Parts scare

[Sparky96]

Ok, so I bought a couple pcb's and heat sinks last year sometime thinking I would just get parts whenever I needed to put them together. Well I just was looking around and seems to be some of the parts are going away so I guess I should go ahead and get my hands on parts to finish the kits. I will probably make a mouser order this weekend, what parts do I need to change/look for to not be stuck with a kit I can't finish? Also if parts aren't available thru mouser, where should I look?

Thanks,
David

[n1ist]

Looks like you can get the SAA1064 on eBay (get one in a DIP package with leads, not the SAA1064T in a surface mount SOIC package).  The other part that's end-of-life is the 6-pin socket, but they still have 50000 on  hand, so unless you are building *lots* of Expresses, they should have enough.
/mike

[GrumpkaXmas]

I don't think this is even remotely a worry right now.   There are several ebay auctions with these chips.  I saw three, all with lots of them in stock.   We'd have to check with RJ, but can't we just use the surface mount to DIP board if we really ran into an issue? 

I'm betting parts will be around for a while.  Always a good idea to stock up a few extra parts, but don't think there is any reason to panic or worry about any shortage of parts in our immediate Christmas lighting futures.... 

I just worked up a large BOM order, ready to go, and really had no issues.  The SAA1064  is just ebay...as n1ist mentioned.   No worries

[Sparky96]

Cool, thanks. I just saw some stuff about parts becoming unavailable and didn't know when it would realistically go into effect. Either way I don't think I'll wait to get stuff on order just to make sure.

David

[GrumpkaXmas]

Cool, thanks. I just saw some stuff about parts becoming unavailable and didn't know when it would realistically go into effect. Either way I don't think I'll wait to get stuff on order just to make sure.

David

Very good.  Save some for the rest of us, LOL.   I think there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of those driver chips around. 
Oh, BTW, if you "search" the part here on the forum, you will find threads with RJ and the folks talking about the subject and the Surface to DIP mount I mentioned.  So, even if parts were to end, the Surface Mount solution would/should work.

   Also, don't want to fire up another subject off topic, but I wonder if anyone thought about a simple daughter board plug in for Lynx Express?  The daughter board would have the driver and LED's, just jumper'd over from the main board.  Might be a large project, but that way no matter how many LE's you had, you could just plug in the display module when you open up your panel box, or are testing a board, and unplug when not needed to use elsewhere.... Might be a dumb idea.....  who knows....  Ok, well, in all cases I think we have plenty of parts for our little hobby

[t.jo13]

Yes you are correct a surface mount would work but I personally have tried it with not so favorable results.:t can work ,:but I t defeats the purpose for DLA ....Premade boards at a dime a dozen and if you want to truly do it yourself this express board will do it and if changes are required then it.will adapt  let's not sway people in the the wrong direction as this is a minor thing