Electronics Free Samples

I was wondering on which sites you can order free samples of IC's, ...
I'd like to create a list here, so maybe this thread can be made sticky?

 

Sorry if I sound stufy, but the sample system is aimed at genuine developers who may well go on to order a few thousand chips. Misuse by people after something for nothing has caused several chip-makers to withdraw the service.

Most chips are easy to buy and aren't expensive, so get your hand in your pocket.

 

Yeah, at other forums (ones that rhyme with [L]ardforums), people have posted links to sample request forms, and a deluge of non-legitimate requests has ensued (free stuff! w00t!), ultimately resulting in decreased availablity of samples for legitimate purposes.

It's a rare IC that costs over $3, just pay.

 

Agreed. It's for personal use, not development use. Just pay the friggin money.

 

You'll also find the free samples arn't as high quality as the retail products - i.e. factory seconds or whatever.

Molex's disclaimer:

So, yeah, you may as well pay, so you get a quality product

 

Well, look at it this way: because of us ordening second quality chips, they get rid of it, and it almost doesn't cost them anything.
Like it matters if they have to send 1000 chips to some people, it's not like they are going to see that in their expenses....

 

They have to pay people to go into the warehouse to find the particular chip we are after and also pay for the postage. If everyone orders free samples, that's a lot of their time and money wasted.

 

Agreed one of my suppliers does free samples - rarely ever used it after all most ics are under a pound - so just add it to my order only really use it if the cat description is vague - saves them a technical guys time and my time as well - if people misuse it they will stop doing it..

 

They are like worldwide corporations, it's not like they are short on cash or anything.

Do you think Microsoft will have money problems if they give out like 50 000 free samples of a keyboard?
Well, this is just the same, and chips only cost a fraction of a keyboard.

 

And they don't seem to bother - I buy hundreds of molex connectors so wanted to try these 90 degree idc ones - never got them probably because too many people saw them as freebies (that or Molex are useless - probably bit of both?)

 

Not the same scenario MS will be doing it as a publicity thing - chip makers do it to help persuade developers manufacturers to use their chips/develop stuff using their chips. If we all got everything for free - no more new products etc.

 

Well, ok, then what about this:
We (the 'normal' people, poor students (really, I have like 0.23€ left of pocket money because of buying IC's, ...)) order let's say 3 000 sample IC's a year.

When a company orders stuff from them, they need a lot more then 1k chips, right?
And then we're only talking about 1 compainy ordering 1 type of chip, so do the maths...

 

Huh?? They have to buy the IC's if they want thousands.
The usual maximum you can get as a sample is around 10, and once the developers decide to use that IC then they'll be ordering thousands, so the IC manufacturer will get their money back from the large order.

Your reasoning doesn't really make sense.

 

I know that they have to buy it, that's my point .
1 company orders thousands of 1 type of IC.
Lets say 500 persons orders 30 IC's each, that's 15k IC's.

One company alone will be buying tons more of IC's than all the samples they have to send to people and off course there are a lot of companies ordering from them.
So it's not like it's a money problem for the chip makers.

They are like the evil multinationals and we are the poor people... Robin Hood was a good man right, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor? Well, we, the sample orderners are the same, we take from the rich company and give to ourselves .

But off course all this stuff doesn't matter.
C'mon everyone, post URL's .

 

As an engineer and a former student, I agree that taking advantage of the sample offers is pure wrong.

For those of you trying to justify it: Why dont you tell the company your requesting samples from the truth? Tell them that you just want a coupe of free chips and have no intention of buying any (dont justify that you will be buying, becuase 1000 chips is not the quantity they want to sell. Its more in the range of 50,000 chips).

I got free samples once for a project for school. Couldnt find any of these geo-sensors. Then came across an add for a micro chip that had 3d motion sensing. Each chip cost $40. I called the company and told them the exact reason I wanted the chips and asked if I could BUY directly from them a small amount. The guy sent 2 chips free. But I used them for school purposes.

If people keep using the free samples just to save themselves a couple bucks, then people with legitimate reasons wont be able to get the free samples for real things.

If you want to scam these companies, dont justify it. Tell them the truth. If they send you a few, then all the good luck to ya. If they dont, then go buy the damn thing.

 

It's not like I fill in a company name in the request form, I put in 'Personal' or 'None'.
And when asked about the quantity I would eventually buy I enter '5-10', as that IS the truth (friend who want a battery charger for example).

And 2 chips is more than enough for me, I only need 1 after all.

And what you say about 50k of IC's, that's exactly my point.

If I was the company boss of let's say Maxim, I wouldn't mind sending free samples to people, they aren't an imporant group of buyers anyway, right?

I guess I just think more socialistic and it's not like I want to start a flame here. I'm just trying to create a list and those of you who think it's not wrong to order free samples, order them, those of you who do think it's wrong, well, don't order samples then.

Off course I find it wrong if you keep asking free IC's, like resend a form 20 times, that's wrong. If you really need that much, it would off course be correct to go buy them somewhere.

 

cpemma, Linear, et al are totally correct. the sample system is for developers and education not free loaders. Many companies have ceased the sample system except to major customers simply because of abuse.

I have been developing circuits for over 30 yrs and have seen a decline in this system. When I publish a circuit, I have not made only one, I make several. sometimes as many as 12 to ensure the circuit is repeatable. I rarely use the free sample system and bear the development cost myself. When when I do use samples I only ever use 1 or 2 and buy the rest from various sources whenever possible to randomise the repeatability results.

Conning free samples is the hardware equivalent of software piracy.

 

Well, I totaly agree with what you're saying Macroman (last to lines of my previous post).

Can we stop this discussion now ?

 

If you need the chip's for PERSONAL use , buy them.. everybody else does, why shouldnt you?

If you need them for a school-project, or school purpose...
Ask your school to buy them, they get a huge discount or get them even for free !.. or call them up and ask if you could get some at a discount as it is for a school-project, and u will probebly get them for free


U're right ,they don't care for 2 of those chips.... but thats no reason for giving them away for free....

ask friendly and be honest... if you get lucky , u'll get some examples...





and I'm with all of you guys, PAY for them... but I do agree that its sometimes hard.. I don't have much money (but I come around, so no complaints) , but i'm not a owner of a VISA ... so then I have to transfer the money ,etc....

my point: its a hard way (for me atleast...)


Maybe all students should get a discount card, where they can order all sort of things and get a big discount, on small amounts ofcours... (so there wouldnt be abuse of the card)


thats it I guess...

I think the thought of this list is stupid... i'd say close the thread , but I don't decide that so...

 

Ok, ok, this is evil .
Delete this pls .
Closing it won't help.