A few weeks ago NXP sent us a survey and offered a free LPCXpresso board for completing it. We filled out the survey and expected a dev-board or breakout board, and a CD with datasheets, compilers, etc. Something like the STM8/32, MSP430 LaunchPad, and other simple boards other manufacturers have been giving away.
Today we received a huge padded envelope from NXP. Inside was a single sheet of paper, and an over-sized matchbook with a BGA chip in a bubble. We dug down deep into the envelope, thinking this can’t be all, but nothing. Maybe the LPCXpresso is still on the way, or they ran out, or they forgot it, but the letter doesn’t mention it at all.
This tiny ad “gives you an introduction to the entire NXP Cortex-M0 product line”? They took the expense to develop the materials, create a marketing campaign, and mail it to us. Now it’ll just go in the trash because it’s unusable, so if you want to do better marketing you could try to buy guest posts for this purpose instead. And if you need a tool dedicated to helping you save, organize, and reference marketing examples, then you may check out this swipe file tool. Experts can craft winning SaaS copy to help SaaS companies reach their target audience and generate more leads. You may also speak to https://moveatpace.com/ for expert creative agency consulting for growth and exits.
Why not spend a bit more and put the chip on a cheap breakout board so your audience of engineers can actually use it? If the LPCXpresso is still on the way, why send this throw-away ad?
I am still waiting for “promo pack”, but it seems to be nothing to wait for… But NXP have definitely achived what they wanted to – they have now a lot of email addresses to spam our mailboxes :)
It’s been over a month and I’m still waiting on my “FREE on Your way LPCXpresso board”…
BAD marketing, shame on You NXP!
I’ve got mine just fine. A couple of days earlier the Linux version of the Code Red IDE became available too, so I was able to use it right away.
(A couple of days later Atmel released the first beta of its new Studio 5, based on Microsoft visual studio. About a year ago they asked for feedback and the single most-asked for item was cross-platform. They would be better off not to ask…)
On the other hand the NXP chips, while small and cheap, lack some of the flexibility of the AVRs (and PICs): Wide supply voltage range, internal ADC reference, in internal analog gain stages, etc. In the end you’ll need more external analog circuitry to around an NXP the around an AVR (or PIC).
i remember filling in 2 forms for items mailing, first was after i submitted the video for LPCXpresso and second was after i received the Cortex-M0 promo email.
i too had received the Cortex-M0 a few days ago and i wonder why this arrive first instead of the LPCXpresso.
there’s also no way for us to check if items had been shipped out or the information is correct after submission. this is really a bad customer experience.
I’ve filled 2 forms too, the first one more than two months ago, nothing arrived yet…
I did get a shipment confirmation from them:
“Your FREE LPCXpresso board is on its way!”
Look for your free toolchain in a few weeks
Dear Ian,
Thanks for taking time to complete our Cortex-M0 survey.
Your free NXP LPCXpresso toolchain is on its way and should arrive in about three weeks.
We’re sure you’ll appreciate the way LPCXpresso simplifies design, giving you a no-fuss, front-to-back toolchain that makes it easier than ever to evaluate, explore, and design.
…..
That’s kind of why I was surprised. There is more meaty info on the chips in that shipment email than in the “promo pack” :)
Same with me… confirmation e-mail that it’s going to be sent, but no show so far, over a month and a half or so now.
Glad I wasn’t the only one disappointed in the Cortex-M0 promo pack. The LPCXxpresso board showed up a few weeks ago but I can’t find time to play with it.
I have also filled a survey I got from an email “We want to send you a FREE LPCXpresso board!” it stated that I need to fill the form by the end of the day. I did that 10 minutes after receiving the email and then I got another message “Your FREE LPCXpresso board is on its way!”. It’s been almost three weeks now, we’ll see when/if it arrives :)
BTW. I am still waiting for the one I was supposed to get for submitting the video a long time ago. I don’t have much time for that right now but I hope to get it one day.
I got mine just fine..
I got mine in one week, I live in NZ. Also it is a full board with the debugger. The same one they gave out for the smash a 8 bit micro
I did both the smash an 8 bit micro, AND I filled out the survey they sent me, and I have yet to receive a device from either of them.
I did both and they sent me an email with the same “You should receive your board in three weeks” thing too. It’s been about 6 or more weeks. I emailed customer service, they asked who sent the emails. Of course they never associated a name with this. So I just sent them the email I got. They never responded after that. I just give up on this… I put them on my blacklist along with Maxim IC.
What is your beef with Maxim-IC? I’ve never had any issues with them and samples what so ever.
I placed 4 different sample orders and never received any. They were all items that were in their sampling program (and reported in stock) but always gave excuses as to why samples couldn’t be shipped.
Same as Bert — I’ve found that Maxim has a great sampling program.
Same as Eric and Bert, I’ve had nothing but good service from Maxim. I admit that perhaps this reflects the fact that I have designed their parts into commercial boards, so perhaps Maxim keeps track of who is actually using their chips versus who just wants free chips. I have no idea whether they do that or not, it’s just a guess.
Meanwhile, I know that there have been a few timing issues where I requested a part that was backordered, and I had to wait. But that was only once, and Maxim sent most of the parts from my sample order right away because they were available, and only delayed the specific parts that were temporarily unavailable.
Gee, why throw away your orphaned Cortex-M0 chip? With all the breakout boards you’re making, seems like you could easily slip an extra Cortex-M0 breakout PCB design into your next order. Then again, this whole idea assumes that you have an assembly house nearby who could place the BGA for you. Maybe NXP assumes their audience has this capability.
What a joke. They send this useless pile of crap that goes straight in the bin. That’s NXP crossed off my list of suppliers that are ever worth considering again.
Same Here! I too got the promo pack instead of LPC expresso! The 5mm sq. chip is a useless for me. If i got 100 or 1000 of those chip ill make some art out of it rather than using it! Though NXP is good with its MCUs like my all time favorite lpc2148 add lpc1768 but the marketing may ruin this i suppose
I received the greeting sheet in the huge envelop and *nothing else*.
I wrote to the email address from which I’ve received the “three weeks” notice. It didn’t bounce. I’m waiting for an answer.
I’m actually looking for an alternative to avr32 since I’m equally disapponted by new AVR Studio 5 and apparent lack of serious Linux support.
Promo pack received yesterday, when I saw the content I thought they had forgotten the promo . The thicker and heavier and harder stuff was the envelope itself!
Now I just hope that they won’t follow the same style for the promised LPCXpresso.
I am still waiting for the fulfillment of NXP promise: “Look for your free toolchain in a few weeks”…
The toolchain is for you to download, I did not got a CD with my LPCXpresso board. So you can download/install/evaluate the toolchain without waiting for the LPCXpresso to arrive.
The toolchain is fine and works well on my Ubuntu Linux workstation.
Markus, thanks for your tip.
I found LPCXpresso in my mailbox yesterday, coming back from a few days holiday. My wait time was not as long as I thought. Nice piece of hardware. Thanks, NXP.
Filled out the same survey, expected an LPCexpresso board, got the same one-page flier and itty-bitty-chip…
>> With all the breakout boards you’re making, you could slip an extra Cortex-M0 breakout PCB into your next order.
Alas, as far as I can tell, it’s not possible to make a breakout for the tiny bga package using the Seeed-required design rules (or for that matter, ANY of the normal low-cost-prototype board house design rules.)
I have mixed feelings about the chip in general. Yes, if 32-bit ARMs are going to replace 8-bit CPUs, there need to be cheap low-pin-count chips. But they need to be usable in the sorts of designs that attract the simplicity of an 8bit chip, and this doesn’t do it. I have trouble imagining it except on the sort of high-complexity board where the designer could as easily have picked the next higher pin-count version of the “main” CPU. Sigh. Maybe they’re just after a different market (COB toys?)
Today I received also and Free Promo Pack. Just an envelope with a one sheet letter. Nothing else. If you received a BGA in a bubble, you are probably lucky one. NXP has my email from previous contacts. They used it to send me request for survey and other information. I consider this a bit of late April fools.
The fact that one of the emails was from a gmail account was highly suspicious…..
I sent in a video, and filled out the questionnaire, there was nothing for a month, and then for some strange reason, i got three lpcxpresso boards three days in a row… not shure how that happened, but hey, ill take them
Hey! One of those was mine ;)
Did you get them with UPS or regular mail?
3 boards :O
Just found one of mine in the mailbox. This is the one I was supposed to get for submitting the “Break your 8/16bit habit”. It came with regular mail, and included a short note about the 8/16bit contest. I might get the other one after all.. since it took two months for this one to arrive :)
Anyway, I am glad I have one!
I received the e-mail with subject
“Your FREE LPCXpresso board is on its way!”
with some text that say
“Your free NXP LPCXpresso toolchain is on its way and should arrive in about three weeks”
on 30 march 2011, now it’s 01 may 2011 and
still nothing
NXP again! Received today 2nd LPCXpresso for my entry in the “Break your 8/16-bit habit”. Quite a long time from my initial request, but it’s free, and unexpected…
Thanks to NXP!
I got my first LCPXpresso a couple of days ago, so they are sending them out (not just a chip, got a full dev board).
Going by Giorgio’s comment above I may have another one coming my way as well …
NXP is pretty awful. Their website is an utter failure of Flash garbage, they don’t print budgetary prices in their parametric search, making it useless, and, most important of all, we’ve had hundreds of their amplifier ICs fail in our customers’ hands, with no help from NXP to correct the problem. They must have some really clueless management.