any Canadians????

[davent]

Poster on another board had come into an excessive amount of Garolite and was looking to share, for free, some of that windfall. I exchanged some emails, gave him my address, is it a problem to ship to Canada,  told him to let me know how much it would cost to ship a couple pieces that would fit comfortably in a large manilla envelope, I'm thinking the USPS flat fee envelope which doesn't/didn't(?) cost much but holds lots, I wanted to at least pay for the shipping on this, hard/impossible to source in Canada product.

Next time i heard from him, "no problem, it's on the way, i ran next door sent it out, don't worry about the shipping just happy it's going to be used etc."

Unfortunately next door was UPS, he had no idea what UPS does to us up here north of the border. I did get a tracking number... and some nice sheets of Garolite did arrive but it cost me over $39 in ransom demands to get it released at the door.

dave

[GGBB]

A request for the Toronto population. Let me know if you guys see any shops in town with J201 in stock.

I was at A1 this morning and asked - he said he normally has them but was out at the moment - he'll have more next week.  He even showed me the note he made in his book.

[Richarius]

Kitchener.
Small Bear and Digikey are my favourites.  Shortly after I brought up banana jacks with Steve he started stocking them, thankfully.
The pricing at our local Sayal is insane for most things.  They DO stock vero, perf and strip board though.  So if I'm in a rush, I head out there grab some from Parm.  Convenient.

I know this is a stompbox related form but - by chance: are there any other Kitchener / etc. people out there that are building Lunetta / noise gear?   Or even, building any electronic music gear with interests in noise/experimental?  I've been trying to find others, without success, for quite some time now.  (I've been designing / building my modular synth for normal as well as noise interests, since Summer 2005.)

Take care,
Rich

http://www.youtube.com/dolphinicus - a few of my vids'll give you an idea as to my noise pursuits / etc.

[Jdansti]

Welcome Rich!

There are other synth/noise folks on the forum.  There is often some overlap between synths and guitar pedals, and I believe that most of us have at least a passing interest in synth circuits.

One Canadian who does what you are doing  is "Cloudscapes" (http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?action=profile;u=7917).  I'm sure your input would be greatly appreciated here, so don't be shy about posting your questions, thoughts, and work!

[davent]

^(Cloudscapes)

[Jdansti]

^(Cloudscapes)

Thx!

[Canucker]

did anybody see the digital multi meter in this weeks Canadian Tire flyer? Its in there for $10 instead of $40...would it be a good choice for the kind of stuff we're doing here?

[GGBB]

did anybody see the digital multi meter in this weeks Canadian Tire flyer? Its in there for $10 instead of $40...would it be a good choice for the kind of stuff we're doing here?

I have that one - for 10 loonies it's a steal, but it's kind of the bare minimum I would say.  It also comes as a kit with a case: http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/6/Tools/2/Electrical/ElectricalTesters/PRDOVR~0520064P/Mastercraft+3+Piece+Multimeter+Kit.jsp?locale=en which I've seen on sale in the past for about $15-20.  My only beef with the little one is that it doesn't measure resistance over 2M.  I've never had any problems with it, but I ended up getting it's bigger brother http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/6/Tools/2/Electrical/ElectricalTesters/PRDOVR~0520052P/Autoranging+Digital+Multimeter.jsp?locale=en when it went on sale.  Auto-ranging is really nice to have, as is capacitance and transistor testing.  It also has continuity beep, bigger display, backlight and a few other little things.   I only use the other one now when I need two meters at the same time.

I'd say if you don't have a half-decent meter right now go for it as it will always be useful as a backup or second meter.  If you can hold out, wait for one with at least capacitance and transistor testing.

[rousejeremy]

A request for the Toronto population. Let me know if you guys see any shops in town with J201 in stock.

I was at A1 this morning and asked - he said he normally has them but was out at the moment - he'll have more next week.  He even showed me the note he made in his book.

Thanks for the heads up!

[ghostsauce]

Great info here for us Canuckers. I'm from the Moncton, NB area.. so nothing local of course. I've noticed that Radio Shack in Maine carries most normal stuff like switches & resistors.. but nothing within a 7hr drive.   Unless you count a random switch or two in the discount pile at Princess Auto. Found some heatshrink there too

[Canucker]

did anybody see the digital multi meter in this weeks Canadian Tire flyer? Its in there for $10 instead of $40...would it be a good choice for the kind of stuff we're doing here?

I have that one - for 10 loonies it's a steal, but it's kind of the bare minimum I would say.  It also comes as a kit with a case: http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/6/Tools/2/Electrical/ElectricalTesters/PRDOVR~0520064P/Mastercraft+3+Piece+Multimeter+Kit.jsp?locale=en which I've seen on sale in the past for about $15-20.  My only beef with the little one is that it doesn't measure resistance over 2M.  I've never had any problems with it, but I ended up getting it's bigger brother http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/6/Tools/2/Electrical/ElectricalTesters/PRDOVR~0520052P/Autoranging+Digital+Multimeter.jsp?locale=en when it went on sale.  Auto-ranging is really nice to have, as is capacitance and transistor testing.  It also has continuity beep, bigger display, backlight and a few other little things.   I only use the other one now when I need two meters at the same time.

I'd say if you don't have a half-decent meter right now go for it as it will always be useful as a backup or second meter.  If you can hold out, wait for one with at least capacitance and transistor testing.

Thanks for all the detailed info. I actually have two meters but haven't been able to locate them for an embarrassing amount of time. The stuff that goes on sale at Canadian Tire tends to be on sale every few weeks....unless its trailers and trailer hitches...those only go on sale once in spring and once in fall...but it seems like they have a different meter on sale every two or three weeks. Makes you never want to buy anything there at regular price.

[GGBB]

Makes you never want to buy anything there at regular price.

Ain't that the truth!  I'm pretty sure I got the bigger one for $20.

[ianhattwick]

I'm in montreal, and as much as I can get stuff from addison-electronique, abra, active, and robotshop - all local stores with good websites. Of course, some things you can only really get through digikey or mouser, etc. Addison in particular though has pretty good prices on hardware, and if you go in the store they have a nice selection of prewired headers. I just went to abra for some photoresist and they were selling surplus parts bins for $0.50-$1 - I got 16 small and 6 large bins for $14!

+1 on usps for shipping from the states - sparkfun only ships usps on orders less than $100, but most other places offer it for any order. Also +1 on ordering from chinese distributors on sparkfun, although you do have to be really careful you check the specs of what you are ordering, and it can take a while to get the parts. I guess if you order PCBs from batchpcb.com and your parts form china they should arrive around the same time!

[davent]

Haven't ordered from here but dipmicro in Niagara Falls ON looks to have decent prices on lots of bits and pieces we normally use.
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/

[Canucker]

Haven't ordered from here but dipmicro in Niagara Falls ON looks to have decent prices on lots of bits and pieces we normally use.
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/

the prices look decent until you squint your eyes and see that the first price is the quantity price....who needs 1000 of the same value of capacitor? Stupid details do us in again!!! 

[Canucker]

A LOT or most or maybe ALL the meters are on sale this coming week at Canadian Tire..... 60% off!!!! including the one that was recommended in the abovve post!!!!!!!

[sgmezei]

Just went to Princess Auto and they had this 75ft 3 conductor cable for $2.99. Perfect for pots and switches.

[Mark Hammer]

Haven't ordered from here but dipmicro in Niagara Falls ON looks to have decent prices on lots of bits and pieces we normally use.
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/

This place is a new one on me.  Interesting stock, and interesting prices, although there are many thngs shown on the site that are out of stock.  But if you're in the Burlington-to-Welland zone, an excellent reason to head down the QEW in the other direction.

[Canucker]

Just went to Princess Auto and they had this 75ft 3 conductor cable for $2.99. Perfect for pots and switches.

thats pretty sweet...shame you can't really colour code things with it but hey if you don't make mistakes then you don't need colour codes to debug your work right? I always grab computers off the curb when I see them on trash day and cut all the wires out of there....they're to thick for the stuff we do but I tend to like when life is a pain in the ass for the sake of saving a buck...plus I hate when anything on earth goes in the trash. Plus theres a million different colours of wire in there so its good to colour code all of my many mistakes.....if you copy what I do don't blame me when you get electrocuted. I haven't got the slightest shock in the years I've done this but hey if you figure out how to get zapped don't credit me. 

[amptramp]

Just went to Princess Auto and they had this 75ft 3 conductor cable for $2.99. Perfect for pots and switches.

This is ideal!  I raced up to Princess Auto today and found that only the London Ontario store had any left and there was none remaining in distribution.  I will be in Londin in about seven weeks' time, so I will check then.