eBay resistors
Feb 22, 2009 at 6:42 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 18

Fred_fred2004

Member of the Trade: Fred_fred2004 (Ebay Store)
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Metal film resistors seem very cheap on eBay especially if they are bought in packs of 2000-2500, can anyone recommend a seller ?

has anyone tried them and are they any good?

cheers
 
Feb 22, 2009 at 7:38 AM Post #2 of 18
Maybe just give them a try? For myself, I am kinda picky and I really like sticking to the Vishay/Dale variety of resistors. You can sometimes find bulk packs of those on ebay.
 
Feb 22, 2009 at 7:39 AM Post #3 of 18
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred_fred2004 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Metal film resistors seem very cheap on eBay especially if they are bought in packs of 2000-2500, can anyone recommend a seller ?

has anyone tried them and are they any good?

cheers



could you be a little more vague??? there are hundreds of different types of resistors and no doubt a decent amount of them have made it onto the pages of EBAY; without some information that actually tells us SOMETHING about them or the seller, its hard to tell you one way or the other. there is crap on ebay and there are some gems too
 
Feb 22, 2009 at 7:40 AM Post #4 of 18
Quote:

Originally Posted by compuryan /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Maybe just give them a try? For myself, I am kinda picky and I really like sticking to the Vishay/Dale variety of resistors. You can sometimes find bulk packs of those on ebay.


X2 on vishay/Dale great resistors holco are also pretty good
 
Feb 22, 2009 at 7:46 AM Post #5 of 18
Quote:

Originally Posted by qusp /img/forum/go_quote.gif
could you be a little more vague??? there are hundreds of different types of resistors and no doubt a decent amount of them have made it onto the pages of EBAY; without some information that actually tells us SOMETHING about them or the seller, its hard to tell you one way or the other. there is crap on ebay and there are some gems too


Are you normally this rude and snappy, I asked a simple question about bulk packs of metal film resistors on ebay and if anyone knows a good seller. If you can't give an answer thats fine. but loose the attitude
 
Feb 22, 2009 at 8:22 AM Post #6 of 18
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred_fred2004 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Are you normally this rude and snappy, I asked a simple question about bulk packs of metal film resistors on ebay and if anyone knows a good seller. If you can't give an answer thats fine. but loose the attitude


Well, you do have to consider that there really are lots of resistors selling on eBay and you did get a few recommendations of the brands to look for. Personally, unless I really need 500 resistors, I would buy them from a distributor that has large quantity discounts and if I need a VERY large like 2000, just go straight to the manufacturer and get a quote.
 
Feb 22, 2009 at 12:54 PM Post #8 of 18
A lot of the ebay sellers these days selling the metal film assortments seem to all get their resistors from the same cheap Chinese supplier (they're the blue ones you've probably seen a bunch of times before. They're great because there's really no way you could possibly get that large of a variety and quantity of metal film resistors (or any resistor for that matter) anywhere close to that price point. I haven't ever actually measured their tolerances/temperature coefficient/whatever, of course, since I don't have THAT much time on my hands. What I can tell you is that they're horrible for doing stuff on breadboard (but I'm pretty sure you're not doing that for your audiophile analog amps--I've been doing a lot of digital/embedded systems stuff lately) since their leads are smaller gauge than standard resistors and bend really easily. They should be fine when you solder them down, though. I doubt that would make a difference in most circuits, given they're not even power resistors.
 
Feb 22, 2009 at 6:41 PM Post #10 of 18
Most of my through-hole film resistors are bought in bulk from Sure Electronics; they're the generic blue ones with thin bendy leads that threepointone describes above. They work just fine, are surprisingly close in tolerance (usually 1-2% on the ones I've measured), and are amazingly cheap. Also, given the huge number of counterfeit components coming out of east Asia these days (seen all the fake Wima caps on eBay?), at least when you buy the generic no-name stuff you know what you're actually getting...

I've picked up a couple sets of 0805 surface-mount resistors and capacitors on eBay, as well; for most people it's far and away the cheapest way to get a large selection of SMD passives without spending a fortune.

The only generic no-name parts I won't use are electrolytic caps, because I generally want the stuff I build to last more than a year.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Feb 23, 2009 at 4:00 PM Post #11 of 18
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred_fred2004 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Are you normally this rude and snappy, I asked a simple question about bulk packs of metal film resistors on ebay and if anyone knows a good seller. If you can't give an answer thats fine. but loose the attitude


fair enough; perhaps I was a bit abrupt in my language, please accept my apology for that. but your post was a touch vague and I see so many vague posts on here that every now and again I guess I overstep the mark. if you got past that aspect though I think you'd find I actually tried to help.
 
Mar 28, 2009 at 9:54 PM Post #12 of 18
Like the others, I got some one of the 50 value resistor sets from Sureelectronics on ebay. They claim .25W 1% metal film, but I doubt they actually meet the 1% spec. I also have some bags of xicon .25W 1% metal film from Mouser left over from some projects. I checked a couple of values of each brand with and I can easily see the Xicons are all much closer to each other in value than the Sure generics. I'd estimate Xicons are at 0.5% to 1% tolerance and the others more like 2 to 4%. It was a small sample with a cheap meter so a broad guesstimate.

They are fine for breadboard experiments though. The bendy leads aren't bothering me and I really wanted the wide range of values for experimentation.

[Edit - I assembled a bridge circuit and used it as described in this thread http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/tut...ap-dvm-295983/ for matching resistors. Without doing all the math, I'm still of the opinion that xicon 1% resistors are of much tighter tolerance tighter tolerance than the Sure ebay "1%" generics, maybe even an order of magnitude better.]
 
Apr 26, 2009 at 9:57 PM Post #13 of 18
Now, I think the Sure electronics resistors are not actually metal film.

Read this electro-music.com :: View topic - Be very careful when ordering resistors from china ! in the middle of page 2 there's a poster who specifically tested sure resistors and says they are not metal film.

Sure themselves are now posting auctions with a new brand resistor and the listing include a photo on how to spot fakes.
DC-RS012_1.jpg


I scraped the epoxy off a (old style) Sure, a Xicon metal film and a carbon film. The Sure looks closer in color to the carbon film than the metal film.

I also did a quick check of heating with a hair dryer. The Xicon's resistance stayed steady, the carbon film dropped value while being heated and came back up as it cooled. The Sure also dropped, it started at 680 ohms, dropped to 673 in about a minute of hair dryer on high at close range, then came back to 680 as it cooled off.

I just emailed Sure Electronics asking for a replacement, I'll let the thread know the outcome.
 
Apr 27, 2009 at 1:51 AM Post #15 of 18
I ordered some as well, just to have on hand. The quality isn't great, and I wouldn't use them as a final product in an amplifier (or other audio gear), but they work great for testing circuits, building PSU's, and working with microcontrollers - where quality isn't a huge concern. It's nice to have a huge range of values available - if you don't get results with 480ohm, you can just switch up to a 500 without having to place a new order to Mouser, etc.

I actually bring them to one of my labs because we're just given an envelope of a bunch of random values, and it seems you never have the values you need, and they're impossible to find since they're not labeled.
 

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