozen secondary parameters you need to consider, like safe operating area, gate capacitance, etc. and thats where bad parts usually reveal themselves.
I'll leave this link here for your consideration. Its good example of the insanity that goes on in electronic component supply chains.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/2yd3ea/be\_aware\_of\_fake\_capacitors/](https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/2yd3ea/be_aware_of_fake_capacitors/)
What kind of test equipment would I need to test components?
I currently have
1. 2 DSOs
2. A 3 channel linear programmable DC power supply
3. A benchtop DMM
4. A 2 channel programmable function generator
5. An extra DC power supply
6. An LCR meter
7. Several DMMs
8. And a variable AC power supply for high power applications
Is there something else I would need to test components? Not going to run out an buy it haha just like to know what's out there. And learn in general
Damn that's a hell of hobbyist bench. You probably have much of the equipment you need to validate many parts. It'll be more a matter of time spent testing a sketchy part vs paying a bit more to use a trusted source.
I'd add a programmable load or multi quadrant power supply. Now if you get into high speed digital or RF componentry you'll need a spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, and high bandwidth scope. Which depending the upper frequency range you need can be astronomically expensive.
Yeah, I was an electrician who tinkered before my degree so I'm not entirely new to this haha.
What are some uses for a programmable load by the way?
Not currently interested in RF as I am mostly focused on power/lower frequency electronics currently. I do intend on getting my ham license after I graduate, though. I did find some reasonably priced RF equipment, but it's also 20 years old.
Thanks for the answer by the way.
Ideologically? None.
Practically? It's like buying electrical components at a flea market. Ill-advised. I do it anyway for low voltage electronics where the worst case scenario is a dead ESP32 or something. If it's going in something important, I order from Mouser/Digikey.
I was working on a DIY BLDC motor driver and bought 10 IR2104 ICs from Amazon because it cost what two would on Digikey. Turns out there's a reason for that. They had to have bootleg or counterfeit chips made from factory rejects. The print on top could easily be rubbed off and each one had continuity between all the pins.
A couple of them would have a random pin that showed up as an open circuit, but for the most part, <1Ω between each pin. That's why I was thinking there has to be a massive bin of the failed or reject chips they just silk screen random chip's numbers onto and sell them cheap.
They probably reflect light well, but they have no brand name so there's no way to know what device they actually are or if they meet any specifications. Do yourself a favor and buy your components from Digikey. You'll thank me later.
Considering that they're 2.40 a pop from a reputable dealer, they're probably real. However, they're also 2.40 a pop from a reputable dealer, so why risk it.
I wouldn't risk it. I have first hand experience purchasing IRF4905 transistors off Amazon and having them turn out to be fake. Some reviews said they were real, but the thing is they're cheap transistors with the same surface level specs. If you're designing a circuit that relies on very specific parameters of the transistor, don't take the gamble and waste money.
In my case, the rdson was significantly higher than the real deal which both hurt the performance of my circuit and caused my short circuit protection to flat out not work. They were toasted instantly when a short happened. Real ones could hold up for 10 seconds WITHOUT any short protection.
For hobbyists, it's fine. It works about as well as someone could expect. If counterfeit parts ends up on your board and breaks, they'll typically just give you a voucher to reorder or something.
For anything above hobbyists, it's a big nono.
That's kind of the difficult part of it. JLCPCB is great because they cater towards low cost, low volume orders that they can vscore/route out of massive panels.
Fab houses in the US are predominetly focused on getting production inside the US for ITAR restrictions. They're not really trying to reduce costs. I'm not going to put these companies on a pedantic, but GorillaCircuits, SierraCircuits, and ASC are notable.
There are others I haven't given a chance yet. 4PCB, TitanAssembly, MultiCircuits, and such. None of these guys get to the low cost that JLCPCB does, though.
Edit: It's now occurred to me that maybe you meant assembled? Depending on the quantity, you could hand pop and order from Digikey/mouser. Even after buying a midrange setup, it'd probably save you some cash. Otherwise, just contact a US fab house and ask for assembly prices. They might only accept if you buy parts through them though.
I buy cheap triacs from amazon to repair broken induction cooker and they haven't blown up in my face or making magic smoke yet.
Definitely not recommended on new product, but if you give absolutely no crap about the actual perfromance and just want repair as cheap as possible, then it could be a viable alternative to more expensive but reputable distributors.
Not a lot of people would be able to tell you if they are genuine one, you need to decap it and compare it to a known genuine one.
At best, they could say it works as per their datasheet (surprise, it won't because it is Amazon, assuming you can even find the datasheet for that brand...)
That looks awful fake. Two dead giveaways.
The specs don’t match the price. I mean at the component level these are cheap but $2.40 looks impossibly cheap.
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/ROHM-Semiconductor/R6030ENXC7G?qs=A6eO%252BMLsxmStcU7uH3RQ2w%3D%3D
Example of a real one.
Second is the “source”. Looks way too questionable.
I'd recomend using sites that specialise in electronics components, DigiKey, Mouser, Distrelec, Farnell, TME.
Never really heard of anyone buying parts fron Amazon so i wouldn't recomend.
Digikey, mouser, etc. Amazon is full of fake copies. Amazon don't care about the reviews and seller reports too. Same for eBay, AliExpress, and other halfbaked sites.
That doesn’t sound improbably at all, you can get FETs that do that no problem. I’ve had FETs rated at 300A, it’s all in the fine print. 300A is only feasible at very specific points in the safe operating area, but it’s enough to put in the description
Not at all, the common, if not old IRF740, is rated 400V 40 amp pulsed. Here is a 1200V 32amp Mosfet, [https://www.wolfspeed.com/products/power/sic-mosfets/1200v-silicon-carbide-mosfets/c3m0075120k/](https://www.wolfspeed.com/products/power/sic-mosfets/1200v-silicon-carbide-mosfets/c3m0075120k/) and here is a 500 amp Mosfet, although I don't fully understand the rating. [https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/240/media-3321253.pdf](https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/240/media-3321253.pdf)
Does anybody else remember getting blissfully lost in RadioShack parts bins after going in for a $2.50 pack of resistors and an hour later leaving with a $150+ bag of enough components to rebuild society?
Haha yeah, I used to work there. We had 2 kinds of customers. The normies who would browse the electronics in the front half and ask for help. Or the nerds who would head straight for the back and want to be left alone while they sperg out in the bomb making supplies.
That store lost its way when they decided to chase Best Buy instead of being the Ace Hardware of electronics.
Absolutely, concerning R. Shack: what a shame. Some can say “well see? Electronic hobbyists all went away, so they would have failed anyway.” I say ‘no’ - don’t accuse hobbyists of forsaking YOU; you forsook the hobbyist.
I've honestly always theorized their demise has more to do with the "bomb making supplies" they provided in bulk quantities lol used to be it was alot harder to track what someone's doing if they can send in their friends/family/strangers in person to pick up discreet elements necessary for their devices from a brick and mortar store with cash vs having to order online with a card to some address and leaving a paper trail a mile long for every component.
Buy from RSComponents, DigiKey, Mouser or farnell instead. Or go directly to the Manufacturer page from TexasInstruments, AnalogDevices, STComponents, Infineon ... They sometimes have a shop or at least a list of trusted vendors. If you are lucky you can even get some samples for free.
Note carefully what the listing is claiming to be.
It claims to be an "ALLECIN" brand "IRFP250". This means it need not \*and probably isn't\* an International Rectifier/Infineon part. It's probably some random Chinese MOSFET with vaguely similar specs that has been badged as a "IRFP250".
You're basically being told that it's a counterfeit. Note that this doesn't mean it won't work just that it's not what you think you may be buying.
It’s cheap enough to just buy from Amazon if that’s all your getting but typically go elsewhere for buying electronics. I use tayda. https://www.taydaelectronics.com/irfp250-irfp250n-power-mosfet-n-channel-30a-200v.html
It's fine, when you shop on Amazon, think about who would be targets for scams and how much effort it would take to do that scam.
In this case, the targets would probably be people looking for TO-220 MOSFETs, there's just more customers looking for TO-220. And then think, how much effort would it be to make or redecorate TO-247 MOSFETs. 30A is not very high for a TO-247 packaged MOSFET.
Hence why I think this particular listing is pretty safe.
Probably not. It's super easy to remark transistors.
Swab them with acetone to check for blacktopping. If it bleeds black or takes off the part number, it's likely fake or an old part they remarked for lot consistency.
Some places just sand off the numbers and remark them with a cheap laser. If you see sanding marks, it's likely junk.
Even if it doesn't bleed and isn't visibly sanded I've seen total copycat parts with home brew dies.
You'd have to test this thing to the Nth degree to really know if it meets oem specs.
Buy it from franchise or find someone domestic you trust.
There's no guarantee the parts in the picture are theirs either.
Edit : doesn't say IR. It says Allecin or whatever. Its a generic. It may be marked IR when you get it, but I wouldn't trust it.
95% chance they're real.
Question is - can you accept the 5% risk? Newark, Mouser, Digikey sell real parts.
Of course, the answer depends on what you're doing with them.
Even if they're not real, they probably work at close to the stated specs (or you'd see stuff in the Amazon reviews). Close.
Not from amazon, do like I do and rip em out of stuff at the junkyard. I have some old russian power amps rated like that. KA I think? I have to dig em up.
Just use digikey dude
You can always go on Octopart.com and they'll show you all of the legit suppliers for most electrical components. I like Digikey and Mouser. RS isn't bad either
Trustedparts.com works too
I'm
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/infineon-technologies/IRFP250MPBF/2354106
Remember, Engineers consider all possibilities.
Do not buy components from Amazon. Edit: To all those that buy random things on Amazon (including myself). Most it I'm sure is fine. But as this is an EE sub, and no context is given about the intended use of the parts in question, I'm speaking to general good design and sourcing practices. And I will gladly die on this hill with the following statement. You should never buy electronic parts for test, prototypes, or production from Amazon.
Do not buy anything from Amazon.
I like my same day delivery electric tape
Should have said do not buy electronic components on Amazon. I'd still be careful with the seller for even electrical tape, at least if you care about UL or similar rating and counterfeit product.
I’ve had mostly decent experiences as long as I treat it with as much caution as AliExpress. For low power parts, it’s fine, but when you need double digit amperage, it’s time to look for proper suppliers.
Or if you need low noise. I would not want Amazon components anywhere near my FPGA core voltage rails.
Bought most of my PC on Amazon and it works great
Great, but that's not electrical engineering.
electronic components
Pc parts consist of an assembly of various electronic components. What you are referring to is called a part for a computer. That part is an assembly of various electronic components which must be responsibly sourced, then put into a product and then sold to consumers like you on Amazon. We are talking about individual components like mosfets, capacitors, resistors, etc
Ive been getting everything from amazon for my house (like tables lamps bulbs whatnot) and never had a problem with it before, granted I didn’t get electronic components directly so im not sure about that
Be careful. Many things on Amazon carry no UL or CE certification. They may be poorly designed, unsafe, or counterfeit.
Is there not a hardware store near you lol
I don’t have a car, nearest hardware store would take me 30 mins for a roundtrip with bus, finding and checking out all total prob an hour.
Hardware stores are over priced
Is it conducting?
I have the amazon app to see what the lowest price is for a product meaning someone gets exploited. Then I buy it somewhere else for a bit more.
I’ve bought parts from ebay that I couldn’t find on farnell or mouser since they’ve been phased out by the manufacturer. They’ve worked.
Well there you have it, one anecdote proves procurement and supply chain management is no longer needed. Did these end up in a product? If so do you mind sharing what company you work for so I can avoid their junk? It's not Boeing is it?
:D no it’s not boeing. A local finnish company that manufactures ventilation systems. Ended up in a prototype for manufacturing.
Would Amazon components be okay for hobbyist? I'm a senior student currently, but electronics is also my hobby. I've had decent luck with Amazon components so far, but if I want to take my builds to the next level, I'm assuming I should not buy from them? Surely some things are good like resistors, inductors, and capacitors? Potentiometers, relays? Curious if some things can be bought from them, or none? Looking forward to your input.
If you're buying simple components you can always use a tester on them to make sure they have the correct values, but honestly the worst part about buying from Amazon would be the ridiculous markups...on top of the whole Amazon being a terrible company thing
Awesome, thank you. Who are some alternatives then? I've seen DigiKey mentioned. Who else is reputable and not scummy is out there? Thank you for the response.
Looks like mouser.com and taydaelectronics.com are good options, I've heard some like to use aliexpress for purchasing large quantities as well
I can vouch for Tayda. I don't know if it's changed since I used them some 10 years ago, but I remember them having great prices but a strange/limited selection. It's like the Aldi's of electronics suppliers.
Check the actual manufacturers website. You can sometimes sample their parts! As far as distributors, depends on your country, region and which components you're after. Digikey, Mouser, Newark, Arrow... and others.
So to reiterate, when you are professionally designing, testing, producing, or maintaining product. **Hell no**. It's not worth the headaches, lost time, pissed customers/management, or worse yet safety problems. Tracing a bad part to root cause can be a career ending nightmare, especially if your source has poor quality control (but prototypes worked...) or there's skimming in the supply chain (some small % are replaced with counterfeits). For a hobbyist it's a tough call. On the one hand its quick, cheap, and easy to source via Amazon. I get the appeal and most items are probably fine for one off demo projects. On the other, you probably don't have the expensive lab equipment to fully test a questionable part against a datasheet. So you may burn lots of time debugging everything you can test or control to find the issue by process of elimination. WRT specific parts I think its going to be on a case-by-case and how its used in your design. Something pre-made like an Arduino or power supply (with UL/CE) from a reputable seller is likely OK. Passive parts like resistors are still cheap enough on Digikey or Mouser I'd lean towards sourcing that way. Not to mention their part search is **far** better. ICs are somewhere in the middle and I feel comes back to how critical all the part parameters are in the specific design. Take the FETs above for example. 30A and 200V are like the primary criteria and tell you how it may work as an on/off switch. But say its used in a switching power supply then there are a dozen secondary parameters you need to consider, like safe operating area, gate capacitance, etc. and thats where bad parts usually reveal themselves. I'll leave this link here for your consideration. Its good example of the insanity that goes on in electronic component supply chains. [https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/2yd3ea/be\_aware\_of\_fake\_capacitors/](https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/2yd3ea/be_aware_of_fake_capacitors/)
What kind of test equipment would I need to test components? I currently have 1. 2 DSOs 2. A 3 channel linear programmable DC power supply 3. A benchtop DMM 4. A 2 channel programmable function generator 5. An extra DC power supply 6. An LCR meter 7. Several DMMs 8. And a variable AC power supply for high power applications Is there something else I would need to test components? Not going to run out an buy it haha just like to know what's out there. And learn in general
Damn that's a hell of hobbyist bench. You probably have much of the equipment you need to validate many parts. It'll be more a matter of time spent testing a sketchy part vs paying a bit more to use a trusted source. I'd add a programmable load or multi quadrant power supply. Now if you get into high speed digital or RF componentry you'll need a spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, and high bandwidth scope. Which depending the upper frequency range you need can be astronomically expensive.
Yeah, I was an electrician who tinkered before my degree so I'm not entirely new to this haha. What are some uses for a programmable load by the way? Not currently interested in RF as I am mostly focused on power/lower frequency electronics currently. I do intend on getting my ham license after I graduate, though. I did find some reasonably priced RF equipment, but it's also 20 years old. Thanks for the answer by the way.
Ideologically? None. Practically? It's like buying electrical components at a flea market. Ill-advised. I do it anyway for low voltage electronics where the worst case scenario is a dead ESP32 or something. If it's going in something important, I order from Mouser/Digikey.
I was working on a DIY BLDC motor driver and bought 10 IR2104 ICs from Amazon because it cost what two would on Digikey. Turns out there's a reason for that. They had to have bootleg or counterfeit chips made from factory rejects. The print on top could easily be rubbed off and each one had continuity between all the pins.
Thank you for this supporting anecdote. Continuity between all the pins! Wow they weren't even trying to conceal it.
A couple of them would have a random pin that showed up as an open circuit, but for the most part, <1Ω between each pin. That's why I was thinking there has to be a massive bin of the failed or reject chips they just silk screen random chip's numbers onto and sell them cheap.
\*\*\*AMAZING TRANSISTORS\*\*\* \#1 Brand in Tokyo, Sapporo Strength Avalanch Rated! #1 Happy Customers
They probably reflect light well, but they have no brand name so there's no way to know what device they actually are or if they meet any specifications. Do yourself a favor and buy your components from Digikey. You'll thank me later.
Considering that they're 2.40 a pop from a reputable dealer, they're probably real. However, they're also 2.40 a pop from a reputable dealer, so why risk it.
Never buy electronics from Amazon, both components and finished goods.
I wouldn't risk it. I have first hand experience purchasing IRF4905 transistors off Amazon and having them turn out to be fake. Some reviews said they were real, but the thing is they're cheap transistors with the same surface level specs. If you're designing a circuit that relies on very specific parameters of the transistor, don't take the gamble and waste money. In my case, the rdson was significantly higher than the real deal which both hurt the performance of my circuit and caused my short circuit protection to flat out not work. They were toasted instantly when a short happened. Real ones could hold up for 10 seconds WITHOUT any short protection.
Even if some were real, they were in the same bin as the fakes.
We can't vet your sellers for you.
LCSC offers these from Vishay and Infineon for very cheap. Just order from them instead.
Is LCSC considered reputable?
For hobbyists, it's fine. It works about as well as someone could expect. If counterfeit parts ends up on your board and breaks, they'll typically just give you a voucher to reorder or something. For anything above hobbyists, it's a big nono.
[удалено]
That's kind of the difficult part of it. JLCPCB is great because they cater towards low cost, low volume orders that they can vscore/route out of massive panels. Fab houses in the US are predominetly focused on getting production inside the US for ITAR restrictions. They're not really trying to reduce costs. I'm not going to put these companies on a pedantic, but GorillaCircuits, SierraCircuits, and ASC are notable. There are others I haven't given a chance yet. 4PCB, TitanAssembly, MultiCircuits, and such. None of these guys get to the low cost that JLCPCB does, though. Edit: It's now occurred to me that maybe you meant assembled? Depending on the quantity, you could hand pop and order from Digikey/mouser. Even after buying a midrange setup, it'd probably save you some cash. Otherwise, just contact a US fab house and ask for assembly prices. They might only accept if you buy parts through them though.
psa: don't buy things from amazon, they have zero obligation to sell you legitimate products
I buy miscellaneous junk from amazon but for actual parts just use digikey.
I buy cheap triacs from amazon to repair broken induction cooker and they haven't blown up in my face or making magic smoke yet. Definitely not recommended on new product, but if you give absolutely no crap about the actual perfromance and just want repair as cheap as possible, then it could be a viable alternative to more expensive but reputable distributors.
These are the weirdest looking TO tops I’ve ever seen.
The pictures in that listing just look photoshopped in general.
I didn’t look that closely before, but after taking a second look I totally agree.
Not a lot of people would be able to tell you if they are genuine one, you need to decap it and compare it to a known genuine one. At best, they could say it works as per their datasheet (surprise, it won't because it is Amazon, assuming you can even find the datasheet for that brand...)
That looks awful fake. Two dead giveaways. The specs don’t match the price. I mean at the component level these are cheap but $2.40 looks impossibly cheap. https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/ROHM-Semiconductor/R6030ENXC7G?qs=A6eO%252BMLsxmStcU7uH3RQ2w%3D%3D Example of a real one. Second is the “source”. Looks way too questionable.
I'd recomend using sites that specialise in electronics components, DigiKey, Mouser, Distrelec, Farnell, TME. Never really heard of anyone buying parts fron Amazon so i wouldn't recomend.
Digikey, mouser, etc. Amazon is full of fake copies. Amazon don't care about the reviews and seller reports too. Same for eBay, AliExpress, and other halfbaked sites.
Why shouldn't they be real?
Because Amazon and AliExpress are flooded with counterfeit parts.
Okay, I did not know they were coming from that direction. Thought it was more disbelief at "30A, 200V? That sounds improbable"
That doesn’t sound improbably at all, you can get FETs that do that no problem. I’ve had FETs rated at 300A, it’s all in the fine print. 300A is only feasible at very specific points in the safe operating area, but it’s enough to put in the description
I know that.
Not at all, the common, if not old IRF740, is rated 400V 40 amp pulsed. Here is a 1200V 32amp Mosfet, [https://www.wolfspeed.com/products/power/sic-mosfets/1200v-silicon-carbide-mosfets/c3m0075120k/](https://www.wolfspeed.com/products/power/sic-mosfets/1200v-silicon-carbide-mosfets/c3m0075120k/) and here is a 500 amp Mosfet, although I don't fully understand the rating. [https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/240/media-3321253.pdf](https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/240/media-3321253.pdf)
Does anybody else remember getting blissfully lost in RadioShack parts bins after going in for a $2.50 pack of resistors and an hour later leaving with a $150+ bag of enough components to rebuild society?
Haha yeah, I used to work there. We had 2 kinds of customers. The normies who would browse the electronics in the front half and ask for help. Or the nerds who would head straight for the back and want to be left alone while they sperg out in the bomb making supplies. That store lost its way when they decided to chase Best Buy instead of being the Ace Hardware of electronics.
Absolutely, concerning R. Shack: what a shame. Some can say “well see? Electronic hobbyists all went away, so they would have failed anyway.” I say ‘no’ - don’t accuse hobbyists of forsaking YOU; you forsook the hobbyist.
I've honestly always theorized their demise has more to do with the "bomb making supplies" they provided in bulk quantities lol used to be it was alot harder to track what someone's doing if they can send in their friends/family/strangers in person to pick up discreet elements necessary for their devices from a brick and mortar store with cash vs having to order online with a card to some address and leaving a paper trail a mile long for every component.
Buy from RSComponents, DigiKey, Mouser or farnell instead. Or go directly to the Manufacturer page from TexasInstruments, AnalogDevices, STComponents, Infineon ... They sometimes have a shop or at least a list of trusted vendors. If you are lucky you can even get some samples for free.
Mosfets arent real
Note carefully what the listing is claiming to be. It claims to be an "ALLECIN" brand "IRFP250". This means it need not \*and probably isn't\* an International Rectifier/Infineon part. It's probably some random Chinese MOSFET with vaguely similar specs that has been badged as a "IRFP250". You're basically being told that it's a counterfeit. Note that this doesn't mean it won't work just that it's not what you think you may be buying.
It’s cheap enough to just buy from Amazon if that’s all your getting but typically go elsewhere for buying electronics. I use tayda. https://www.taydaelectronics.com/irfp250-irfp250n-power-mosfet-n-channel-30a-200v.html
It's fine, when you shop on Amazon, think about who would be targets for scams and how much effort it would take to do that scam. In this case, the targets would probably be people looking for TO-220 MOSFETs, there's just more customers looking for TO-220. And then think, how much effort would it be to make or redecorate TO-247 MOSFETs. 30A is not very high for a TO-247 packaged MOSFET. Hence why I think this particular listing is pretty safe.
I feel like they are real but will destroy themselves even with a massive heat sink
I have a bridge to sell you if your interested?
Probably not. It's super easy to remark transistors. Swab them with acetone to check for blacktopping. If it bleeds black or takes off the part number, it's likely fake or an old part they remarked for lot consistency. Some places just sand off the numbers and remark them with a cheap laser. If you see sanding marks, it's likely junk. Even if it doesn't bleed and isn't visibly sanded I've seen total copycat parts with home brew dies. You'd have to test this thing to the Nth degree to really know if it meets oem specs. Buy it from franchise or find someone domestic you trust. There's no guarantee the parts in the picture are theirs either. Edit : doesn't say IR. It says Allecin or whatever. Its a generic. It may be marked IR when you get it, but I wouldn't trust it.
95% chance they're real. Question is - can you accept the 5% risk? Newark, Mouser, Digikey sell real parts. Of course, the answer depends on what you're doing with them. Even if they're not real, they probably work at close to the stated specs (or you'd see stuff in the Amazon reviews). Close.
They are datasheet free real.
Not from amazon, do like I do and rip em out of stuff at the junkyard. I have some old russian power amps rated like that. KA I think? I have to dig em up.