Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Administered by:

Server stats:

340K
active users

mastodon.social: AboutStatusProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.4.0-nightly.2025-04-01

#rs

24 posts12 participants3 posts today
Continued thread
Public
C.

Yes, you take your chances - there's the occasional outright scam, or so-so quality parts (like the ones that inspired me to write this), but you go into it with your eyes open. You take a chance because it's dirt cheap.

And 90% of the time, the parts are just fine.

For anything important, or safety-related, or mains-connected, or anything I build for other than personal use, I won't use yum-cha parts like this. For those, I order good name-brand parts from a reputable supplier (Newark/Element14/RS, DigiKey, etc).

But for hobbyists just having fun, messing around? AliExpress and friends are an absolute godsend. You can now get into hobby electronics for practically nothing, and build stuff and see if you like it.

There's a place for quality parts, and a place for cheap parts. Knowing which is which isn't hard.

Three cheers for cheap components!

2/2

#build#maker#circuit
ExploreLive feeds
About