Big Cart Anxiety

Erik S

Erik S

Well-known member
@Aleph Null made some cool looking projects available recently and I ordered a few.

Any time I order boards I like to order all the parts at once so that everything in my backlog is ready to go whenever I get around to it.

Since I'm irrationally obsessed with paying as little shipping as possible, I want to batch stuff and minimize how many parts orders I'm placing, so I went ahead and ordered out the boards I've had my eye on from PPCB and C2CE too.

Now after a few days of going through build docs, entering stuff in my weird excel tool, generating a consolidated buy list, searching and adding to carts, I think I'm almost done.

I've got 1800 pieces spread across 4 carts waiting for me to click buy.

Now the anxiety kicks in.

I know as soon as I place an order I'll realize what I forgot, but the longer I let the carts sit the more I worry that something is going to go wrong in my browser or one of these websites and I'm going to see "there are no items in your cart" and lose my mind.
 
I have definitely experienced this! I've also realized, after committing to a build, that I can only find a part one place. Invariably the part will be $2, but shipping is $10.

I try to make my own designs like the Taco Bell menu: mostly the same eight ingredients in different configurations. Sometimes it can't be helped, though.
 
It’s what I haven’t ordered any parts in a long time. Stresses me out too much lol. Especially with enclosure, I don’t like to order until I can hit the price breaks on the different UV services
 
I just did this. I got a big order in for my current batch and realized there were two boards from the previous batch I put on hold because they required specific parts.

What gets me is the price difference from Tayda vs everyone else. I need some specific diodes and could source some of that other stuff from Small Bear, which is local, but their components are so much more expensive I may as well just make another order from Tayda. It costs the same in the end.
 
rwl said:
the cart flashes 0 items before it loads your profile.
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Worst.
Bricksnbeatles said:
Stresses me out too much lol. Especially with enclosure
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If I had to figure out prints I’d never get anything ordered. Fortunately I’m just picking colors.
falco_femoralis said:
may as well just make another order from Tayda
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It’s a weird world. When you just need a couple things and you need them quick, the logical place to get them is Thailand. Tayda is the best.
 
falco_femoralis said:
What gets me is the price difference from Tayda vs everyone else. I need some specific diodes and could source some of that other stuff from Small Bear, which is local, but their components are so much more expensive I may as well just make another order from Tayda. It costs the same in the end.
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There isn't much difference in the price, but I have found that American retailers usually sell resistors with thicker leads. This doesn't matter too much for a PCB, but when breadboarding, Tayda resistors flop around and make inconsistent connections. I need that extra GIRTH for breadboarding!
 
Aleph Null said:
There isn't much difference in the price, but I have found that American retailers usually sell resistors with thicker leads. This doesn't matter too much for a PCB, but when breadboarding, Tayda resistors flop around and make inconsistent connections. I need that extra GIRTH for breadboarding!
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Have you tried the Tayda ones recently? I think maybe they were floppy a few years ago and got better. I’ve only been doing this since 2023 and they’ve been consistent over that time.

I just spot checked a handful of tayda ones and some floppy ones I got at an estate sale. Legs on the floppers are around .014” the tayda ones are all around .019”

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@Erik S you piqued my interest, so I went and checked: my Tayda resistors are 20 mil, Stomp Box Parts are 22 mil, the cheap and cheary set I got from Amazon are 15 mil. Tayda quality has consistently improved over the years and I've never gotten anything out of spec from them...but I still tend to favor getting parts in-country when possible.
 
Aleph Null said:
but when breadboarding, Tayda resistors flop around and make inconsistent connections. I need that extra GIRTH for breadboarding!
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Erik S said:
Have you tried the Tayda ones recently? I think maybe they were floppy a few years ago and got better.
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Nostradoomus said:
Same experience here, the tayda ones be thicc now
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yeah breadboarding with tayda resistors has never been a problem for me.

i actually prefer them not to be too thick or it reams out the contacts (e.g. IMO 22awg jumpers are too thick. 24awg is perfect).
 
Big Monk said:
We didn’t get into this hobby to save money.

Or maybe we really thought we did and didn’t realize until later.

I digress.

You will ALWAYS forget something.

Free/Cheap shipping takes longer so pony up and stop being ridiculous.

Just click order and figure out what you missed later like a normal person…😂
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I’m definitely not under the delusion that being a pedal builder is less costly than being a pedal buyer. We’re not going to talk about the totals on those carts.

Some day I’m gonna place an order that includes every single piece I need. Just you wait.
 
Aleph Null said:
@Erik S you piqued my interest, so I went and checked: my Tayda resistors are 20 mil, Stomp Box Parts are 22 mil, the cheap and cheary set I got from Amazon are 15 mil. Tayda quality has consistently improved over the years and I've never gotten anything out of spec from them...but I still tend to favor getting parts in-country when possible.
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I can buy em from Tayda and sell em to you if it makes you feel better. :ROFLMAO:

SBP is great. Always my second biggest shopping cart. In particular all my knobs come from there. I swore off the Tayda knobs after I got frustrated with some beat up/ scratched ones.
 
Erik S said:
I’m definitely not under the delusion that being a pedal builder is less costly than being a pedal buyer. We’re not going to talk about the totals on those carts.
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I do still feel that the #1 reason I build is that it's cheaper - if it was more expensive than buying production pedals, I would instead buy production pedals. It's not the only reason, there are other reasons too, but it's why I got into building.

And to clarify, I don't think I spend less money objectively, but rather that I get much more bang for my buck. I can build ~5 DIY pedals if I build the Sandblaster fuzz instead of getting a new one from the maker, or nearly ~8 pedals for the Fuchsia fuzz. Of course I pay in "work" instead, but I put it in quotes because it's fun.

That does mean that I buy almost everything from Tayda though, since anything else is a lot more expensive for me. And US stores like SBP or Love My Switches are right out, they cost a lot more than Tayda. Even Mouser I try to avoid unless it's the only place I can get stuff from. LCSC is the only other place that can somewhat compete on prices, or even beat Tayda on some parts - but not everything.
 
I definitely spend a lot more on my pedal building hobby than I would on pedals. I used to buy pedals occasionally, and after lots of consideration. Maybe once every few years. But I won’t hesitate to get the parts for a dozen pedals, and then make another small batch when I order the parts I missed.

Maybe I would have been done building pedals if I got exactly the parts I needed on the first few batches…
 
I always budget for component costs and twice the shipping costs. Because I know I will invariably forget 2 little things or order the wrong value the first time around.

Which all goes to shit when I feel like I need to justify my microscopic order by adding a couple of more projects to it and the circle continues :ROFLMAO:
 
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