If you plan on visiting any of the stores below, please go to their websites and check for opening hours. Some are open on Saturdays, some are not.

HSC Electronic Supply
The first store on this list is HSC or Halted Specialties Co. as it was named when it started back in 1963. Here you will find a mixture of various components and connectors in addition to used lab equipment and computer parts. I have found SMD ZIF sockets sold at $ 0.10 per pin and button caps for lighted switches at $ 0.15 a piece, but you never know what to find, since the selection changes based on what they get in.

You find them at:

3500 Ryder Street
Santa Clara, CA 95051

More information and a peek at their selection at http://halted.com/

Weirdstuff
At Weirdstuff they don’t have that many single components, but instead specializes in used computer parts of any kind. If you need a cheap computer with a serial or parallel port, you can find it here. They also have a lot of older networking equipment and other office equipment like headsets or POS devices like barcode scanners etc.

Weirdstuff has they showroom and warehouse at:

384 West Caribbean Drive
Sunnyvale, CA

More info at http://weirdstuff.com/

Advanced Component Electronics
Advanced Component Electronics or ACE for short is almost exclusively dealing in components like logic chips in DIL housings, where they have a complete aisle with sorted tubes of 74xxx in easy to use through hole versions or various connectors, switches, LED, passives etc. you might need for your project. Most components seems to be unused, but with a few years on the shelves.

You find ACE at:

1810 Oakland Road, Suite C
San Jose, CA, 95131

Or by visiting their website at http://www.acecomponents.com/

Excess Solutions
Excess Solutions has a similar selection as ACE, but in addition to the very long aisles with small component boxes, also have a few racks with odd equipment and computer parts. The lighting can be a little dim at the bottom shelves, so bring a little flashlight for checking the box labels.

Excess Solutions is found at:

156 S Milpitas Blvd.
Milpitas, CA 95035

More information at http://www.excesssolutions.com/

Anchor-Electronics
When entering Anchor-Electronics you won’t find the endless racks of brown component boxes, but instead a smaller and nicely presented selection of not only components but also specialty tools, test equipment, prototype gear, and probably the best service in the area. Some of their products seems to be new and not surplus, but some are definitely running out, like for instance the nice sets of Pogo-pins they have been selling. I picked some up a few years ago, but now they only have the crown type left, and not the spear head ones on stock.

You find the store at:

2040 Walsh Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 95050

Or at their website: http://www.anchor-electronics.com/

Al Lasher’s Electronics (Berkley)
Al Lasher’s isn’t located down in the south bay as the others but is included here as they might have that little component that you are looking for. They do have some surplus items but mostly deal in components or tools that you might for your little home project. Since most of their stock is behind the counter, they are most useful for getting specific items that you can ask for. If you are in the area, stop by, but if you visiting the other stores in the south bay, it’s not worth the drive just to go there.

You find Al Lasher’s at

1734 University Ave
Berkeley, CA 94703

More info at: http://allashers.com/

APEX Electronics (Los Angeles)
APEX is probably the most chaotic and nerdy surplus stores on this list. You find their tightly packed warehouse in the northern part of LA in Sun Valley, where they have racks going from floor to ceiling packed with brown boxes full of components. When walking around between the racks, you can also feel the proximity of Hollywood, with old movie props or 19″ rack based tape decks filling up the shelves. I looked for a test image generator and actually found one, but it was for NTSC only and I wanted a PAL one.

If you are in the area, definitely stop by and have a look.

APEX is located at:

8909 San Fernando Road
Sun Valley, CA 91352

More info at: http://www.apexelectronic.com/

All Electronics (Los Angeles)
All Electronics is the last one on this list. Also located in the greater LA area, not far from APEX, you will find a store with what looks like new components that they keep in stock mixed up with various stuff that has some electro mechanical relation. The selection isn’t enormous but they have some nice items that might fit a project or two.

You find All Electronics at:

14928 Oxnard St.
Van Nuys, CA 91411-2610

More info at: http://www.allelectronics.com/

It’s a little boost circuit, that uses regular double A batteries and steps up the 3V to 5V, perfect for USB charging. In addition to providing power, the circuit includes the needed resistors to tell modern devices like iPhones or iPods, that it’s OK to pull a bit of current and actually go ahead with charging the internal battery.

The complete kit is designed to fit both 2 double A batteries and the circuit inside an Altoids Chewing Gum tin container, but unfortunately, Altoids has stopped producing these, making it a bit difficult to complete this project and still keep the urban camouflage that the nicely printed tin originally provided.

Adafruit Industries has started producing their own case, similar in size and shape, but it comes without any printing on it, and looks a bit generic, loosing some of the charisma.

But awhile ago I stumbled on a similar candy container, this time for the Läkerol licorice tablets. The case has a different shape, but nicely fit’s the same battery holder and the original circuit PCB. It even closes and holds the USB connector in place in the same way the original case did.

The case has a sleek black finnish combining matte and glossy to show a large A on the lid. Maybe this is an A for Adafruit?

I am unsure if this product is sold internationally, but here in Scandinavia it’s usually available in convenience stores and the likes.

The camera was mounted above my work table along with 3 lamps for consistent light, and then tethered to a Mac, to easily control the camera.

Using a program called Sofortbild, I had the camera take an image every 10 seconds, and immediately upload the image to the computer via the USB cable.

Since the build took about 6 hours straight, I ended up with roughly 2200 images, that I have put together into a video using Time Lapse Assembler, with a framerate of 24 images per second.

If you feel confident in putting together IKEA furniture, and can read and follow instructions, this build should be no problem for you.

I had a few pieces that was a bit hard to fit, but that was mainly due to the laser cutting not going all the way through the plywood, but after trimming the parts with an Exacto knife, it went without problems.

The camera used is a Nikon D300 with a Nikon 18-200mm lens.

I have tried to put captions in the video for the different projects, and below they are all listed with links to more information.

If you have further info, eg. on some of the projects where I don’t have any, please add it as a comment below.

• Arcattack
• Spazzi
• Netduino
• NAO 1337
• SpurtBot
• Drew’s Walking Robot
• Ultimaker
• New Arduino Products
• Robotgrrl’s Robots
• MTM Snap
• InMojo Ikimo
• Lego Mindstorms
• Makerbot
• Brainlink
• Graves
• Robot Building Workshop
• Turtle Shell Racer
• A Spider Called “Chopsticks”
• Yellow Drum Machine
• Farrusco, Your First Robot
• Dangerous Prototypes
• Thermal Tweeter Twitter Printer

The video is shoot on a Nikon D3100 using a Nikon 18-200 VR zoom lens, mostly hand-held, and edited using iMovie.

But the one shipping with Arduino for the ATmega8 has some less than ideal settings, most annoyingly a very long startup delay and a low speed for the serial programming.

I have now made a re-compile of the bootloader with these two settings changed (about 1 second startup delay and 19200bps serial speed), which results in faster programming, and a much shorter startup time, both from power-on but also after a soft reset following programming.

All you need, is to download the .hex file and place in in the atmega8 folder under hardware/arduino/bootloaders in the Arduino environment and modify the boards.txt file to include this new bootloader.

On Mac, you have to right-click the Arduino.app and select ‘Show Package Content’ and navigate to Content/Resources/Java/hardware/arduino/bootloaders to find the atmega8 folder.

I have used the following segment in boarts.txt to reference this file in the Arduino environment.

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##############################################################
 
atmega8l.name=LCD I/O Backpack w/ ATmega8L @ 8MHz
 
atmega8l.upload.protocol=stk500
atmega8l.upload.maximum_size=7168
atmega8l.upload.speed=19200
 
atmega8l.bootloader.low_fuses=0xdf
atmega8l.bootloader.high_fuses=0xca
atmega8l.bootloader.path=atmega8
atmega8l.bootloader.file=ATmega8L.hex
atmega8l.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
atmega8l.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
 
atmega8l.build.mcu=atmega8
atmega8l.build.f_cpu=8000000L
atmega8l.build.core=arduino
atmega8l.build.variant=standard
 
##############################################################

Downloads
Below is just the .hex file, zipped up to avoid corruption. The source is the same as the source that comes with the Arduino environment (in the hardware/atmega8 folder) just adjusted to 8MHz and with a timeout of 1000000)

• ATmega8L Bootloader file (8MHz)

Tip
If you want to compile your own, you might have to use the AVR-GCC compiler from one of the older Arduino enviromnents (I used Arduino-0010 on Mac), since the newer AVR-GCC complains a bit.

Update for users of Arduino 1.0 and later
Ray has notified me about a problem when using the above instructions with Arduino 1.0. The reason for the error he is getting is a change that the Arduino team has made, which my instructions didn’t take into account. I have updated the text you need to add to the boards.txt (added the last settings line), which tells the compiler what pins settings to use, when compiling for the ATmega8L.

The basis for this project is a cheap copy of a CA-42 interface cable for Nokia cellphones sold by DealExtreme. There are a lot of these cables, and they all look alike, but this one has something special: It’s hacker friendly!

The oversized USB connector not only holds all the electronics, but it’s made with two plastic pieces that can be separated easily using a little screwdriver or knife and not least be put together again afterwards without any noticeable trace.

When I found this, I ordered a few right away, since these would be ideal for programming the LCD I/O Backpack or any other Arduino in the “Pro” series for that matter.

When I got the cable, modifying it went very smooth, first desoldering the existing cable and then soldering on a new cable, recycled from an old mouse. The cable needs at least 5 leads, one for GND, one for VCC, one for RX, one for TX and finally, one for DTR, so that the AVR chip can be reset automatically by the programming software. The cable I use has 4 wires and a shield, which I used for GND.

• GND: Shield
• RX: Blue
• DTR: Yellow
• TX: White
• VCC: Orange

There was a few small red wires soldered to the PCB, and I removed one and left the other one in place as illustrated on the image to right, showing the back of the PCB that goes in the USB connector housing.

In the other end of the cable I crimped on female header pins and mounted them in a 6 pin header assembly in the same order as used with the FTDI cables and adapters.

Another advantage to making your own cable is that you can make it as long or short as you like (within reason of course). I made mine about 50 cm (1.5 feet) since most of the time, I use it right next to my laptop, and a long wire is just in the way.

1. DTR: Yellow
2. RX: Blue
3. TX: White
4. VCC: Orange
5. GND: Not connected
6. GND: Shield

Remember, RX and TX on the cable side is crossed compared to the connections on the LCD I/O Backpack and other Arduinos.

This cable uses the Prolific PL2303 chip, and the driver is available in the Prolific website Download section. When the driver for your OS is installed and working, this cable will show up as a virtual serial port very much like the FTDI cables. On Windows you will see very little difference when selecting the port, it will be COM5, COM6 or similar. On Mac and Linux, the name will be a little different, most likely something similar to /dev/tty.PL2303-00001004, maybe with different numbers at the end of the name.

In the Arduino environment, you just select the port and use it like if you connected any other cable, adapter or a full Arduino.

The only thing I’m a little unsure about is how much current you can draw from this cable, but I have successfully been running an LCD I/O Backpack and a display, without any problems.

The question on the forum was about reading distance, so that will be the focus of this post.

The two readers in quetion are:

• Parallax 125kHz RFID reader with UART interface
• ID Innovations ID-20 125kHz RFID reader, also via the UART interface

I got the Parallax reader from the Maker Shed Store and the ID-20 from Sparkfun, but they are both available from other sources too.

I started out with some code by ATXcoder in the Netduino forum but did a few modifications, since I was getting double reads. Using a logic analyzer I found that the Parallax module actually sends out two reads in some cases, so the extra code is just to ignore that.

The same code was also slightly modified to work with the ID-20 module. The major changes was setting the baud rate to 9600 instead of 2400 and changing the buffer size to 16 bytes, since the ID-20 has different, and more, control characters in addition to a checksum.

After trying the two readers with the same tags (both the credit card style and a keychain tag) I must say, that they perform pretty much the same. Both have some variation over time. You can have a read at 3 inches and right after it won’t read the same tag until it get to about 2 inches away.

Downloads
Here is the Visual Studio 2010 solution, with two Netduino projects, one for each reader. Ideally these would be wrapped up in nice little classes, but I haven’t gotten to that yet. Feel free to use.

• Netduino RFID Sample Code

Demo video
I have made a little video showing both readers using both of the two tag types. Both tags are EM4100 family passive tags that I got from the Maker Shed Store. The distance indications on the paper is inches.

To fix that, I decided to make a little adapter using some slightly modified header pins. I used a single row of the 90 degree angled type, since the lead that sticks out on the PCB side is a bit longer than the regular straight ones.

After straightening the legs out, and then bending them to fit the ID-20 2mm pin spacing, I used a 10×2 pin connector for a ribbon cable to hold the two parts aligned when soldering the headers to the ID-20.

Now I can either plug the reader into a breadboard, or simply connect my jumper wires to the new header pins, that is a lot longer than the original ones.

With the ID-20 reader raised from the breadboard, it’s also possible to have wires below the reader. For the ID-12 it might not be necessary, but the ID-20 is so large, that it covers up all the other connections on the bread board.

This post is an attempt to help out those that do have a regular Arduino (or a very similar clone) and want to use that instead of the FTDI adapter.

It’s kind of a hack, because all I’m doing is using the USB to UART that is on the Arduino and bypass the rest.

This bypassing is done by removing the ATMEGA chip from the socket on the Arduino.

After that, all you have to do is to connect the two serial lines (they should NOT be crossed, RX to RX and TX to TX), the DTR/Reset line and power (GND and +5V) and you are good to go.

I have made a little drawing of where to find the connections on the two boards, to make it as easy as possible to wire it up.

The drawing is also available as a PDF file ready for print.

When using this method, the programming goes exactly as if you are programming the regular Arduino, except that you will likely have to select a different version of the chip, especially if your board is using the ATMEGA8L controller.

This works with both the Arduino Decimilla/Duemillianove and the new Arduino Uno in addition to any clones that have USB and a removable chip.

Since the chip on the Mega series of Arduinos is soldered onto the board, this hardware hack isn’t possible.

This is just one of the possible alternative ways of programming the LCD I/O Backpack, more options will follow.

For a workshop in Labitat, we needed a really cheap alternative to the Arduino for interfacing between an analog temperature probe and a 16×2 character display. Instead of getting a clone from someone else, I decided to make my own. Since it was to work with a 16×2 character display, I designed it to be the exact same size, so that it fits on the back, hence the name LCD I/O Backpack.

There is a full description of the board and if you want to make your own, the design files are there too.