20 Nov
2001
20 Nov
'01
12:35 a.m.
Hi,
Some of you have probably used the PartMiner/FreeTradeZone web site at
http://www.freetradezone.com/ to download datasheets for older, discontinued
chips. This has been very useful to me.
For discontinued products (which I guess is what most of us are interested
in), they are moving to a subscription-only system. Subscription cost is a
whopping US$299 per month (introductory; the normal cost is supposedly
US$375), so future access will only be viable for most people if you need it
for your job.
I don't know when the change is being made, or if it has happened already. If
it hasn't, better download datasheets that you need while you still can.
-- Mark
20 Nov
20 Nov
4:42 a.m.
Frankly, though it would be useful on the job, it's hard to imagine a small shop
being able to justify this level of expense for the relatively small percentage
of the information that proved both useful and correct. On those occasions on
which I did find what I was looking for the information was often so out-of-date
that it really didn't matter. Data sheets, of course, don't change much, but
their pointers to existing inventory "out there" in distribution usually were a
wild-goose-chase. With the 10% success rate I experienced on parts I wanted,
I've got to say it's not likely I'd pay $300/mo even if I had a dozen
engineers
using their research support. If I had a hundred purchasing guys, that might be
different, except for the low success rate. It might be worth paying for this
service if their links were kept current, and if one had the $10e9 procurement
budget against which to justify such a high monthly cost. There have been
numerous occasions on which GOOGLE has found parts they
(PartMiner/FreeTradeZone) didn't, both in terms of data sheets and in existing
inventory. I'd not pay for their service until they exceed by at least 100x the
success rate of a public serach engine.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Knibbs" <mark_k(a)totalise.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Cc: <mark_k(a)totalise.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 4:35 AM
Subject: FreeTradeZone site moving to subscription-only for older parts
Hi,
Some of you have probably used the PartMiner/FreeTradeZone web site at
http://www.freetradezone.com/ to download datasheets for older, discontinued
chips. This has been very useful to me.
For discontinued products (which I guess is what most of us are interested
in), they are moving to a subscription-only system. Subscription cost is a
whopping US$299 per month (introductory; the normal cost is supposedly
US$375), so future access will only be viable for most people if you need it
for your job.
I don't know when the change is being made, or if it has happened already. If
it hasn't, better download datasheets that you need while you still can.
-- Mark
8282
days inactive
8282
days old
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