No CA3080 alternatives?

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Mailliw

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Messages
196
Location
Halifax, Canada
Hello,

I thought I might build a guitar pedal, specifically this one: Dya Comp clone

It calls for a CA3080 OTA chip, but mouser and digikey don't stock it. Crap.

Doing a little research, I found this person's blog entry regarding its discontinuation: Last of the OTA's

According to him it's a very valuable component for music and nothing currently matches its performance. Its sad to read stuff like this, assuming its true.

William
 
Use half of a NE5517/LM13700/NJM13700 (On Semi, National Semi, and JRC, respectively). You can even use both halves in parallel (with some work) for a single-channel app, although I wouldn't complicate matters.

EDIT: Note that these are NOT substitutes for the CA3280.
 
13600/13700 types are not drop in replacements for 3080 or 3094 - be careful. Better to pay the price for the correct chip from smallbear, which is far less than the cost of 20 hideous cigarettes in the UK!
 
NTE902 (metal can) and NTE996 (PDIP) are replacements for the CA3080. They also appear to be getting scarce, but are still floating around. Newark has 68 of the NTE996's at $1.70 each. Unfortunately, NTE doesn't market a replacement for the CA3280, just the 3080.
 
[quote author="StephenGiles"]13600/13700 types are not drop in replacements for 3080 or 3094 - be careful. [/quote]

I hope I made it clear that they were not---note that I said "use half". And I'm only suggesting a workaround for 3080 applications.

The point is that 5517's will be around for a while as they are still in wide use, whereas 3080's are already discontinued. You guys that are doing strictly onesy-twosy DIY can well use whatever can be found in small quantities. But if one wishes to make a number of something for a while, it would be wise to select parts that are in production, and preferably from more than one manufacturer.

PS: As many know NTE doesn't manufacture things for the most part---they just acquire and relabel, in some cases testng to their particular specification. When they run out of stock and can't get an out-of-production part, they discontinue things too. Don't count on them.
 

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