{"id":17,"date":"2008-07-16T09:56:17","date_gmt":"2008-07-16T16:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=17"},"modified":"2022-12-27T17:46:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T01:46:10","slug":"is-electronics-surplus-still-alive-in-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/is-electronics-surplus-still-alive-in-silicon-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Electronics Surplus Still Alive in Silicon Valley?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"solid 2px #000000;\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2659543575_751a1d3e90_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"0px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mightyohm\/2659543575\/\">Bins of ICs at Excess Solutions<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Last Monday I went on a surplus run in the South Bay.<\/p>\n<p>This was a common pastime for myself and a few especially geeky friends around 1994-2002. After that, eBay and mail order electronics pretty much took over, forcing the most interesting surplus electronics stores in Silicon Valley (ie. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kce.com\/images\/ra.jpg\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">RA Enterprises<\/a>) to close their doors.\u00a0 With the news that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.halted.com\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">HSC Electronics<\/a> is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mightyohm\/2634887307\/\">moving to an undisclosed location<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trianglemachinery.com\/\">Triangle Machine<\/a> is going out of business, I was starting to worry that the days of finding cheap, local electronics surplus were over.<\/p>\n<p>However, thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluefeathertech.com\/technoid\/calswapindex.html\">this guide<\/a> I discovered a few new surplus goldmines:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluefeathertech.com\/technoid\/excess.html\">Excess Solutions<\/a> in Milpitas (their site is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.excesssolutions.com\/\">here<\/a>) &#8211; lots of mechanical parts, connectors, as well as ICs and components.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluefeathertech.com\/technoid\/ace.html\">Advanced Component Electronics<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.acecomponents.com\/\">ACE<\/a>) in San Jose &#8211; a <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/mightyohm\/2659543685\/\">jawdropping<\/a> inventory of logic ICs, resistors, capacitors, and miscellaneous through hole and surface mount parts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So maybe electronics surplus <em>is<\/em> still alive in Silicon Valley.\u00a0 Both stores are a bit of a drive from the city, but both are still open to foot traffic and appear to have almost every component you could possibly need for an electronics project.\u00a0 What I did find lacking at both locations was cheap surplus equipment.\u00a0 One of the most rewarding things for me in the past has been taking apart mysterious equipment to collect interesting bits and pieces for my junk box.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluefeathertech.com\/technoid\/triangle.html\">Triangle Machine<\/a> still has some, but may only be around through the end of August.\u00a0 Regardless, I will definitely be making the trip back to the South Bay for some electronics scrounging soon, whether HSC sticks around or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bins of ICs at Excess Solutions Last Monday I went on a surplus run in the South Bay. This was a common pastime for myself and a few especially geeky friends around 1994-2002. After that, eBay and mail order electronics pretty much took over, forcing the most interesting surplus electronics stores in Silicon Valley (ie. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/is-electronics-surplus-still-alive-in-silicon-valley\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Is Electronics Surplus Still Alive in Silicon Valley?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[8,501,7,6],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","tag-bay-area","tag-electronics","tag-silicon-valley","tag-surplus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1395,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/los-angeles-area-surplus-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":0},"title":"Los Angeles Area Surplus Tour","author":"Jeff","date":"March 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month I spent a weekend in LA visiting Tony, who is building an awesome wood veneered enclosure for my Wifi Radio project. While I was there we spent a day checking out various electronics surplus shops in the area, several of which Tony had never visited before. Here are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electronics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"All Electronics","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3304347224_1e2090c7c2_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2444,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/hsc-45th-anniversary-sale-this-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":1},"title":"HSC 45th Anniversary Sale this Saturday","author":"Jeff","date":"September 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I just got an e-mail from HSC Electronic Supply announcing their 45th Anniversary Sale (aka Sidewalk Sale), which takes place this Saturday, Sept. 26th.\u00a0 If you are in Silicon Valley this weekend, this is definitely worth checking out.\u00a0 If you want to get an idea of what this event is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electronics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"HSC 45th Anniversary Sale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/HSC_Email_0909-432x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4877,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/surplus-summit-2012-part-one-los-angeles\/","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":2},"title":"Surplus Summit 2012 Part One: Los Angeles","author":"Jeff","date":"February 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mightyohm\/6882203127\/in\/photostream (Photo: Tony KC6QHP testing out his 47GHz amateur radio. Remember this post? All that work paid off, the radio works!) Last month I cashed in some airline miles and finally got to visit some old friends and spend some time in beautiful Southern California. Some long-time readers of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Amateur Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2924,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/surplus-electronics-wiki-growing-fast\/","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":3},"title":"Surplus Electronics Wiki Growing Fast","author":"Jeff","date":"April 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The past few weeks have seen a lot of activity on the MightyOhm Wiki! Since it was mentioned on the Make: blog last week, helpful readers have been making significant contributions every day. One highlight of the wiki is the Surplus Electronics Resources page, which I first posted about in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Amateur Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/wiki-375x500.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3522,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/alis-surplus-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":4},"title":"Ali&#8217;s Surplus Stuff","author":"Jeff","date":"January 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the holidays I had a chance to visit Ali's Surplus Stuff in Sacramento, CA. This is my kind of place. \u00a0Surplus electronics piled from floor to ceiling. \u00a0Lots of oscilloscopes and useful stuff mixed in with bizarre industrial equipment. Lots of cool rack-mounted equipment here. \u00a0Lots of push-buttons too.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books and Resources&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books and Resources","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/books-and-resources\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ali's Surplus Stuff","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/5292042735_4c04635c0e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1022,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/hsc-electronics-clearance-annex-open\/","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":5},"title":"HSC Electronics Clearance Annex Open","author":"Jeff","date":"January 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I stopped by HSC Electronics in Santa Clara to pick up a few parts for my PID Controlled Soldering Hotplate project. Earlier this year, there was an announcement that HSC was moving because their landlord would not renew the lease on the building they have occupied for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electronics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"New HSC Clearance Area","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3194817395_f0d08ba68b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15775,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/15775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}