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Geek Culture / $100 of free stuff at sparkfun.com

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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 18th Dec 2009 06:15
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January 7th, Thems @ sparkfun.com are giving away up to $100 of free stuff per household, up to their max of $100,000.

Check out this (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=305) link to read all about it.

This is an AWESOME deal. If you have ever thought about getting involved in circuitry, you should jump on this. If you want to start programming microcontrollers (which is AWESOME) check these products out:

Microcontrollers:
ATMega168
ATtiny85

Programmers (to program the microcontrollers)
parallel port
serial

And then get a couple push buttons, LEDs, small to mid-range capacitors, and a buzzer or two, and you'll be able to build some awesome I/O circuits (with the right software; take a look at AVRdude).

I think the $100,000 is going to run out FAST, so be on the lookout.

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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 18th Dec 2009 09:09
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Cool, don't know if I'll be buying, but very awesome link.

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
Current Project: http://strewnfield.wordpress.com/ (Last updated 06/11/09)
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Melancholic
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Posted: 18th Dec 2009 09:47
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@ Neuro Fuzzy ive been waiting for the 7th for some time aswell!, although im only a hobbyiest so i use arduino's.

If any one here looked at neuro's suggestions and though they looked a bit complex, i would reccomend an arduino board. For those who want basic and easy to use, buy a picaxe board.
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BearCDP
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Posted: 18th Dec 2009 10:34
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That's awesome! I have never programmed a microcontroller in my life, but this seems as good a reason as any to start learning.

Game Design, Audio, and Music Blog
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lazerus
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Posted: 18th Dec 2009 15:24
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ahh, picaxe brings back memories of programming a traffic light intersection with two motion sensors and 2 time delayed push buttons. It worked perfectly. I think its on display in tech somewhere. The idea was after a certain interval of cars passed of the sensors the lights would change so the otherside could then desperse any built up traffic. The crossing had push buttons so that you could change the lights. though i only had them on one side.

Ughh the amount of coding probelms it had lol.

Good times...

-Con


http://lazerus-reborn.deviantart.com/
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dab
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Posted: 19th Dec 2009 04:39
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Could anyone recommend some parts for a beginner to learn programming and such?

I'm very interested in this but could never afford the parts to learn.

Nice find!

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OrzeL
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Posted: 19th Dec 2009 06:03
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Well i took a few computer engineering courses in high school. We used microcontrollers from Microchip and Parallax. We started off with the Basic Stamp from Parallax which is a good starting point.It uses PBasic as the programming language. Then Later we started using assembler with the PIC16F690. Assembler is much harder than PBasic, also if you know C you can use it with most of the microcontrollers from Microchip. There's also something called the Arduino, i don't know too much about it but its apparently hobbiest's favourite microcontroller. Microcontrollers are awesome to use but I recommend before you even consider getting a microcontroller, buy a breadboard (the electronics one not the one you cut bread on), a few LEDs, Resistors, Wires and maybe a 555 chip and try to wire up some simple stuff. Start with the basics how to turn on a light (LED) , Look up 555 monostable schematic and build that and output the signal to a light to make it flash. Them figure out how to alter the time it flashes, like how you would change the 555 schematic to do that. Well learn to read schematics first, learn about resistors and the colours associated with them, you could build a colour wheel to help you figure out resistor values, learn about logic gates and truth tables they might not seem to important but they are very helpful, there is alot to learn. Also get a multimeter doesn't have to be fancy just a simple one for i believe around $15, it will help you figure out whats wrong when a circuit you build isn't working. If you want to get into PCB (printed circuit boards), you will need some solder and a soldering iron... though you should learn to breadboard circuits before you try PCBs. I know i went on a tangent if you have anymore questions feel free to ask, though i don't know everything. Also i can't wait for Jan 7th aswell been wanting to get an LCD screen to work with for a long time and i finally can get one though i'm not sure how good of a processor i'm going to need to work with the LCD screen. If anyone knows of any processors that are cheap please could you name them. thanks.
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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 19th Dec 2009 20:18 Edited at: 19th Dec 2009 20:19
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I think that most (if not all) arduinos are based around an ATMega chip. The website actually sells the ATMega 168 and ATMega 328 chips with the arduino bootloader already installed, if you want to build your own Arduino based system.

@dab:

For a beginner learning to program microchips, I'd start out at nerdkits.com, because they have written tutorials, and will help you if you e-mail them with a question. These tutorials helped me a LOT with the software-side of all of this, as well as hooking up power supplies and the lot.

Pertaining to this sale, I'm not usually one for kits, but this beginner kit looks great. The ATMega168 (link above) is also really good, a lot of Arduinos are based around that chip, as are the NerdKits. That, and some basic power supply stuff, and you'll be set.

[edit]

I should say that i'm still pretty much a beginner, so don't take my words as concrete in any way

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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 7th Jan 2010 13:51
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Just saying, the $100 deal kicks off in three hours and 19 minutes. Their website is incredibly sluggish... I wouldn't be surprised if their servers blew up when it starts, and I think that the chance of getting free stuff isn't that good ($100,000 @ $100 each is only 1,000 people), not to mention the chance of their servers crashing is high. Anyways, I'll be at school, so my mom's ordering it. I hope it works out

Here's mah shopping list:

Yup. I hope it gets through. I don't have a multimiter yet (DOH) or a soldering iron worth anything (DOH) or anything to hold the circuits while I solder them (DOH)


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bitJericho
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Posted: 7th Jan 2010 18:27 Edited at: 7th Jan 2010 18:28
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about half over now, 50k sold. I finally got my items in my shopping cart, checking out now and I've been trying on and off for about an hour and a half.

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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 8th Jan 2010 00:21
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Aww seriously? I didn't get anything

I filled it up beforehand, and let my mom order it. She tried for two hours and stil couldn't get it...


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bitJericho
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Posted: 8th Jan 2010 04:51
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I couldnt get in eitehr Stalled at checkout and wouldnt go to the next page Ah well!

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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 8th Jan 2010 05:13
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yeah... I heard they had 1023 orders on the IRC channel, and on their website it said they had 70,000 unique visitors, probably all of which wanted the $100 thing. A 1/70 chance


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