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Editor
Matt Pulzer
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Louisa Pulzer
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Volume 50. No. 11
November 2021
ISSN 2632 573X
Editorial
Sourcing silicon
Over the last few years, in our October or November issues,
we’ve often published a fun and light-hearted Christmas project.
Something easy to make and which would brighten a Christmas
tree or make a nice, inexpensive present. This year we planned to
go a little further and offer eight little decorations based on PCBs
cut into festive shapes – Father Christmas, a tree and so on – all
covered with twinkling multi-coloured LEDs. We ordered the
boards (hundreds of them) plus thousands of LEDs to make up
kits for readers to assemble in time for Christmas. All was plain
sailing until I performed a final check of the parts list. That’s
when the global shortage of ICs hit home. The very ordinary 50p
8-bit PIC that drives the LEDs was unobtainable. Likewise, a
viable alternative was also reported MIA. Both chips were quoted
by multiple major suppliers as being unavailable until June next
year. These aren’t esoteric, low-volume ICs – just cheap, breadand-butter microcontrollers.
Technical enquiries
Perhaps, in retrospect, this is not so surprising. If industrial
giants like VW are having trouble manufacturing cars because of
global supply chain issues with silicon then it was bound to hit
hobbyists too.
Questions about articles or projects should be sent to the editor
by email: pe<at>electronpublishing.com
A little light at the end of the tunnel?
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. First, most of you usually
only need one or two of an item. Even if your preferred suppliers
are out of stock then do have a hunt around on eBay or Amazon.
You may well pay over the odds, but if it’s just a case of paying
a couple of pounds for a 25p device to complete a large project
then while it’s certainly irritating, it’s not catastrophic.
We regret technical enquiries cannot be answered over the
telephone. We are unable to offer any advice on the use, purchase,
re air or odification o co
ercial e ui ent or the incor oration
or odification o designs u lished in the aga ine. e cannot
provide data or answer queries on articles or projects that are
ore than five years old.
Projects and circuits
All reasonable precautions are taken to ensure that the advice and
data given to readers is reliable. We cannot, however, guarantee
it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it.
A number of projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics
employ voltages that can be lethal. You should not build, test,
modify or renovate any item of mains-powered equipment unless
you fully understand the safety aspects involved and you use an
RCD (GFCI) adaptor.
Component supplies
We do not supply electronic components or kits for building the
projects featured, these can be supplied by advertisers. We
advise readers to check that all parts are still available before
commencing any project in a back-dated issue.
Advertisements
Although the proprietors and staff of Practical Electronics take
reasonable precautions to protect the interests of readers by
ensuring as ar as ractica le that advertise ents are ona fide
the magazine and its publishers cannot give any undertakings
in respect of statements or claims made by advertisers, whether
these advertisements are printed as part of the magazine, or in
inserts. The Publishers regret that under no circumstances will
the magazine accept liability for non-receipt of goods ordered, or
for late delivery, or for faults in manufacture.
Second, I’ve recently discussed the problem with my colleague
Nicholas Vinen, the editor of Australia’s Silicon Chip magazine.
He buys a lot more parts than me, so he’s generally better informed
about the ups and downs of silicon supply chains for readers.
Nicholas thinks the situation has probably stabilised – ie, at
least it’s not getting worse. He reports that although the situation
is still bad – with lots of basic items running low, especially
MOSFETs – there are signs that components are now being
restocked, albeit at a frustratingly slow rate.
I think the best advice we can give is do check that all parts are
available before spending money on projects, and do be prepared
to look further afield, even if you have to pay a little more.
Keep well everyone
Matt Pulzer
Publisher
Transmitters/bugs/telephone equipment
We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and
telephone equipment which may be advertised in our pages
cannot be legally used in the UK. Readers should check the law
e ore uying any trans itting or tele hone e ui ent as a fine
confiscation o e ui ent and or i rison ent can result ro
illegal use or ownership. The laws vary from country to country;
readers should check local laws.
Practical Electronics | November | 2021
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