Electronics Shop in Thailand – What Will $33 Buy?

Since I was in urgent need for a 5V/3A power adapter, I decided to go shopping locally (in Chiang Mai, Thailand) at some computer shopping malls, where they also have some spare parts. We spent about 1h30 visiting around 10 shops with no success: most of them did not have 5V power supply for sale, and those who did, could only provide 5V/2A power adapters. Finally, one guy at a shop was very helpful, and tried to help us without success, but finally  he said you should go to “Amorn“, and after driving a few kilometers we got there. When I entered the shop  I started to see some pretty interesting equipments: multi-meters, full sized oscilloscopes from 11,000 Bath (~370 USD), electronics cards for appliances (ventilators washing machine, car audio, amplifiers…), soldering irons, ribbon cables, components (capacitors, but no resistors), and much more. It turns out “Amorn Electronics Center” has branches all over Thailand in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Udon Thani, Phuket, Khon Kaen and many more places.

I just went shopping for a power adapter, but I ended buying many more things, and I’ve spent exactly 1,000 Baht (around $33 US), mostly in Amorn, but also in one other shop, and prices appear comparable, and in some cases, even cheaper than in Dealextreme or AliExpress. So here’s what I got (Correct me if I’ve used the wrong vocabulary for the tools below):

A pretty big breadboard for 100 Baht ($3.35) in Amorn.

A desoldering pump for 55 Baht ($1.85) in Amorn. A 10 Watt glue gun for 145 Baht ($4.86) in another shop, but they are also available in Amorn for even cheaper (99 Baht).

Yes! The power supply I needed! It cost me 290 Baht ($9.72) in Amorn, which is more than I expected, but it’s so difficult to buy locally if you don’t know where to shop, I was happy to find it!

A dual wattage (20W -> 80W) soldering iron for 120 Baht (~$4) in Amorn. I wanted a proper temperature controlled soldering iron, but they did not sell it. They also have other models for sale including one for 60 Baht ($2) with a wooden handle, but the tip was quite large, and probably only good for DIP components soldering. I’ve already tried my new toy, soldered some wires to the UART pins of my HI802 dongle, and it worked just fine at 20W, which mean I don’t need to use sticky tape anymore :p.

A soldering iron holder for 70 Baht ($2.35) in Amorn.

A wire stripper for 220 Baht ($7.40) in another shop.

That’s it, I was glad  to find shops with useful tools for tinkerers in Chiang Mai, and I was surprised at how many things I could buy for $33. If readers based in Thailand have some more tips or places to shop for this type of tools, or even components, comments are more than welcome.

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