element14 / Newark / Farnell — Component Search, Datasheets & Ordering
Related Skills
| Skill | Purpose |
|---|
kicad | Schematic analysis — extracts MPNs for part lookup |
bom | BOM management — orchestrates sourcing across distributors |
spice | Uses element14 parametric data for behavioral SPICE models |
One API covers three regional storefronts — same catalog, same datasheets, only pricing/stock vary by region:
| Storefront | Region | Store ID |
|---|
| Newark | North America | www.newark.com |
| Farnell | UK / Europe | uk.farnell.com |
| element14 | Asia-Pacific | au.element14.com |
For BOM management and export workflows, see bom.
Key Differences from DigiKey/Mouser
- Simple auth — API key as a query parameter, no OAuth flow
- Free API key — register at partner.element14.com, courtesy usage allowance
- Global coverage — same API covers US (Newark), EU (Farnell), APAC (element14)
- Unprotected PDFs — datasheets hosted on farnell.com CDN, download freely with no bot protection
- Datasheet URL in API response —
responseGroup=medium includes datasheets[].url
API Credential Setup
- Register at partner.element14.com/member/register
- Free account — just username, email, password. No credit card needed.
- Provides a "courtesy usage allowance" (2 calls/sec, 1,000 calls/day — sufficient for normal use)
- Register an application — after logging in, go to My API Keys and click "Get API Keys"
- App name: anything (e.g., "kicad-happy")
- Type: "Desktop application"
- Users: "1-10"
- Commercial: No
- Advertising: No
- Check "Issue a new key for Product Search API" → select "Basic" tier
- Agree to Terms of Service and click "Register Application"
- Copy your API key — a 24-character alphanumeric string shown on the My API Keys page
- Set the environment variable
ELEMENT14_API_KEY before running the scripts:
export ELEMENT14_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
If credentials are stored in a central secrets file (e.g., ~/.config/secrets.env), load them first:
export $(grep -v '^#' ~/.config/secrets.env | grep -v '^$' | xargs)
Product Search API
Base URL: https://api.element14.com/catalog/products
All requests use GET with query parameters. Authentication is via callInfo.apiKey.
Search Modes
The term parameter supports three search types:
| Mode | Format | Example |
|---|
| Keyword | any:<keywords> | term=any:100nF 0402 X7R |
| MPN | manuPartNum:<mpn> | term=manuPartNum:GRM155R71C104KA88D |
| Distributor PN | id:<sku> | term=id:94AK6874 |
Full Example
GET https://api.element14.com/catalog/products
?term=manuPartNum:GRM155R71C104KA88D
&storeInfo.id=www.newark.com
&resultsSettings.offset=0
&resultsSettings.numberOfResults=10
&resultsSettings.responseGroup=medium
&callInfo.responseDataFormat=JSON
&callInfo.apiKey=YOUR_KEY
Response Groups
| Group | Fields |
|---|
small | SKU, displayName, brandName, MPN, attributes |
medium | + datasheets[], prices[], stock |
large | + images, related products, country of origin |
prices | Tiered pricing only |
inventory | Stock levels by warehouse/region |
Response Format
With responseGroup=medium, the response looks like:
{
"manufacturerPartNumberSearchReturn": {
"numberOfResults": 5,
"products": [
{
"sku": "94AK6874",
"displayName": "Murata GRM155R71C104KA88D",
"translatedManufacturerPartNumber": "GRM155R71C104KA88D",
"brandName": "Murata Electronics",
"datasheets": [
{
"type": "TechnicalDataSheet",
"description": "Datasheet",
"url": "https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/74273.pdf"
}
],
"prices": [
{
"from": 1,
"to": 9,
"cost": 0.156
}
],
"stock": {
"level": 45000,
"leastLeadTime": 0,
"status": 4,
"statusMessage": "In Stock"
},
"attributes": [
{"attributeLabel": "Capacitance", "attributeUnit": "", "attributeValue": "100nF"},
{"attributeLabel": "Voltage Rating", "attributeUnit": "V", "attributeValue": "16"}
],
"rohsStatusCode": "YES"
}
]
}
}
Key fields:
sku — Newark/Farnell/element14 part numbertranslatedManufacturerPartNumber — MPNbrandName — manufacturerdatasheets[].url — direct PDF URL (farnell.com CDN, no bot protection)datasheets[].type — usually TechnicalDataSheetprices[] — tiered pricing with from, to, coststock.level — quantity in stockstock.statusMessage — human-readable availabilityattributes[] — parametric specs (label, unit, value)rohsStatusCode — RoHS compliance (YES/NO)
Store IDs
Common store IDs for the storeInfo.id parameter:
| Store ID | Region |
|---|
www.newark.com | US (default) |
uk.farnell.com | UK |
www.farnell.com | EU |
au.element14.com | Australia |
sg.element14.com | Singapore |
in.element14.com | India |
Rate Limits
No documented rate limits beyond the courtesy usage allowance. Be respectful — use 0.5s delays between calls.
Filters
Add to query parameters:
resultsSettings.refinements.filter=rohsCompliant — RoHS parts onlyresultsSettings.refinements.filter=inStock — in-stock only
Pagination
resultsSettings.offset — starting index (0-based)resultsSettings.numberOfResults — max 50 per page- Only the first 100 results are reliably pageable
Datasheet Download & Sync
element14's farnell.com CDN serves datasheet PDFs directly — no bot protection, no special headers needed. Datasheet URLs come from the API response (datasheets[].url).
Datasheet Directory Sync
Use sync_datasheets_element14.py to maintain a datasheets/ directory alongside a KiCad project. Same workflow and manifest.json format as the DigiKey, Mouser, and LCSC skills.
# Sync datasheets for a KiCad project
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch>
# Preview what would be downloaded
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --dry-run
# Retry previously failed downloads
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --force
# Use a specific store (default: www.newark.com)
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --store uk.farnell.com
# Custom output directory
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> -o ./my-datasheets
# Parallel downloads (3 workers)
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --parallel 3
# Batch mode — sync from a plain MPN list (no KiCad project required)
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py --mpn-list mpns.txt --output ./datasheets
MPN-list batch mode (KH-312) — when you have a list of MPNs but no
KiCad project to point at. One MPN per line; blank lines and #
comments (full-line and inline) are skipped; generic values are filtered
via is_real_mpn() and de-duplicated. Output defaults to ./datasheets/
in the current working directory when --output is omitted. Note:
ELEMENT14_API_KEY is checked unconditionally at startup, so
--dry-run still requires the env var to be set even though no
network calls are made.
The script:
- Runs the kicad schematic analyzer to extract components, MPNs, and distributor PNs
- Accepts any identifier — MPN, Newark/Farnell PN, or other distributor PNs from KiCad symbol properties
- Prefers MPN search (
manuPartNum:) for exact match — falls back to keyword search
- Downloads from farnell.com CDN — direct PDF URLs, no bot protection
- Writes
manifest.json manifest — same format as DigiKey/Mouser/LCSC skills
- Verifies PDF content — checks MPN, manufacturer, and description keywords
- Rate-limited — 0.5s between API calls (configurable with
--delay)
- Saves progress incrementally — safe to interrupt
Single Datasheet Download
Use fetch_datasheet_element14.py for one-off downloads.
# Search by MPN
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py --search "GRM155R71C104KA88D" -o datasheet.pdf
# Search by Newark/Farnell part number
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py --search "94AK6874" -o datasheet.pdf
# Direct URL download
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py "https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/74273.pdf" -o datasheet.pdf
# JSON output
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py --search "GRM155R71C104KA88D" --json
The script:
- OS-agnostic — uses
requests → urllib → playwright fallback chain
- Validates PDF headers — rejects HTML error pages
- Falls back to alternative manufacturer sources when element14 URL fails
- Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = download failed, 2 = search/API error
- Dependencies:
pip install requests (recommended; urllib fallback works fine for element14)pip install playwright && playwright install chromium (optional; rarely needed)
Web Search Fallback
If the API is unavailable, search by fetching product pages directly:
https://www.newark.com/search?st=<query>
https://uk.farnell.com/search?st=<query>
Tips
- Use
responseGroup=medium — includes datasheets and pricing without the overhead of large
- Use
manuPartNum: prefix for exact MPN matches; any: for keyword search
- Cross-reference using
translatedManufacturerPartNumber (MPN) across DigiKey/Mouser/LCSC
- Useful for international users where DigiKey/Mouser shipping is expensive