Yeah join the club, I needed a part for this Netwroked I/O unit and no US stock for rest of the year.
Had no choice but to order it on ebay from China and wait a month and that's the only place where any stock existed.
Just came in, actually took over a month and was lucky I could get any.

So thinking, why not just replace the unit?
Nope can't do that cuz it's European and this model is obsolete and goes on a million dollar machine so it must be fixed.



I also have some electronic pieces coming in for repair off another machine.
They must have spares of every part on the machine because it runs 24/7 all year long.

So, they ordered spare parts months ago from Germany and are still on back order due to chip shortage with no confirmed lead time.
They are sending me the broken units they saved so I can make working spares in case the machine goes down and new parts are not ready.

Sorry, back to car chip shortage, this is affecting everyone and I'm seeing it all over.

 

I see a VERY fundamental problem right here.

 

Read an interesting article today. I thought we were still experiencing shortage? Lol

 

Boat is delayed for a switchboard, pretty sure it's the shortage too. Grrrr. At least I haven't spent well into 4 figures in gas money, I guess.

 

Various chips out of stock I needed lately were made by Texas Instruments, National Semiconductor, and Infineon.

Makes it really hard to keep machines running with no replacement chips when things go wrong. lol
Wierd thing, China seems to have plenty of stock on the chips that are backordered in the US until 2023- something is going on, just saying...

I don't want to speculate but it is verrrrrryyyy suspicious to me...

 

Chip update- 08-05-2022
Needed a basic AM26LS31 chip today to build a test fixture to communicate with an industrial component running a special serial protocol for a "machine down" emergency.
Been working all night trying to figure out the protocol and component's "handshake" & data exchange/timing so I can write a program to talk to it.
This chip has been on the market many years and just a basic RS422 line driver.

I keep a few in stock of the standard smd and dip packages but feel sorry for anyone using the package shown below in a new product design
because it would require redesigning the circuit board to get their product out the door to use a package that is available.

There are other chip part#'s that are "sold out" on ALL package styles so the entire engineering of the circuit would need reworked and new circuit boards made- that would be faster.
What ever stock is left from other vendors, if any, will dry up fast and a 81 weeks lead time to get more unless they already have their orders in.

 

81 weeks

 

Damn. At that point you are screwed if the design requires that and can't be reconfigured

 

Plz everyone forgive me if I sound like a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist. lol
But- in last 20 years this has never happened and it's global, except for .... cough... china, who seems to have no problems since I can order the chips but have to wait for deliver which takes a couple(2-4) weeks.
Words cannot describe how unacceptable it is to have vendors who count on your product be shrugged off with "chip shortage" nonsense out of the clear blue with no end in sight.
Something is going on much more nefarious than anyone can accept in my humble opinion.
What do I know, I only do this for my job. haha

The customer was lucky as hell.
It was an incredible amout of work hacking the serial protocol to establish communication with the industrial component to the oems custom configuration for the machine but after all that I found nothing wrong with it.

Wrote a program to "Bit Bang" in the data and I was expecting to see error flag bits in the serial stream but they were clear indicating "all is well" and reporting data perfectly & accurately like new.
It's a good thing cuz the replacement part is 6 months out wait time minimum due to.... wait for it............... Chip Shortage. lol

Bad news for them is they will have to get some techs in there and start puling circuit boards from the rack and maybe chase a few miles of wiring to see why machine isn't working since the part they suspected was causing all the problems, is in fact working fine.

If I had to repair it and chip was not available they'd be screwed but for new products this is not acceptable- they must have their engineers rework the circuitry and use available parts.
I believe the reason they cant or won't and this may surprise many, is because the oem mfg of the part may have subcontracted out all the electrical design and reworking it may not be something that can be done "in house" or quickly.

Cheers and thank you for commenting. !

 

How many are you looking for? Here, they show over 3,600 ready to ship.

 

Hi Mike, thank you I may go ahead and pick a few up while they have them cuz someone can go in there and buy them out, 3600 pieces is like a snack to an oem who can't get the chips direct and has 100k boards to do.

Usually when Mouser sells out everyone else usually gets bought up to and with 81 week lead times is making me sweat cuz it's happened to me several times this year already.
Don't need them right now but trying to think over a year ahead of time is impossible to know what I will need until I go to buy it and Allied, Mouser, and Digi Key are all showing goose eggs for stock. lol

I'll add to the list as time goes on but Texas Instruments, Infineon, and National Semiconductor have been the worst so far for no US stock on selected chips.

 

Chip update 06-28-2023

Needed some of these for a unit that came in for repair.
These both are the same part and the same lead time but the 2nd line item is for a 2,500 count reel.

Just a popular +5VDC voltage regulator, Bread- and-Butter-, that has never been out of stock when I've needed it and I can't believe these lead times to get more.
WTH is going on, I don't know.,,

Both have the same lead time so if I can't source them in the US from a quality supplier, I'll just get some from Asia who seems to have plenty- for some odd reason.
Yeah, it will take 2-4 weeks to get them from asia but doesn't help me or the customer today! lol

 

Keep the politics and debate content out of this thread and off of our forum please (posts removed)

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/faq...les#faq_debate

 

I was reading up on fab supply chain stuff and came across modutek.com—they're into semiconductor wet process equipment, which plays a role in chip manufacturing. Figured it might be helpful to check out if you're curious about where bottlenecks might happen farther up the line. Some of their articles helped me get a better picture of how these production delays ripple down to car manufacturers.

 

Chip issue was solved years ago. Inventory is better now because the market is much slower.