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Messages - nabilt

1
General discussion / What do you do with your spare components?
What do you guys do with all of the spare parts that you have collected from past projects. I have mountains of development boards, passives, ICs, etc most of which has never been used. I recently setup an online shop to get rid of my stuff (worth around 2k!), but I'm curious what other people do.

Thanks
3
General discussion / Re: Cheap components - TaoBao
I would say it was less than half even tho I ordered from 2 different stores. Not bad :) The same LCDs on ebay are $12 each. I plan to order in bulk next time for even more savings. Thanks again for the tip!
4
General discussion / Re: Cheap components - TaoBao
I also recently got my parts from taobao Focus. Unfortunately, there don't ship batteries. Here are the details.

10 x 12 RMB  0.91'' OLED - http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z ... 8982688479
3 x 12.88 RMB  0.84'' OLED - http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7085782089


First payment
Items price: 158.64 RMB
Domestic shipping: 15 RMB
Subtotal: 173.64 RMB
Commission (10%): 35 RMB
Total: 208.64 RMB
Total in USD: 34.43 USD

Shipping fees
International shipping fee: 176 RMB
Total in USD: 29.04 USD
Difference first payment: -12.37 USD
Second payment total (including order balance): 16.67 USD

Ordered on August 21
Arrived at TaobaoFocus on August 25
Arrived in Canada on Sept. 5

Total $63.47
5
General discussion / Re: Powering Projects from Li-polymer cells
I recently made a similar charger / boost converter using:
MCP73871 - Lipo charger that can power a load while charging. Does intelligent switching / combining of battery and input power.
TPS61028 - Similar boost converter with down convert. A bit cheaper than the tps61200.
6
General discussion / Re: Cheap components - TaoBao
[quote author="matseng"]
I suppose that an easy way to see if the protection parts actually works and is not just a fake unit would be to discharge the battery. If it's protected there normally should be an undervoltage cutout at 2.75-2.8 volts.
[/quote]
I do feel a bit better purchasing from seeedstudio or sparkfun because I'm assuming they have done the research to find the ones that don't explode to protect their brand. If you are gonna buy from the source checking a few like you've suggested seems like a good idea.

[quote author="matseng"]
An account at Taobao?  Why?  I've never needed one, but maybe it can be good to have one if there is like a wish-list for saving items in when researching different stores.[/quote]
That is exactly what I'm using it for. I've already found a lot good deals on stuff like usb microscopes, leds, resistors, oled lcds and batteries.
7
General discussion / Re: Cheap components - TaoBao
wow, I've had a terrible time registering for an account on taobao and taobaofocus.com. taobao wouldn't send a verification email so I can't see what is in my cart and taobaofocus has a broken auth system. It doesn't accept special characters (bad sign) and after your "successfully" register the login page doesn't recognize the account. Tech support said try a different browser or a different computer or "connect with internet or computer"...

Well, I guess this is the trade-off you make for awesome deals.
8
General discussion / Re: Cheap components - TaoBao
Lipo battery: "If you do not understand the safe use of lithium rule, please do not shoot this product !" Good advice :-)

On that note, how do you feel about buying potentially explosive batteries from an known source like this?
10
General discussion / Re: Found an old pick and place machine. Worth restoring?
Thanks for the advice guys.
> do you actually need a PnP to do some assembly?
Not yet, but I plan on selling some of my designs in larger quantities, but like Ian said it's probably smarter to buy a pick and place machine. Or maybe get someone else to do assembly.

Another option is to contact my local hacker space and see if they would be interested in restoring this machine. It could be a learning experience for some and a way to share the cost. If this is successful I'll post some details about the build.
11
General discussion / Found an old pick and place machine. Worth restoring?
I found 2 old pick and place machine at my local surplus store the other day. I've always dreamed of restoring something like this but I know it would be way too much work. There is also the issue of space. I was wondering what peoples opinion here is. I know Ian said in one of his videos that it's probably not worth it unless you plan to manufacture boards full time. What do you think?

Here is a hacker space documenting their attempt: http://http://charliex2.wordpress.com/tag/pick-and-place/

Video of the one I found: http://http://youtu.be/q2gEMrl7_UA

12
General discussion / 1GHz Cortex A8 in TQFP
The guys at Olimex have been working on a single board computer for hobbyists called the OLINUXINO with similar goals to the one DP was developing a while ago. It uses the IMX233 454 MHz ARM9 Freescale processor.
Blog: http://http://olimex.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/blinking-led-with-linux-or-hello-world-with-imx233-olinuxino/
Github: http://https://github.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO

For their next revision they plan on using a Cortex A8 processor in a TQFP package, which they found from a Chinese company!

http://http://olimex.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/cortex-a8-in-tqfp-sure-allwinner-a13/
Quote
A10 is Cortex A8 processor running on 1.2Ghz but could be overclock up to 1.5Ghz.
The features are impessive: support for up to 1GB RAM, USB2.0 OTG, USB2.0 HOST x2, HDMI1.3/1.4., LCD, CVBS-OUT, VGA-OUT, SATA,Line-In, Headphone, 10/100M Ethernet, Camera Sensor Interface x2, support for SDIO WIFI, GPS, Gyroscope, Light Sensor, Bluetooth, Compass.
Can boot from NAND FLASH, SD/MMC Card, USB

The company also produces the A13.
Quote
A strip down version of A10 which is same but without SATA interface and HDMI, targeting purely the Tablet market. The new chip is $5 if you by any chance decide to buy one million chips from Allwinner and can be purchased for $10 in smaller quantities.
13
General discussion / Re: Another software-hackable watch
It is very interesting. They are the number one most funded project on kickstarter now, but I am a bit confused what kickstarter's mission is now. I understood it as a way to fund creative projects that gave back to the community. For example, you fund an art project and you might get a say in how it develops. Fund a tech project and the community gets a new open source product. Campaigns like the Pebble treat kickstarter as an ordering platform. This is not a bad thing because they might not have been able to produce the watch otherwise or add cool features like making it waterproof. It just changes the way I think about kickstarter now.
15
General discussion / Re: I just bought this, and you what did you buy ?
Forgot to post what I got!

I'm making a very simple breakout board for Nordic's Bluetooth 4 Low Energy chip - nRF8001
Eagle files and BOM: https://github.com/nabilt/nRF8001-Breakout-Board

Not backwards compatible with older Bluetooth devices like (e.g. v2.1), but everyone seems to be moving in this direction. If it works out I plan to use this for most of my wireless projects going forward.

They claim:
 - it lasts years on coin cell
 - 50m range
 -  1Mbps over the air data rate; 0.2 Mbps throughput


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