Switches?

3

3l3m3nt

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 7, 2003
Messages
353
I'm looking for a good place to buy switches for computer cases and other 12v applications.
 
Autoparts stores.. The bigger ones have all manner of switches.. Lighted ones, 3way toggles, interupts(function like the reset button on your case), various sizes and shapes, push button, you name it.. etc.. Not to mention the 12volt neon light kits and all other manner of 12v lights you can get.. Case modders paradise, I say.. :D

edit: I forgot wire looms chrome ones even, and wireing tie down clamps, and wire harnesses, and 120v ac to 12v dc adapters perfect for running a water cooling kit for testing or just to get it off your rigs PSU.. Just go check out an O'Reily's, or Pep Boys, or whatever big auto parts chain store you have in the area..
 
I too would like to know where else other than an auto parts store one can buy switches, mainly square power switches for computer cases. I've got an idea for a mod on my Gaming Bomb II.
 
Radio Shack:

You've got questions, they've got blank stares.

(If you ever want a sales person at a Radio Shack to leave you alone just head back to the DIY area. I think they've all been trained to just stay the hell away from there since noone there has any friggin' idea what a resistor is (isn't that those French guys who didn't like the Nazis?). But if you have questions about a cell phone or batteries they're they people to talk to!)
 
BellaCroix said:
Radio Shack:

You've got questions, they've got blank stares.

(If you ever want a sales person at a Radio Shack to leave you alone just head back to the DIY area. I think they've all been trained to just stay the hell away from there since noone there has any friggin' idea what a resistor is (isn't that those French guys who didn't like the Nazis?). But if you have questions about a cell phone or batteries they're they people to talk to!)
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LOL, that is so true, I went in there one day, just a small one in a mall, i got asked if i needed assistance 4 times by 4 different people as I walked by the counter, then I go back in to the electrical componets/DIY/switches/etc./ no one goes back there, they think its haunted.
 
Stu55 said:
LOL, that is so true, I went in there one day, just a small one in a mall, i got asked if i needed assistance 4 times by 4 different people as I walked by the counter, then I go back in to the electrical componets/DIY/switches/etc./ no one goes back there, they think its haunted.
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Yeah, I hear ya. I was at the shack a few days ago picking up parts to build a circuit in the DIY area. Usually they leave me alone, but this time the guy hounded me, probably because he thought I was gonna try to steal something.

Anyway, it is so true that they don't know what resistors are for. One younger guy said "what are resistors even used for, anyway?" I gave a wide eyed look at the sales clerk, but he didn't seem to know either by the look on his face...
 
coorz said:
:p so funny how everyone rants about Radio Shack, they THAT bad ?
There must be tons of online shops selling switches like www.all-electronics.com
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Well, Radio Shack never used to be that way. If I am correct, they used to be more of a DIY place, but transformed into an electronics retailer selling (mostly) cell phones.

They aren't horrible...I've actually been shopping there more often as of late. Sometimes it is more convenient to buy parts that cost a bit more to avoid shipping (which costs even more) and they layover time to get those parts.
 
DarkenReaper57 said:
Well, Radio Shack never used to be that way. If I am correct, they used to be more of a DIY place, but transformed into an electronics retailer selling (mostly) cell phones.

They aren't horrible...I've actually been shopping there more often as of late. Sometimes it is more convenient to buy parts that cost a bit more to avoid shipping (which costs even more) and they layover time to get those parts.
Click to expand...

Originally, and I'm talking about the 50's here... they were almost entirely DIY. Made a lot of their original money on the HAM radio enthusiast market. Guys locked in the basement (away from wives) building radios, rebuilding radios, tinkering with whatever they had in the 50's to tinker with. 50%+ of the store was filled with DIY even when I was growing up in the 70's. If it wasn't DIY, electronic toys, or "how would you like to buy a Tandy instead of that Commodore you have now?" it was crappy Realistic rip-offs of Pioneer radios.

Then HAM got replaced by CB later to be replaced by walkie-talkies and cell phones, Tandy (and Commodore) went belly-up along with Atari, TI, et al, people even stopped installing their own phones. They had no choice but to reallocate retail space. At the same time, there's a pretty decent mark-up on retail DIY and who else was there to compete for that limited market? Noone else wanted it.

So they relegated it to the back corner of the store, limited inventory... it became the red-headed step child. Along with the decline of HAM radio went the decline of HAM radio enthusiasts. There wasn't the ability anymore to hire guys willing to work a couple hours a week to pay for their hobbies with employee discounts. They started hiring anyone off the street who could make a high margin sale. Since the big ticket items made more money than Joe Dip buying a box of resistors they didn't bother training people on those items (I have a feeling they never trained people on those items and just felt blessed when they got the 70's version of a 'modder).

Now there's an electronics enthusiast market again but we're better served buying online. The selection of items we need would require a "big-box" store for correct retail presentation and the return per square foot would not justify it. So they continue to sell batteries and cell phones where the retail footprint is very small but the return per square foot is huge.

Sadly, that means that for those of us who like to deal with people face to face (I don't even have an ATM card and don't understand how the machine they're used with works) have to cringe every time we purchase something because it's so impersonal. Gone are they days of buying a pack of resistors and having someone actually interested in the build you're working on who can make suggestions how to improve it.

That's why I come here. You're all my 1970's era Radio Shack clerk trying to get me to buy a Tandy when all I want is a 5 volt, threaded, screw in, lightbulb.

/rant
 
BellaCroix said:
Originally, and I'm talking about the 50's here... they were almost entirely DIY. Made a lot of their original money on the HAM radio enthusiast market. Guys locked in the basement (away from wives) building radios, rebuilding radios, tinkering with whatever they had in the 50's to tinker with. 50%+ of the store was filled with DIY even when I was growing up in the 70's. If it wasn't DIY, electronic toys, or "how would you like to buy a Tandy instead of that Commodore you have now?" it was crappy Realistic rip-offs of Pioneer radios.

Then HAM got replaced by CB later to be replaced by walkie-talkies and cell phones, Tandy (and Commodore) went belly-up along with Atari, TI, et al, people even stopped installing their own phones. They had no choice but to reallocate retail space. At the same time, there's a pretty decent mark-up on retail DIY and who else was there to compete for that limited market? Noone else wanted it.

So they relegated it to the back corner of the store, limited inventory... it became the red-headed step child. Along with the decline of HAM radio went the decline of HAM radio enthusiasts. There wasn't the ability anymore to hire guys willing to work a couple hours a week to pay for their hobbies with employee discounts. They started hiring anyone off the street who could make a high margin sale. Since the big ticket items made more money than Joe Dip buying a box of resistors they didn't bother training people on those items (I have a feeling they never trained people on those items and just felt blessed when they got the 70's version of a 'modder).

Now there's an electronics enthusiast market again but we're better served buying online. The selection of items we need would require a "big-box" store for correct retail presentation and the return per square foot would not justify it. So they continue to sell batteries and cell phones where the retail footprint is very small but the return per square foot is huge.

Sadly, that means that for those of us who like to deal with people face to face (I don't even have an ATM card and don't understand how the machine they're used with works) have to cringe every time we purchase something because it's so impersonal. Gone are they days of buying a pack of resistors and having someone actually interested in the build you're working on who can make suggestions how to improve it.

That's why I come here. You're all my 1970's era Radio Shack clerk trying to get me to buy a Tandy when all I want is a 5 volt, threaded, screw in, lightbulb.

/rant
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the background info on Radioshack - it was a good reading imho. But yeah, I can understand why things have changed, even though I don't like it :(.
 
One of my ex's used to be a district manager for Radio Shack (actually, she's the one who gave me the "blank stare" line). It didn't matter what you did there as long as your cell phone, cell phone accessory, and battery sales were good.

You could just about kill a customer as long as you got him to buy a cell phone first. In fact, depending on how many phones you sold and how well you hid the bodies you might make management trainee.
 
Oregon folks have it ok still. We have a couple of electronic supply stores that are still somewhat helpful. Wacky Willy's is decent. I got about 200 mobo standoff's for $3. They have all kinds of random stuff. Resistors and all that stuff I still get from radioshack though but gotta pay an arm and a leg.
 
Although there isn't a fry's in Minnesota where I live I recently visited the one off the strip in vegas. They seemed to have many different types of modding supplies. Gotta go lobby my congressman to get a fry's here :).
 
drkavnger99 said:
Although there isn't a fry's in Minnesota where I live I recently visited the one off the strip in vegas. They seemed to have many different types of modding supplies. Gotta go lobby my congressman to get a fry's here :).
Click to expand...


fry's is overpriced on nearly everything that ISNT in their advertisements in the newspaper.
 
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