Hi, I'm Chris. I work on websites for selecting Electronic Components

#1

Hi There, I’m based in Wimbledon. I tinker with electronic component search sites. My current project is BuyParts.io. It’s basically a datasheet site with some parametric data. Aimed at the hobbyist.

Feedback welcome. Would love to hear the good/bad so i can improve on it.

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#2

Looks great but obviously for fairly techy people?

How might an ordinary human use it?

What’s the simplest project someone could do which your site would help with?

#3

Hi Robert, yes it is quite technical and aimed at people who are building circuits.

it’s mainly for parts selection. So if you require a part or to replace a part you can enter the parametric data and find something. Especially good for replacing obsolete parts. For example. your bom has a capacitor 2.2uf but the part number is no longer available. you can filter down to an equivalent part package, and spec.

I guess for hobbyists picking cheap 7 segment displays or lcds is something it’s being used for right now.

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#4

Hi Chris,

The @electrotechs may be interested in this, among others!

#5

Hi Chris , nice project you got there , are you pulling data from farnel/RS?

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#6

Hey Chris!

Yeah, looks awesome. +1 for RS/Farnell(all of the brands) - they’re very hobbyist accessible these days.

Some features of PCPartPicker that would be good:

  • Projects/builds (I guess this is what the BOM upload tool will be doing)
    • Make these sharable also! So I could publish a PCB on OSHPark and a BoM on your site, which you could automatically set up to find replacements where things are out of stock
    • Make project components parametric searches, so that I can pick out a specific component from a list of identical ones.
  • Price tracking for components in general categories (like this https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/video-card/ )
  • Being able to pick preferred suppliers for selecting parts

I guess your main competition is someone like octopart.

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#7

Thanks Naxxfish & emuboy. It took a lot of work. Quite difficult getting it out there and getting some feedback as new website start with zero ranking.

I do like the pcpartpicker concept but I’m some way off being able to replicate that sort of thing with component categories. Right now I’m working on a fleamarket type search for cheap components. So i’m trying to aggregate the main distributors and the sites like ebay and aliepress.

Of course BOM functionality and pricing will be essential for that to work. Will keep you guys posted. Many thanks for the initial feedback.

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#8

So I searched atmega328 and there was no chip, just boards, the same is true with a lot of searches.

#9

Thanks Tom,
It defaults to the category with the most results. So for example that search had a few categories. only problem is i’ve hidden the categorys in the left icon menu while i figure out how to bring them into the main results.