Looking for parts without having to Google the universe. Welcome to Parts-Ring or Online Parts International. We use the OPiC System or Online Parts international Cataloguing system – find manufacturer,  find a part, find a supplier, find a seller, get into our library and well, most of all just browse. At present it’s possibly not the easiest site to navigate because of the various menus but we are working on it to bring all the information together to make it more reader friendly.

To become a registered user you will need to a) register with user name and password and b) add yourself as a new user which BTW is where you add your company details or just yourself as a private entity...

1970s Designs

In the quest for building things quick and cheap here is a list of some of our Parts-Ring all-time favourites including links to websites with interesting information. Some of these circuits are really old and if we have plagiarised content we apologise up front – please drop us a line at webmaster@parts-ring.com to have us remove this material.

Years back all power amplifiers seemed to use the 2N3055 (100W) or PL909 (200W) in the output stages.  Yes there were other transistors available but the 2N3055 cost a fraction of a dollar and the output was more than sufficient to cause damage to one’s ear drums in a small to medium sized room. The PL909 or 2SD555s were a different beast, expensive but more then ample. Think of Pink Floyd’s music system and you could be rest assured that main stream music groups of the era were using HiWatt or possibly Phase Linear equipment.

Cheap and Not so ...

A Lazy Day with Class D on the Brain

With nothing to do last Sunday I decided to do some research on class-D audio amplification development over the last five years. For those new to Parts-Ring.com or to electronics you’ll at some or other stage come across this classification and whilst it boasts all the bells and whistles of a good class AB amplifier, beneath the veneer lies a very sophisticated beast. I’m all for KISS (Keep it Straight and Simple) but you know what, there is merit in using a class D amplifier, lots of electronics aside. Let’s have a look at what cooks.

Tripath – Commons Licence – author: Andy Dingley

Essentially speaking…

Counterfeit semiconductors

With China being the largest consumer electronics goods exporter, with South Korea no doubt sitting somewhere close behind it’s not surprising to see a huge growth in export of semiconductors globally.  Research statistics are confusing as much of what is read on the net is either old or ambiguous. If we stick to what we see there are four electronic companies that appear to be the leaders:  Apple, Sony, Samsung and LG. The reality is we only notice what we know, and knowing is the key, in other words: Brand awareness. Depending on where you live, this could be a traditional mud hut to a Star Trek space vehicle certain products fascinate certain users as much as the rich and famous gravitate towards their own specific niche manufacturer...

Our forum is open to logged on users of this website with forums covering RC, robotics, general, complaints, robotics to the latest rave, CNC and 3D printing. Ask questions about VIN numbers, poor manufacturing policies and what to do in our mess of an energy crises. Request additional forums.

There were two driving factors behind the inception of Parts-Ring; i) why are new replacement parts so expensive in my country ii) why do many supplier websites not list their parts and pricing through a database retrieval system – in the quest to find out more about costing on a CNC router locally most queries return posts on Gumtree. Whilst Gumtree is a brilliant service I find this kind of thing highly unprofessional. I do not see this in the USA – marketing comes first, in fact I find the marketing pretty brilliant. Unfortunately I do not live in the USA. I need a stepper motor for a milling machine and the pricing in South Africa varies from ludicrous to a damned rip-off...

Through the years there have been a number of electronic devices that have been used and abused in circuit making – hopefully some of the ones mentioned in our article will bring back fond memories. In the likelihood of some frustrated reader wanting to add in his or her own tirade under the comments section this list is by no means exhaustive – it’s from my own experiences working on consumer products through the years with one exception, the 555 timer chip which I have added because of the manufactured quantity each year. I did not find them that common in repair work but certainly if there is anyone out there whom hasn’t heard of this chip I’d love to hear about it. We exclude micro-controllers in this article as I felt they deserved a niche chapter in Parts-Ring.

The EL84/6BQ5 – wiki

If you ha...

There’s a lot being said about high end audio but how does one separate fact from fiction?  Having spent the better part of two days browsing through websites which are supposedly either selling high end audio or are advocates of high end audio (critique) I’m rather more confused now than ever. To put it straight, if your CD or DVD sounds just like the original live recording then I’d say you have a masterpiece of an audio system. Unfortunately it’s not going to unless you have the master tape and the same audio equipment for reproduction as was used on stage. Of course, the same acoustics as well. I listened to a NAD system recently – the speakers were Mission. I don’t have the model details. It sounded awful – wrong position, wrong acoustics, wrong music. I know someone whom said the best system he had ever heard had ‘rags falling out of the loudspeakers’. I have no doubt these rags were being pulled out of a port and were acting as a damper of sorts. Not all speaker systems reproduce different genres of music the same. What sounds too bright to you sounds just right to the guy next door.

The Cure performing in Singapore. [momento mori from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia]

Speaker cables

Speaker cables are a necessity but definitely not what you spend thousands of dollars on...

Recently I wrote a column for a site which specialises in audio repair and did some research on randomly selected forums which covered same.  Sadly, much of the information is misleading and for a novice, this could cause more damage in the long run.  This article hopefully will set the record straight. I’m prone to rambling but let’s hope I can keep on track.

The computer power supply is generally a switching device called a SMPSU or switched mode power supply. The a.c. is rectified and then chopped, the pulse width driving the circuitry being longer when the load is higher. These power supplies are more efficient than linear power supplies, cheaper to build in large scale and with modern technology very reliable. The fundis here again are our Asian friends whom have made smaller, better and more reliable. Not all of them though – you get what you pay for.  If you have been in the industry for a while it’s easy to single out the more useless items from the gems. Here I speak about quality of build and advertised current handling capabilities. Don’t always be fooled by a board having fewer components meaning it is less sophisticated...

The dreaded surface mount device has been around for ages, love it or hate it it’s here to stay. I actually learnt some tricks from a very large computer motherboard repair company which actually relied more on your skill with a soldering iron than expensive tools to work on these boards. Like all craftsmen, one can blame the tools but a good craftsman makes a plan. Where to start?

Like most laymen I never got round to bothering about the intricacies of soldering – solder types, temperature, compounds, tip angle and the importance of flux.  Until a friend of mine did a soldering course – it was all top secret until he told me rather shamefacedly that it was part of his training. In fact it wasn’t any soldering course – it was to NASA standard...

Steam Engines – Part One: Links to models and other Trivia

The steam engine has always been a marvel to most people. Incredible torque from standstill but also pulling Goliath locomotives to well over 100 m.p.h.  The first engine powered locomotive was developed well over 200 years ago. What makes them so special?  What is the secret to their success and more importantly why do modelers the world over always seem to lean towards building their own engine?

Thomas Horn Beam engine at the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway – Image by wiki commons Admin MJ Roots

Safety Margins

Although that simplistic looking reciprocating engine is always looked upon in awe there are two things that us newbies forget, the first steam engines were not built with modern tooling but yet the...