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Joe Strout posted on May 21, 2007, 4:53 pm
I just discovered "Futurlec": http://www.futurlec.com
They have a really impressive selection of boards for various purposes.
A lot of them are small and specific, like a switching regulator board
(was looking for that a couple weeks ago!) for $6, an audio board
(including amplifier and speaker -- was looking for a couple days ago)
for $6, an MP3 board for $21, etc. I also like their "ET-ARM Stamp"
board, which has an ARM processor, 4 A/D inputs, 6 PWM outputs, comes
with a bootloader preinstalled so no programmer is needed, and of course
a Stamp form factor, for $25. Pretty slick. (There's a nice carrier
board for it for $23 too.)
I don't actually know how new these guys are, but I'd never heard of
them before today, so maybe you haven't either. Well worth a look if
you haven't already.
Note that I'm not associated with Futurlec, and haven't even used any of
their products yet. It's possible the actual boards are junk. But I
certainly like what I've seen of their selection so far.
Cheers,
- Joe
They have a really impressive selection of boards for various purposes.
A lot of them are small and specific, like a switching regulator board
(was looking for that a couple weeks ago!) for $6, an audio board
(including amplifier and speaker -- was looking for a couple days ago)
for $6, an MP3 board for $21, etc. I also like their "ET-ARM Stamp"
board, which has an ARM processor, 4 A/D inputs, 6 PWM outputs, comes
with a bootloader preinstalled so no programmer is needed, and of course
a Stamp form factor, for $25. Pretty slick. (There's a nice carrier
board for it for $23 too.)
I don't actually know how new these guys are, but I'd never heard of
them before today, so maybe you haven't either. Well worth a look if
you haven't already.
Note that I'm not associated with Futurlec, and haven't even used any of
their products yet. It's possible the actual boards are junk. But I
certainly like what I've seen of their selection so far.
Cheers,
- Joe
Joe posted on
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
They do have some pretty cool stuff on that website. It would of been
nice to of seen that 5volt power supply a couple of weeks ago. Now
that I have been messing with this 5 volt power supply I have been
trying to build it would have saved me a lot of trouble.
Joe McKibben
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
Yeah, I'm lucky, because I was still gearing up to build mine. (Mostly
just learning Eagle and designing a simple unregulated power board,
which is still time well spent though I no longer have any intention of
designing my own regulated supply.)
Note that they have a 3.3V supply too, but for some reason tucked it
away on their site in a different category from the 5V supply.
The neat thing here to me is that I was already daydreaming about
starting a little company, with an EE friend of mine, to make little
boards exactly like this. Things that robotics hobbyists frequently
need and can rarely find, like switching power supplies, level
converters, etc. Futurlec seems to have done exactly that. Now I can
quit fiddling around with making my own PCBs so much, and get on with
actually building robots.
Cheers,
- Joe
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
Thanks for the tip on the 3.3 volt I need one of those also, but did
not see it on the website. I made a PCB a while ago when I was in high
school, and always wanted to make one again but never really had the
time to. It would be nice so I can make more professional looking
stuff.
Joe McKibben
Si Ballenger posted on
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
They've been around a while. In the past I've heard that the
orders may take a while if they ship from the Pacific. About two
years ago I was interested in the below board. I sent a request
for operating info for the board and they sent me a pdf file a
couple of days later with specifics on how it is operated. Never
actually got around to ordering anything, but they did respond to
the request.
http://www.futurlec.com/RS232DevBoard.shtml
Gordon McComb posted on
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
The orders can take a while, but like you, I found their customer
service response pretty good. If you're not in a hurry they seem a good
source.
-- Gordon
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
Gordon, you might consider becoming a U.S. distributor for their
products -- OK, not all of them, but the ones you consider best values.
Seems like a good fit for your store. If you could keep a small
inventory on hand, then that would let us North American folks get our
hands on them without the long wait.
Cheers,
- Joe
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
I'm not keen on the support issues. As another person mentioned, the
manuals are poorly translated. I'd be on the phone all day for a $5
profit. This is the type of product you have to go in with all guns
blaring.
-- Gordon
Dale T Stewart posted on
Re: new (?) board supplier I really dig
I bought a PIC development board. While it was a good piece of harware,
the programming software examples were pretty crappy. The boards are
often from Thailand, and the documentation is translated from Thai to
English, sometimes not that well.
:-]
Dale
Joe Strout wrote:
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