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[Circuitbenders]

I've had enough of buying components from ebay and elsewhere only to find that what you actually receive is unusable crap so i thought i'd start a sticky thread where people can put up links to what NOT to buy.

To start things off, never buy cheap SPDT on-off-on switches from china on ebay as they are all utter crap, without exception. I just got 50 of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250672088959 and found that of the 49 i was actually sent, 15 of them don't work or just don't switch properly before i've even used them. A 30% failure rate out of the box doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about their survival rate in use.

If you've been on this board for a while you probably know about the cheap push buttons you find around the net but if not, never buy these http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Switches/Push-Button-Switches/Miniature-push-switches/64324 as they are useless. When it says 'These switches are not recommended for industrial applications' what it means is 'These switches are not recommended for ANY applications'. The buttons trigger randomly or not at all, the thread is destroyed the second you undo the nut and the whole thing melts the second you try to solder to the tags.

Anyone got anything else to avoid?

[Circuitbenders]

These pots from JPR can also be very dodgy http://www.jprelec.co.uk/store.asp/c=263/Rotary-Potentiometers

They work fine electronically and actually feel pretty good, but at least 50% of the time you find that either the nut or the shaft has been threaded at the wrong angle so when you attach the pot to a panel the nut doesn't go on flat with the surface. This means that as you tighten it, the nut tries to flatten out and shreds the plastic thread leaving the pot flapping around loose.

This doesn't happen every time, but its often enough that i wouldn't buy these pots any more.

[nochtanseenspecht]

yeah those pots suck, wear out to quick

[Bogus Noise]

Man, I hate those switches so much. Needed a sub-mini DPDT to finish something off last night, found a lone one of these... last piece I need before I start putting it all back together. Collapsed just as I was tightening it into place 

Are they the same as these ones? Would probs be a good idea to post persistance links where possible - that eBay listing will be gone in a few weeks.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Switches/Toggle-Switches/Miniature-toggle-switches-SCI/30254

[Circuitbenders]

that ebay link will be there forever, and if it isn't there will be a million others like it, continually tempting me to to buy some crap switches in the hope that this time they might be halfway decent. 

Those switches from rapid are pretty high quality, its just the cheap Chinese copies that look very similar that are complete crap. Having said that, the SPDT on/on or SPST on/off Chinese ones are kind of usable, but they do have a nasty habit of pulling the thread off the body of the switch when you tighten up the nut if you don't screw another nut on, and use the locking washer before sticking it through the panel.
Its mainly the three position ones that are completely useless in my experience.

At 50 for about £12 with free shipping it seems like you're getting a bargain, until you have to throw most of them away.

[Bogus Noise]

eBay links get purged after a while, for example the link you posted to that Thurlby power supply has gone. Not sure on the timescale but it's only a month or two. First of all it'll say 'This item does not exist or is no longer available.', not long after that it just takes you to the current listings in that category.

These days I'm wary of any blue toggles with 'low cost' in the description...

[Circuitbenders]

Has anyone else noticed that Rapid electronics invite you to put reviews and opinions on everything they sell on their website, but if you give anything a remotely bad review it magically gets moderated out of existence and is never posted?

Several people have mentioned this to me completely independently so its not just my account.

Seems like a bit of an underhand way of doing business.