BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
I worked out the lowest cost method of shipping to Finland from the USA that would be fully tracked and insured (international priority mail). It came to about 25 USD. Add in the cost of the two MPUs at roughly 8 USD each and it works out to 41 USD. So it seems that Mouser isn't too far out of line if 50 USD is the total that you were quoted.
You are very kind for spending time on this. I've ordered components from SparkFun (they sell Arduino stuff and components) and other stores in the US with very reasonable shipping costs, usually around $8. I don't care about tracking that much because I try to keep the value of orders below $40 to avoid the parcels getting caught in the customs (slow process).
BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
I woI seem to recall that there is at least one vendor in the UK who stocks the W65C02S. Would that be viable for you? Dunno if it would save you anything on the parts' price but it might help with the shipping.
Shipping from UK is usually very reasonable. Do you happen to remember the name of the store?
BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
The 65C02 has been produced by WDC in only one speed grade (-14) since the late 1990s. I'd be very cautious. You may be looking at what is at best a used item (NOS seems unlikely at this point in time), or possibly a counterfeit part. The seemingly low price and free shipping are red flags for me.
Yeah, I was suspecting something like this. Thanks for the warning! I don't mind losing a few dollars, but I don't want to lose time. The worst thing that could happen would be to first wait 4-5 weeks for the parcel to arrive (typical shipping time from China) and get a part that almost works but has some random crashes or other problems. I would be nightmare to verify where the problem is, in my circuit or the chip itself.
For instance there are lots of counterfeit MAX7219 LED driver chips being sold through Ebay. A very commonly used chip by Arduno enthusiasts and a pretty costly too -- more than five dollars a piece for the real one, afair. Unfortunately the counterfeit versions have random shutdown problems. I know this because I bought 10 of these chips for about $10 when I was starting to learn electronics two years ago