Pillar to post and back again.

[Whuffo]

I've been trying to find an IC for a prototype. It's a production part, but the only sources that have any in stock appear to be speculators who are only interested in selling large quantities to OEMs. At least, that's what I've got to assume since not one of them has bothered to reply to my emails.

Of course, living in a third world country doesn't help. What I need is a MC145170P (or P1 or P2; P2 is current). Motorola / Freescale or equivalent would do, I won't be pushing the limits of even the original version's specs.

The prototype is complete except for this part and programming the MCU. It's not a terribly common part, but I never expected it to be this hard to find one.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

I haven't tried them but you could.

http://www.lansdale.com/

http://www.lansdale.com/part_search.php?search=MC145170&Go.x=14&Go.y=10

[pickle9000]

Sounds like a job for ebay, although it may be used and expensive ebay does weird well.

[Whuffo]

Still looking; thanks for the tips but no luck yet. It's kind of a shame; this is a very cool chip if you want to generate a wide range of frequencies (up to 185 Mhz) and select the output frequency by MCU control.

The suggestion to try eBay; I'm not in the US, and shipping / customs would be (cough) significant. I'll give it a shot anyway - it looks to me like this part has been popular in the OEM market (they've been making them for about 15 years already). But nobody has spread the word, so the hobbyist and designers probably don't know about it. If you can find them, they're dirt cheap; a buck or two.

I've found some on eBay - not many, and the prices are high. Best deal I've found is someone in Greece who would ship me one for $13.00 - customs on electronics here would double that to $26.00. Not a great deal. I'll keep looking.

[IanB]

Request samples from the manufacturer? (I assume you must have thought of that and it was not successful...)

[Bored@Work]

Still looking; thanks for the tips but no luck yet. It's kind of a shame; this is a very cool chip if you want to generate a wide range of frequencies (up to 185 Mhz) and select the output frequency by MCU control.

A DDS IC, like one from Analog Devices wouldn't do?

[Whuffo]

Request samples from the manufacturer? (I assume you must have thought of that and it was not successful...)

No luck on that front yet. Of course, imagine yourself as a Freescale marketing rep considering a request for a sample from someone in the Philippines. Most companies won't even contemplate doing business with someone here. I haven't give up hope yet, but this is the hardest time I've ever had sourcing a part.

It's not all bad; I've sourced all of the other components locally - even the MCU. Prices here are much, much lower than you'd imagine - I got a dozen nice electrolytics, a beefy power MOSFET, and a PIC today and the bill was less than $3.

I'll keep looking; this project is too good to let it fail.

[Whuffo]

Still looking; thanks for the tips but no luck yet. It's kind of a shame; this is a very cool chip if you want to generate a wide range of frequencies (up to 185 Mhz) and select the output frequency by MCU control.

A DDS IC, like one from Analog Devices wouldn't do?

Nope, not the same and not as useful.

[Whuffo]

While waiting for a 145170 to become available, I decided to spend a little time and repair a synth module that quit working a couple of years ago. It's a Yamaha MU90R Pro; very nice unit for its day and still quite desirable. It turned out to be nothing more than some bad electrolytics in the output circuitry. Not only did they use regular electrolytics to couple an AC signal, they used Wong Ding 85 degree cheapies. Replaced them with non-polarized caps and it's working like new again.

I expected better from Yamaha. The guy that designed it must have known that it wasn't going to last.

[jeremy]

An early christmas for you: http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=MC145170&opensearch=true

FYI they probably aren't ROHS compliant if that matters to you. Aliexpress is great for weird and wacky ICs.

[Whuffo]

I just got a reply from a Hong Kong / China distributor that quoted me a unit price of $120 if I bought two of them. Sigh.

I don't much care if they're ROHS compliant; the solder I'll be using to install them sure isn't. I'm off to Aliababa Express (Aliexpress) to see what's going on there.

[codeboy2k]

from ebay...the seller ships world wide... shipped from hong kong..

DIP16 package:
$12.00 each + $4.00 shipping.  $0.1 shipping for each additional one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MC145170-MC145170P-PLL-FREQUENCY-SYNTHESIZER-WITH-SERI-/200575994205

SO16 package
$8.95 each + $4.00 shipping.  $0.1 shipping for each additional one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MC145170-MC145170D1-PLL-FREQUENCY-SYNTHESIZER-WITH-SERI/150466583037

[senso]

And 5 for 12 bucks:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pcs-MC145170D2-MC145170-PLL-Frequency-Synthesizer-Serial-Interface/170910333417?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D261%26meid%3D1666397940102848641%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D150466583037%26

[Whuffo]

Thanks, guys! I've got some coming - and (unfortunately) after "magically" fixing that Yamaha module I've got several more pro audio units to repair. The worst of the batch is a Behringer 32 channel mixer with many issues; more of those Wong Ding capacitors. It's a major project to disassemble it, and there's over 1,000 of those caps to replace; no point in just doing the 20 or so bad ones, get them all now and have years of good results in the end. Sigh; it looks like it'll take a week or so to fix this one. Fortunately, replacement caps are dirt cheap here in Asia, and the owner is willing to pay well for good workmanship. Looks like I'll be a pro audio repairman for the next few weeks.