BOO! Scared you huh? Probably not; most of you are looking down below at the picture of the Dumpster Dive. Yes, it's happening today. But, we also have some other cool products and a great video as well.
Believe it or not, we're working hard on getting a new set in our studio, I promise. We were almost ready this week, but we still need to make some final tweaks before we start using it. Stay tuned!
The Dumpster Dive - 1.5 lb.
DD-12012That's right, everyone's favorite ding and dent product is back! Today, starting at noon (mountain time zone) we have 100 Dumpster Dives ready to go. As always, we expect these to go quick, so get your F5 key ready. If you're not familiar with the excitement and wonder that is the SparkFun Dumpster Dive, it's where we take all the products we can't sell and put them in a box. Each SparkFun Dumpster Dive is 1.5 pounds (not including the box) of random parts. It's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. There could be anything from one-off samples, prototype boards, stuff that fell off the pick-and-place machine, and more!
One of the biggest hurdles with using a cellular shield is getting a data plan. Most companies make you sign a contract, keep a card on file for overages and additional charges, or include voice and other features you don't need. Our new SparkFun SIM Card solves these issues. The card ships activated and has no additional fees. You pay $79.95 for 6 months worth of unlimited data, it's as simple as that. It works on any T-Mobile network, worldwide.
Speaking of cellular, if you need to adapt your SIM card to your device, we have this handy set of adapters. It includes 3 adapters that snap out of the frame.
A lot of people liked the MicroView, but many of you just wanted the screen to play with. This week, we're selling the OLED with a simple breakout. It gives you access to the pins, and you don't have to mess with the tricky connector on the screen. It uses the same code as the MicroView, you just need to add your own Arduino-compatible board.
The SparkFun Inventor's Kit comes packed with a lot of goodies. However, for our international customers and distributors, it's a bulky product that can cost a lot to ship. Our new SparkFun International Kit trims down the traditional SIK by removing the carrying case and manual, and swapping the RedBoard with the Arduino Uno. It's a lot smaller and in turn, much cheaper to ship.
This is an IC Test Clip for 8-pin small outline integrated circuits (SOIC). This test clip assures a secure connection to all chip leads on an 8-pin SMD SOIC and provides hands-free testing. This works well for the ATtiny85 as well as the LilyTiny.
This week we have a couple new books. Both Short Circuit books are aimed at students looking to integrate electronics into their projects. The first book, Crafting e-Puppets with DIY Electronics offers students opportunities to undertake physical computing projects, providing tools and methods for creating electronic puppets. The second, Crafting e-Fashion with DIY Electronics introduces students to the world of wearable technology.
We have a couple new versions of standoffs. We have some 6-32 1-1/2" and 1-1/8", now in packs of 4 instead of singles.
Also, we have a new version of the Electric Imp Breakout. The board remains functionally the same, but we had to switch suppliers on the SD socket, so the board had some minor footprint changes to accommodate the new socket. If you haven't played around with Electric Imp yet and want to play around with the Internet of Things, you should check it out.
Lastly, we have some LED string lights. These were actually a happy accident. We normally order these with bare ends, but the supplier sent these with barrel jacks instead. Sure, OK, why not. We are selling these off and when they're gone, they're gone, so get them while they last. We have them in white, and RGB.
That's all I have for this week. Thanks for watching and have a very happy Halloween! See you next week for more new products.
Can't wait for the Sparkfun Ginsu knife - cuts cans, tomatoes AND coding time!
There's the Sparkfun S.H.O.V.E.L. what would the acronym for the Sparkfun K.N.I.F.E?
After reading the comments I kept wondering why Robert was writing in all caps... then I realized why :-)
I WAS HOPING SOMEONE GOT IT ;-)
Robert channels his inner Billy Mays.
I scored a dumpster dive box via Paypal. I immediately received a backorder notification email @12:02:33. I wonder if it will ship.
Each dumpster dive I get closer... This time I remembered to check at noon; added a box to my cart, at which point I got so excited that I did the happy dance and forgot to check out. By the time I finished the celebration, the box was gone. Next time -- no happy dance until I get the box in the mail!
I love Tempest!
Ive made it to level 12 with 55k so far.
So the Dive made it here, here's a rough list of what mine had:
plus a bunch of 3x0.1" female - 3x0.1" female jumper wires that seem to be incorrectly assembled - the headers have a pin blocked and its a different pin on both ends thus only one wire would be usable on these... and one banana to biting clip adaptery thingy (cant bother to think words anymore...)
My Dive showed up last night! I got home and found that my wife had already opened the box. What a down! But then I started going through the box. Bunch of power connectors, stand offs, capacitors and so forth. Then the good stuff. Joystick, Lilypad LED's, Lilypad cell holder, SerAccel board, Lithium poly quick charger, MP3 Trigger robertsonics board, ID12 breakout, Arduino cellular shield, On Shine RX-A20 board, 7 segement shield, RFM22 Wireless shield, WeatherAdapter board, protoboard. and a bunch of surface mount components that I will enjoy researching as many of them don't have identifiers on them. The real geek in me is just as intrigued with the dispersal package these come in. Time for some fun!
Unlimited Data is great and the SIM card is a step in the right direction but what I am really looking for is something cheap(er) that I can get occasional burst updates from. If I was doing something that was pushing constant telemetry data I would probably be all over that tho.
Btw i got one of those Dumpster Dives (got the ship notification a while ago... i guess i can trust it :P) - honestly was expecting to fail so i'm surprised (my ordered time was 2min 13s). But i have to say there was some weird glitch with getting it into the cart. I pressed add to cart and the website said in a javascript popup "undefined" ... the second time i crossed the "dont allow more popups" that firefox suggested and then hammering the add to cart eventually worked. Weird.
I got the same error, but then I added it to my wishlist and the check out button from there worked.
Same thing happened to me. I just guessed that the web page is not fully sync'ed and refreshed the page again, and the second time it went. My ordered time was 2 min 4 sec.
A little more notice on the Dumpster Dive, please? Us folks who work don't always check SF in the morning!
Guys, you gotta put some acoustic damping in your video studio space. I know that you're working in a brand new building, and acoustic treatments are less important than workbenches, lights, stuff...but the echo/reverb is getting to be pretty distracting.
THERE'S A LARGE STACK OF THEM SITTING IN THE ROOM, THEY JUST HAVEN'T GONE UP YET. GIVE US ANOTHER WEEK OR TWO.
Without the acoustic damping you're losing your hearing and YELLING.
What?
WHAT?
Why is The Dumpster Dive not available to add to the cart?
YOU GOTTA WAIT UNTIL NOON.
When will this be available again? Can you please also, the next time, tell the corresponding GMT time
What's the over/under on how long they last? :)
And can I get in on it?
THEY USUALLY LAST AROUND 2 MINUTES.
And this time, they lasted... ???
AROUND 2 MINUTES, IT WAS UNDER 3.
Around two minutes.
ACTUALLY, IT LOOKS LIKE NEARLY 4 MINUTES. MAYBE A LITTLE OVER 3?
Maybe this time, people saw what came in the last one and realized most of it was useless to them so they passed? Of course, that only benefits those of us that can use whatever might be working! I did notice things went noticeably slower this time around. What would have happened had one checked out then made another separate order for a second one? There was plenty of time to do so this time around.
Billy Mays is both a preacher and a prophet.