[jcmjrt]

Jim,

Your products have been great AND great bang for the buck - bugle, clarinet, frykleaner - and I've decided to jump into an ibook g4/itunes based music server so now I'm headed for the Chime.

Having experienced the digikey ever changing parts availability, I thought that I'd GA and check. Here are the problems encountered:

    Part#              Problem                  Suitable Substitute?
1. 478-2446-nd     minimum not met     478-3162-nd
2. 478-2479-nd     minimum not met     478-3195-nd
3. f975-nd            minimum not met     F2702-nd
4. NJM78m08fa     obsolete                  UA78m08ckc
5. AE1303-nd        obsolete                  AE9933-nd

Couple of other things -
6. Would there be any benefit in upgrading the USB jack? I guess that I've found that exterior connections tend to be important.
7. Along the same lines....I see that you include recommended upgrades as the coupling caps, power bypass caps and rca jacks. Is there anything else that you'd recommend for upgrades? A few extra dollars can often yield good results but sometimes it's just a few extra dollars so advice is good.
8. Your pre-loaded parts list doesn't seem to include M8702. Easy for me to add. Just letting you know.

Thanks for all your help.

[hagtech]

Ay, it seems the part shortages are non-stop.  Although they always have alternatives!  Just need to get same size and rating part from different brand.  DigiKey has this great search feature that let's you narrow in on available stock.  Sometimes, it's a bit of work. 

For example, type "fuse" in the search box.  The select fuse from overvoltage/overcurrent devices (I hate these subcategories).  Now you just fill in the filter boxes with relavant value and package info.  I also like to click on the items in stock box.  Here you type 1amp, slo-blo, 5x20.  Normally this gives you the list.  This time I had to select a vendor, too.  So I pick littlefuse and the "F2702" looks like a good choice.

For the regulator, just make sure it is to-220 package.

jh