Back on January 7th I participated in SparkFun’s FreeDay and just barely got the order in before the closing bell. Below is a quick shot of the booty which includes enough parts for me to prototype my next small robot.
Photo by: Anton Olsen
Pictured, top to bottom, left to right, is the Arduino Duemilanove, Two Nordic Tranceivers, an Arduino Pro Mini (3.3V 8Mhz) and the Joystick Shield (sans components). Total cost was just over $100 and I’d already blown my allowance for the month so the thumb-stick, buttons, and headers will have to wait for next month.
In the mean time I can work on getting the Arduinos to control the radios, develop a communications protocol, and work on my mini pro compatible motor shield.
For those who aren’t familiar with SparkFun, or Free Day, SparkFun is a cool electronics company specializing in the open source hardware and hobbyist market. They also are a decent source of breakout boards for components that are a bit beyond the average geek’s ability to solder. Free Day was a wildly successful publicity stunt that gained them a lot of praise, maybe even more criticism, and, I suspect, a fair number of new customers.
