parts dealers ottawa

[marcipicus]

I am planning on going to algonquin college next year for electronics engineering technology and i was wondering if there are some good parts dealers around ottawa.

P.S. What would be a "proper" soldering station if i am going to be using it alot (school and home projects)?

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

www.site.uottawa.ca/~rabielmo/electronicStores.html
a list of electronic component stores in Ottawa! (google is your friend)

Good luck with the course & study that maths, everything else changes during your life except the maths!

[Mark Hammer]

Welcome to the Ottawa DIY mafia.

There are a half dozen places to buy from directly in Ottawa:

1) Gervais Electronics on Industrial in the east end.  Not many bargains, but reasonable selection.  Carries largely NTE semis.

2) A.D.D. Electronics on Armstrong near Parkdale Market.  Some bargains.  They still carry germanium transistors, and sell a surplus choke that made a decent wah for a buck.  Occasionally some bargains in semis, and a reasonable selection of Hammond boxes at okay prices, but awkward hours and sluggish service.  Nice folks, though.  Catalog is from Addison Electronics in Montreal.

3) L-Tronix on Merivale near Carling.  One of two regional upstarts.  Carries good cheap selection of Japanese semis (even MN3207/3102 and M5218L !!) but never has anything in stock and has to order from main store in Mississauga.  A bit of wait, but often worth it.  Not sure how these guys make a living, though satellite dishes to Arabic/North-African clientele may be their bread and butter.

4) Active/Future Electronics on Merivale, 50 metres from L-Tronix.  The same selection as any Future Elec outlet on the continent, though stock is limited.  Still, nice to be able to see if its in stock, and know the price, without having to wait for someone to use a computer or catalog.  Occasional bargains, but disappointing selection of passive components.

5) Reset Electronics near Ikea in west end (5 minutes from my place).  Clientele is largely corporate, so not much on display in the aisles.  Semis mostly NTE, and prices not much better than Rat Shack.  HOWEVER, the only place I've ever seen with flangelid 1590-series Hammond boxes in stock.

6) Lalonde Electronics in Gatineau on St. Joseph.  Small, mostly NTE, only if you're desparate.

Finally, though not an electronics place per se, Computer Recyclers on McLellan (south on Merivale past Hunt Club towards Barrhaven, left after the tracks) has given me some astounding deals from time to time.  Found me a Jensen C12R for $10 two months ago, plus a bottomless supply of great wallwarts, occasional stashes of toggle switches and power supply caps, and all manner of inexpensive (but unusual) chassis to suit your every whim.  If you get desparate for a rack-panel rack, that's where you go.  Sadly, only open for retail on Fridays and Saturdays.

Enough info?

[saros141]

I've always wanted to check this place out:

http://www.testequipmentcanada.com/

Looks like he has tons of cool surplus to dig through.

[sir_modulus]

Hey, that test equipment site is pretty cool! I've been looking for some cheap old tube equipment! Thanks!!

Cheers,

Nish

[Mark Hammer]

Mike Irwin (Vsat) has told me about this place and visited it himself many times.  Never been there myself, though.

[StephenGiles]

Amazing Mark, just in Ottowa - there are not that many suppliers in the whole of London. In Croydon, our nearest abomination of a town, there is just Maplin, say no more!
Stephen

[Vsat]

Mark,
No, haven't visited it many times... a bit of a jaunt just to go browsing, but it is a nice drive. Ron and Bill Ford have been running W.J. Ford's Surplus (www.testequipment.ca) for at least a couple of decades now. Good guys to deal with, and their mail-order service is excellent if you can't visit in person. Never know what you might find there, as the new stock comes and goes. They have always had a 55-gal drum of desoldered germanium and silicon power transistors....
Regards, Mike

[Mark Hammer]

My mistake.  Must have confused it with the other place in Arnprior.  At least am I correct on THAT one? :oops:

Amazing Mark, just in Ottowa - there are not that many suppliers in the whole of London. In Croydon, our nearest abomination of a town, there is just Maplin, say no more!
Stephen

For one brief shining instant, Ottawa was Canada's "Silicon Valley North".  Though there is still a fairly sizeable telecomm sector here, many of the larger companies (Nortel, JDS, etc.) have shrunk considerably in the last 5 years.  Neither Toronto or Montreal are easily sneezed at these days.  ATI, for example, is based in T.O., and Matrox is based in Mtl, and that's just the tip of a technological iceberg.  Of course, I'm not sure what that has to do with the availability of NE5532's or "greenie" caps, but we're in reasonably good shape...enough so we don't hold too big a grudge against the declining inventory of Radio Shack.  These days, though, I suppose, location rarely provides an obstacle to getting parts in most areas of North America.  In many instances, people can probably place an order over the net and receive it before they get a chance to make it over to a retail outlet during operating hours.  Certainly guys (no, let's change that to saints) like Steve Daniels make it even easier.

[Vsat]

Mark,
The best place surplus picking I ever had was when I was invited to help a buddy "decommission" a 40-year old military electronics lab a few miles out of Ottawa... now that was fun. Don't hear about those "events" too often.

For the most part I find it advantageous to use mail order, and thus get to spend the time actually building stuff, rather than driving around every weekend hoping to find Part XYZ at some local establishment. More productive, and less frustation.
Cheers, Mike
P.S. Don't forget to mention the Radio Shack franchise in Manotick