A Tinkerer’s Guide to Buying Electronic Components in Bangalore

In this post, I share information about various sources, both online and offline, from where I source electronic components for my home lab. I have been tinkering and building things at home for decades – from arduino based systems to rack-mounted 2U servers. Often, people ask me about sources of various components used in my project. To answer that, I wrote this summary of different suppliers with whom I have had good experience.

Offline resources for electronic components

1. Vishal Electronics – All kinds of small electronics components, controllers, general go-to store for electronics
2. Electroface Connectronics – Specializes in connectors (all kinds) – they have everything from JST-PH connectors to molex connectors
3. Jupiter Electronics – All kinds of connecting wires
4. Smartlink Inc. – All kinds of fasteners for electronic, mechanical and electrical projects
5. Railton Electronics – Networking cable and components, 19″ rack, rack accessories, networking and electronic tools (testers, crimping tools)
6. Mootek Technologies – Rack mountable chassis, datacenter equipment

Online resources electronic components

1. Rare components – Electronic components, single board computers
2. Robu.in – Electronic components, single board computers
3. RS Components – Electronic components, single board computers
4. Evelta – Electronic components, single board computers
5. 3Ding.in – Cloud based 3D printing service. You can upload your CAD drawings to their website and choose the material, density and quality of printing. It gives you the estimate of the cost which you can pay online immediately. For basic 3D models of computer cases, it took them 3-4 days to print and a couple of days to ship to Bangalore.

General observations

1. Component availability in India is far behind that of, say, US. I have seen quite a few specialized components readily available in the US online, but not in India.
2. Shipping from China to India is dicey. I have had at least one order cancelled by the seller on a US website after them realizing that their shipping partner couldn’t ship to India.
3. Buying specialized components from S. P. Road (Bengaluru) shops can be a hit or miss. Hence, it is best to take your board or circuit or design there to show them and discuss before buying such components.

Note

I will update this post time to time with more information in future as I explore the ecosystem more.