Samples and Freebies

Hey gang, I have to admit, I'm a gadget whore and I love freebies, so
this evening I've been walking up and down google, looking for fun
electronic samples. Stuff from maximm and Atmel have jumped out at me,
but where else might an intrepid young geek find good, fun, free bits?

Jason wrote:
> Hey gang, I have to admit, I'm a gadget whore and I love freebies, so
> this evening I've been walking up and down google, looking for fun
> electronic samples. Stuff from maximm and Atmel have jumped out at me,
> but where else might an intrepid young geek find good, fun, free bits?

It helps if your company actually buys production
quantities of parts through distribution.  Then you
can beg your outside salesperson for dev kits and
demo boards.  Sometimes they can get you non-free
software for free.

Otherwise it's pretty much just component samples.

"Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message 
news:F--dnbe_i6eCPYXYnZ2dnUVZ_vqdnZ2d@omsoft.com...
> Jason wrote:
>> Hey gang, I have to admit, I'm a gadget whore and I love freebies, so
>> this evening I've been walking up and down google, looking for fun
>> electronic samples. Stuff from maximm and Atmel have jumped out at me,
>> but where else might an intrepid young geek find good, fun, free bits?
>
> It helps if your company actually buys production
> quantities of parts through distribution.  Then you
> can beg your outside salesperson for dev kits and
> demo boards.  Sometimes they can get you non-free
> software for free.
>
> Otherwise it's pretty much just component samples.
>


In addition there are some manufacturers that sell very low cost development 
kits - not free I know, but by my reckoning they must be below or near the 
actual production cost.  For example, recently I've been working with this: 
http://www.luminarymicro.com/products/ekk-lm3s811_evaluation_kit.html.  Much 
more fun that bare components for the lazy people amongst us (me for 
example) - and only $49.  I seem to remember my STK500 also was only &#4294967295;40 
when I purchased it some years ago, and this came with several AVR micros 
included.

Regards,
Richard.

+ http://www.FreeRTOS.org
+ http://www.SafeRTOS.com
for Cortex-M3, ARM7, ARM9, HCS12, H8S, MSP430
Microblaze, Coldfire, AVR, x86, 8051 & PIC18 * * * *

Jason wrote:
> Hey gang, I have to admit, I'm a gadget whore and I love freebies, so
> this evening I've been walking up and down google, looking for fun
> electronic samples. Stuff from maximm and Atmel have jumped out at me,
> but where else might an intrepid young geek find good, fun, free bits?

There are all sorts of things that you can get for nearly free (NF).
TI, for example, sells demo boards for their power chips at $10 each.
That hardly covers the cost of the chips!!!  I always get a couple of
these when I am working with a new chip just so I can have a breadboard
to try out and change a few parts to suit my BOM.

FreeRTOS.org <noemail@gmail.com> wrote:

> In addition there are some manufacturers that sell very low cost development 
> kits - not free I know, but by my reckoning they must be below or near the 
> actual production cost.  For example, recently I've been working with this: 
> http://www.luminarymicro.com/products/ekk-lm3s811_evaluation_kit.html.  Much 
> more fun that bare components for the lazy people amongst us (me for 
> example) - and only $49.  I seem to remember my STK500 also was only ?40 
> when I purchased it some years ago, and this came with several AVR micros 
> included.

I just got one of those board from Circuit Cellar for an upcoming
contest.  I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the board and their
software.

And (to the OP), circuit cellar (www.circuitcellar.com) is a great
magazine. There are lots of projects other people have done for you to
read about, and they occasionally do contests.  Usually when they
announce a contest, they will have a limited number of development kits
or chip samples to go along with it.

I'd highly recommend a subscription! (And no, I'm not affiliated with
them in any way, but I did get a "Distinctive Excellence" award from one
of their contests....)

ttyl,

--buddy
> Regards,
> Richard.

> + http://www.FreeRTOS.org
> + http://www.SafeRTOS.com
> for Cortex-M3, ARM7, ARM9, HCS12, H8S, MSP430
> Microblaze, Coldfire, AVR, x86, 8051 & PIC18 * * * *