$125 off the Evalbot is a steal

posted Oct 4th 2010 10:35am by
filed under: HackIt

When you see $125 off something you probably assume it cost several times that to start with. Nope, this drastic discount leaves just $25 plus shipping. Use coupon-code: 2JLP-R4XRT3 when ordering the little rover. There’s a quick video snippet of it embedded after the break.

What you’ll get is a Stellaris ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller on a board with a bunch of goodies.

  • MicroSD slot
  • USB host and device connectors
  • I2C audio with speakers
  • Ethernet connector
  • 96×6 OLED display
  • Motors
  • Optosensors
  • Bump detectors

As always, we want to hear about the hacks you come up with once you have this little guy in hand.

[update, the code is now expired]

[final update -- Someone from TI explains what is going on.]

—-  from the comments.

As some posts already note, the coupon code is only available to ESC Boston attendees. That said, we’re psyched about all of your interest and understand there seems to have been some confusion, so TI plans to fulfill all of the finalized orders to date. We’re working on some logistics in getting the code up and running again for ESC Boston attendees, but proof of ESC registration will be required. Stay tuned.

We hear you about the e-store and are working as quickly as possible to avoid issues in the future. Thanks for your patience.

Bottom line – we’re glad to see the excitement around EVALBOT and look forward to checking out your projects! We encourage you to share them on our e2e Forums at http://e2e.ti.com/

-Jean Anne Booth, Texas Instruments

——-

[Thanks GDM]



518 Responses to $125 off the Evalbot is a steal

  • maso says:

    Order number 6005.

  • ENKI-][ says:

    For anyone asking about being able to program it: gcc can generate binaries for ARM; while you may need to compile a cross-compiler, you shouldn’t need to buy software. Also, the steps for compiling a cross-compiler aren’t actually difficult, and are well-documented (not to mention many distros probably have packages for arm-gcc crosscompilers, since it’s quite common to develop for the ARM).

  • Chuck says:

    What a painful process! I finally got through with order number 6011.

  • Junkman says:

    What a joke gave up after 1 hour. You think they could afford a better server. I kept getting I am a bot. Might help if they let you know that when you clicked the submit button you are suppose to sit there even thou no prompt on screen displays letting you know it is “working”. lame

  • Nathan says:

    Order # 6043 went through at 3:53 PM central.

  • Bob Howdy says:

    Yep, still works. Just ordered mine.

  • goldscott says:

    Order number 6012 in the email.
    It gave me the bot thing though, but my order still went through?

  • vollkontakt says:

    6060 … hopefully?

  • Thorbjorn says:

    Sure took a while to get that order through! :)
    Mine was finaly accepted. Order number 6058.

    Bet they did’nt expect to sell that many so fast :)

  • peruna says:

    Order 6050. Took almost 2 hours to get through.

  • Tomo says:

    I’m in the UK.

    Took me an hour and ten minutes!! I got the bot detected….. Then it said code already in use…
    then it hung…. then I started again… I was clean shaven when i started… I have a ZZ Top beard now. The rule is: Preservere! $25 to the UK!
    thats about £16… Cool! Now, I can finally start speculating about whether it will ever arrive!

  • Craig says:

    Awesome!

    The page locked up after I clicked “pay with card” but I got a confirmation email, #6067.

  • Tomo says:

    OOP’s mine was order number 5977

  • Ryan says:

    6081, damn you long sushi lunch.

    I’m just hoping my order will be shipped.. eventually

  • Necromant says:

    Guys… One silly question… Anyone got uclinux (looks like this shit has no mmu) running on it? That uCOS thing sounds to me like some complete proprietary crap (not looked much in it so far) and uclinux would be just the thing.

  • Magicmushroom666 says:

    Number 6028, still plenty of people getting through it seems! took a while though of course…

  • Jon says:

    FINALLY

    order #6073

  • ftorama says:

    Having waited 3 months for the MSP Launchpas, I don’t even try to get this one.

    I’ll do my own with a ST Cortex-M3 sample that I got for free in two days

  • pascal says:

    have they disabled the code? I arrived at the payment page, copied in the code and clicked apply, after several tries (3 minutes each), nothing happened, still 149$…
    (also at some points the website dumped parts of its C#-code?! you have to *actively enable* that on production websites, their admins/developers must be mental…)

  • samofab says:

    order 6123. took some time & one bot warning.

    Also the checkout process changed the layout in the process.

  • tomas316 says:

    order #6138 via email conf/checkout page. coupon still worked.

  • tomas316 says:

    i used the website of http://127.0.0.1 on the customs declarations page. could they actually be checking the url your entering?

  • Bergo says:

    Order Number: 5775

  • Alex says:

    So having trouble placing an order….

    Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3615; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3614

    THERE’s you problem. I feel dirty just reading the letters ASP :(

  • Fenix says:

    I finally got through! One little bot ordered and ready to go, hope they don’t check the URL for customs, I said N/A LOL! Oh and for those having trouble, coupon still worked for me.

  • Tim says:

    Order #6154
    Took me a good hour to get it to work, but I got it.
    Thanks HaD!

  • Matt says:

    im order 6177. just went through.

  • Darkstar says:

    Just ordered mine. #6163 (which, incidentally, is the old PIN code for my former bank card. coincidence? I think not ;-)

    But I’ll only believe it when it arrives. ~18€ incl. shipping to Germany sounds too good to be true. We’ll see…

    @Greenroom: Sorry hab deinen Post erst gelesen als ich schon bestellt hatte. Hast du inzwischen jmd. gefunden der dir einen bestellt?

  • onlinepharmacy says:

    can’t seem to check out. it just says ‘processing’

  • juancferrer says:

    Order Number: 6141
    Ordered on: 10/4/2010 4:35:57 PM

  • Delirium says:

    #6153

    I tried forever and was just about to give up because after finally being able to fill in creditcard info it kept erroring

    all in all after 90 minutes of frustration finally got 1!!
    Hopefully the damn thing is worth it :D

  • dennis says:

    Order 6202… After many many tries

  • pickleweasel says:

    I wept without shame when my first attempt failed, but persistence paid off, it’s been quite an hour.

  • cj says:

    Low #6200′s for me. Surprised they weren’t out of stock, or that the code wasn’t revoked, or that I could actually get and print my receipt on their website.

    Huh, it’ll be forever until it arrives, won’t it.

  • Rogan Dawes says:

    Order 620x

    Got through eventually. Man but that site sucks badly under load. Coupon still working.

  • biqut2 says:

    Order Number: 6110

    Took a little while to complete but another great deal from TI.

  • SomeEvent says:

    Site seems to be speeding back up, 5 min.

    How long to the UK??? but for £15.80 + free shipping i don’t mind to much. anybody have a schematic so the UcLinux port can get underway?

  • HG says:

    I can not find any documents or links to details about its development system. Development tools found for other Texas Instrument microprocessors are not in the price range of hobbyists (and amateurs).
    I did tried to order one kit in order to see if there are more details after registered for this purpose.
    It looks like their websites were running on a 4-bit processor (or this kit!). And it has an endless loop bug at “Check Out Now” phase, I have selected this button and it kept redisplay the same screen without acting on it or reject this action.
    Goodbye and good luck TI.

  • Tamagotono says:

    Just ordered mine! tried to order a second one but the coupon is only good for 1 unit. Oh well, at least I got 1 :)

    Order #6180

  • Kemp says:

    6232. Let’s hope I don’t get hit up for UK import fees.

  • someguy says:

    Website seems to be working a bit better right now.
    Order number: 6263

  • reemrevnivek says:

    @Paul – There’s a fantastic picture here:
    http://focus.ti.com/graphics/tool/Evalbot_Rev_A_perspective_Image.jpg

    imgur’ed just in case TI’s servers can’t take the load…
    http://imgur.com/5bFYM.jpg

    Discount went through, but can’t click the stupid “Pay With Card” button!

    Does anyone have any official reference for the deal, like when it expires? I want to be able to call them up tomorrow and say “Hey, your webstore was down, but I wanted to get in on this deal.”

  • Anton says:

    sweeeet, after some frustrating retry/ail/reload I got through and — $25, free shipping even to ICELAND! I wonder what will do with it.. I say it should be something to do with home security mounting an old htc phone on it,… or… semthing to do with beer something something… nice

  • SomeEvent says:

    @kemp

    Wouldn’t it be below the threshold?

  • Amaterasu says:

    @Xandrios

    The Stellaris is an ARM cortex M3 core, to program them you will need FREE compiler CodeSourcery Lite. Get the ARM-EABI version, not the linux one (Different C libraries, the non linux one uses newlib which is better for embedded).

    Also, whilst I can’t speak for this kit my other Stellaris boards program just fine with OpenOCD using the libFTDI driver.

  • Kemp says:

    @SomeEvent
    Yeah, I’m just hoping that TI don’t write the original price as the value.

  • ascen says:

    order 6274

    hope this makes it to me in the uk, was trying for 2 hours

  • willy says:

    I can’t change the quantity from 2 to 1, it keeps going back to 2 :madface:

  • ascen says:

    are there any other good things that ti sell that would complement this or an arduino kit?

  • Kemp says:

    @SomeEvent
    As I said, if TI quote the reduced price then there’s no import fee, if they quote the original price then there is (around £17 according to that calculator).

  • Kemp says:

    Coupon didn’t work for a second run, did I manage to get my order in just in time before they pulled it or are they allowing one use per customer only?

  • truthspew says:

    TI estore site is hammered.

  • sam says:

    Order Number: 6295 , startet as a quick order on my ihpone but im sitting now at my desktop took me more than an hour … its night in switzerland

  • reemrevnivek says:

    > Discount went through, but can’t click the stupid “Pay With Card” button!

    It worked! Got confirmation email, order 6242 went through at 5:21:53 PM. This is when I started the checkout process. Also got a request to fill out a site satisfaction survey when I reloaded ti.com. I praised them when I could concerning the quality of their products, but I threw their web service under the bus.

  • Adrian says:

    @Kemp

    Looks like one use per customer – my robo-games are going to be much sadder with only one contestant . . .

  • Chuck says:

    Order 6306, only took me an hour. Looking forward to seeing what I can do with this.

  • Shadyman says:

    Fffffuuuuu—

    Looks like TI asked for their site to be DDoS’d again, just like with the Launchpads.

  • goattuber says:

    Got it! Only took about an hour to get through the checkout process. #6312

    And the customs screen actually had a reasonable semblance of my plans for this thing.

    Question 1:
    Blind Spot View Camera System
    Question 2:
    Automotive

    I’m gonna wire up a webcam and a small LED array (for a flash). My goal is to let it loose under a parked car to take a series of pictures of the undercarriage that can be stitched together afterwards.

  • Dan says:

    Ha! Order #6314. I just hope the customs authorities won’t be interested in it.

  • Thom says:

    Thought I might have missed the boat on this one but after a few tries it worked. With free delivery to the UK too, this was almost free. THANKS HaD + TI

  • Parker says:

    I just got through ordering mine. One question. After I put in the credit card information after clicking submit, it waits a little bit then just went back to an empty cart. Does this mean it has been ordered? I didn’t get a receipt at the end. I am still waiting on a confirmation email.

  • truthspew says:

    Did I mention that TI has the slowest Estore out there? Takes forever just to order one item.

  • phishinphree says:

    jesus. i’ve been trying to place an order for over an hour. guess I had it coming after getting $100 off at sparkfun.

  • Segfault says:

    After about 3 hours, finally got one. Coupon code still active.

  • Jason says:

    I think this post almost crashed TI estore. I just finally got my order through–Almost 3 hours of trying.

  • I give up. What a bitch TI shopping process is. Gotta try again tomorrow. Hopefully less traffic.

  • vinito says:

    Well my order went through OK and I got a confirmation email.

    How much you want to bet it will be back-ordered for at least 6 months or something else going south?

    Momma always said, if it sounds too good to be true…

  • Alcyone says:

    No. 6362 Ordered!! :) 25$ to Spain!

  • Parker says:

    @vinito That’s no way to think. Be positive. BE POSITIVE!!!!

  • stib says:

    my coupon didn’t work the first time. But now it’s calling me a bot. And every page load is taking two minutes.

  • Xera says:

    The store seems to be completely down.. been trying to load any page for the last 15 minutes :(

  • foogoid says:

    Managed to get an order in after a few tries: #6257
    As long as it gets shipped in the next 5 months, I will be able to pick it up when I next get home.
    In the time until then, I hope some nice projects develop for it!

  • Jake H says:

    I had the bot/spider problem at first too. Used Firefox instead of Chrome and it went through flawlessly though.

  • Parker says:

    Second time’s a charm. Went through. Order #6391. WOOT! Lets hope it gets here in an orderly manner.

  • becky says:

    The site seems to work much better in IE.

  • JustGotMine says:

    Order 6391

    even if it takes 6 months, for $25 I’ll wait.

  • rattboi says:

    Worked for me on the 2nd try. Hopefully I didn’t end up ordering 2, but I only got an email from the 2nd time.

  • Gues7 says:

    Just tried it there, got all the way through to the checkout and its not accepting the code, I put it in and I wait for the waiting screen to disappear, then it drops me back to where I was with the kit listed as the same price :( $25 I can afford, the original price, alas I cannot…

  • J. Peterson says:

    The web site doesn’t say anything about development tools. The standard TI dev tools for the Stellaris are very pricey – around $1K. Does anybody know of a less expensive toolchain to use for this?

    I’d hate to order one only to find you need to spend big bucks to write code for it.

  • rasz says:

    TI uses Microsoft server platform = this :/
    I STILL didnt get my launchpad, wont even bother with this.

  • Gues7 says:

    Scratch that, It took fooooooking ages but I got it in the end, trick was to disable javascript to turn off that crappy ajax stuff…

  • foobar says:

    Just ordered mine, and had to use IE for the checkout.

  • Yar says:

    Order number: 6443

  • truthspew says:

    Took over an hour to get their stupid ecom website to realize a) I had a coupon and b) I wasn’t a bot.

    Got the order conf email. We’ll see if they deliver.

  • Jamie Good says:

    Just ordered mine. Took 5 minutes, although took the TI website was incredibly slow.
    order number 6465

  • reemrevnivek says:

    @rasz – Sparkfun now carries the Launchpad, and it’s still $4.30.

    That said, I’ve got two Launchpads and a pair of MSP430G2221IN14 I2C/SPI Value Line uCs coming with my Evalbot.

  • jh says:

    and TI’s site is dead.

  • wolf says:

    [FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)]

    I think their server broke.

  • phishinphree says:

    still cant get through checkout. anyone know if this is just a one day thing or can we order tomorrow once things quiet down again?

  • Spork says:

    Got my 3rd launchpad recently, took forever.. and they even called to see if I had received it about a month ago.

  • nave.notnilc says:

    err, pretty sure you can just use GCC, this is an ARM device.

  • DarkerMark says:

    I just got one too, in the shipping/customs information it’s got the 149$ so I’m afraid import fees will apply. So its gonna cost me 50$.

  • Jamie Good says:

    I ordered mine at 12:05pm AEST which was about 10 to 15 minutes ago

  • Matt R says:

    Filled their harddrive

    Exception Details: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly ‘AjaxControlToolkit’ or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80070070)

  • Spork says:

    Ti Fail


    Server Error in '/' Application.
    Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)
    Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

    Exception Details: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)

    Source Error:

    An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

    Assembly Load Trace: The following information can be helpful to determine why the assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit' could not be loaded.

    WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
    To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
    Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
    To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

    Stack Trace:

    [FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)]

    [FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit, Version=3.0.20229.20843, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28f01b0e84b6d53e' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)]
    System.Reflection.Assembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection) +0
    System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection) +43
    System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) +127
    System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) +142
    System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString) +28
    System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +46

    [ConfigurationErrorsException: Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit, Version=3.0.20229.20843, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28f01b0e84b6d53e' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)]
    System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +613
    System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAllAssembliesFromAppDomainBinDirectory() +203
    System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssembly(AssemblyInfo ai) +105
    System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetReferencedAssemblies(CompilationSection compConfig) +178
    System.Web.Compilation.BuildProvidersCompiler..ctor(VirtualPath configPath, Boolean supportLocalization, String outputAssemblyName) +54
    System.Web.Compilation.CodeDirectoryCompiler.GetCodeDirectoryAssembly(VirtualPath virtualDir, CodeDirectoryType dirType, String assemblyName, StringSet excludedSubdirectories, Boolean isDirectoryAllowed) +8809442
    System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CompileCodeDirectory(VirtualPath virtualDir, CodeDirectoryType dirType, String assemblyName, StringSet excludedSubdirectories) +128
    System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CompileCodeDirectories() +265
    System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.EnsureTopLevelFilesCompiled() +320

    [HttpException (0x80004005): Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit, Version=3.0.20229.20843, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28f01b0e84b6d53e' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)]
    System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.ReportTopLevelCompilationException() +58
    System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.EnsureTopLevelFilesCompiled() +512
    System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters) +729

    [HttpException (0x80004005): Could not load file or assembly 'AjaxControlToolkit, Version=3.0.20229.20843, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28f01b0e84b6d53e' or one of its dependencies. There is not enough space on the disk. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070070)]
    System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +8890751
    System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +85
    System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestInternal(HttpWorkerRequest wr) +259

    Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3615; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3614

  • Spork says:

    Sorry HaD, thought the Code tags would take care of the size.

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