We’ve got to admit, we’re pretty much cheapskates when it comes to buying electronic bits online. Whether its microcontrollers or PCBs, we hate to part with money. So, we were pretty excited to hear that Texas Instruments is dishing out deals two weeks at a time to hackers, makers, and the like.
Several of you wrote in to tip us off to TI’s new site: TI Deals. Basically, they are deeply discounting various products, changing the lineup every two weeks. Now, we were expecting something like 20%-25% off certain items, but so far the TI Deals look pretty sweet. Right now, they are offering the Chronos watch kit for 50% off – which is a pretty nice discount. We’re definitely interested to see what sorts of other things will go on the chopping block in the future.
Thinking of picking up a Chronos watch? Let us know what sort of project you have planned.
If you are on the fence and need a little inspiration, check out these Chronos-based projects we have featured in the past:
Printable gripping rover is wristwatch controlled
Google two-factor authentication in a wristwatch
This deal is over, right? :(
Expired. :(
the first day in weeks i’ve been working the whole day on my project for class and not letting me interupt by hackaday posts … shure, my project is based on a msp430 … funny, eh?
A few months ago the TI store had some stuff for 0$ all the time—all kinds of things, from USB JTAG debuggers up to embedded systems and DSPs that were usually 900$ or so. Now those were some sweet deals :P
I have tried to order since 4 pm and then suddenly the offer expired! :(
Expired? but the website says from the 16th to the 30th, no mention of the deal being able to expire before the ending date.
Glad I managed to order mine before the offer espired, been wanting one of those ever since I saw one, especially now I have some XRF radio transceivers which have an XBee foorprint but are based on the TI CC1110, and the guys behind the XRF have managed to get the modules to talk to the watch.
Although I feel I’ve got an uphill struggle with getting to grips with programming the watch, hopefully the sudden userbase increase will mean lots more info out there to help program these watches.
Whoa, thanks for this info! I’m working on the same thing but I’m looking for a compatible module to connect to. Those modules are pretty cheap for development work. I’m also digging the “open” licensing.
As wireless serial comms devices they’re incredibly easy to use (the ~1ms bootup time means almost instant comms after powering up, no waiting like XBees), and have amazing range, I managed to get 3.4km distance with the standard whip antennas at 868mhz! although I can’t forsee needing more than 200m :)
Cheapest prices for them are direct from their eBay store, search for XRF.
Wow that’s incredible Haku! I will look forward to seeing what you come up with come up with after you get your Chronos! Please update back here if you can as well. Are you mainly going to post stuff on OpenMicros.org? (which looks like the place to be for XRF) Gotta order up some XRFs pronto.
My Chronos is due to arrive tomorrow, I’m amazed they sent it by international FedEx for free! That can’t have been cheap, unless they have some mega distribution contract with them.
I don’t know what forum(s) yet to post/read for programming the Chronos, I’ll just have to play things by ear after getting the watch and trying some things out, but will keep an eye on these comments posted here.
To be fair, the TI Deals site did say that it’s an offer every fortnight. Obviously it’s going to be possible for the offer to be fully-subscribed within that period.
That doesn’t seem to have stopped the (usual) flood of stroppy whingers on Twitter though…
Already expired. Lame.
They gave us a whole half-day to order it? Wow thanks a lot!
I feel ya. I didn’t get paid until today and logged in first thing this morning to try and buy one…nope.
Is it possible to order from Ti without a company or company URL?
I did so. Just type nothing in there or something like “none”. Has also worked for me when getting samples, so I think it will work when buying something.
Just backing up what Otacon2k said, I always just put N/A and have never had a problem.
hey guys, i’ve just discovered through the twitter messages on the right side on tideals.com that you can order a chronos watch with the coupon code CHRONOS_50
i hope to make someone happy in here – i’ve just ordered mine :)
great product and the price is unbelivable exellent value
Has anyone’s watch shipped? Mine has been “pending” all weekend. I just ordered something else from the TI and it’s gone straight through :-/
Yeah, it arrived me today. And it was pretty, pretty, pretty fast!
I ordered it on wednsday and now only 4 days later it arrived me. I am living in Austria and they sent it from US to Austria. If I send a letter from Germany to Austria it takes twice the time. Fedex FTW!
OK, will see what happens. I did some reading up after posting and apparently it’s a TI thing that orders sit like that for a while even though they are sometimes already shipped. I live in Australia so will see how long it takes.
It’s finally changed to shipped, and sitting in MEMPHIS, TN atm. Let’s see how good FedEx is to Australia :-)
Still waiting! I am hoping it’s here tomorrow, it’s been sitting on the other side of Oz since Wednesday. FedEx sub’ed it out and the local couriers are useless :-(
Same here.
Meanwhile, in Europe (DE): ordered the Chronos and the cheap MSP430 dev kit on Thursday, today (Monday) the delivery man was at my door. 25E for the watch with free shipping.
Wich MHZ-Version did you orderd and wich did you got? I ordered the 433 mhz vers because i have a 433 light switch from Obi and I got the 868 mhz, shall I disclaim that. Greets from AT to DE.
Greets! I ordered the 433 one because it’s the most used frequency around EU and wireless doorbels, garage openers, alarm remotes and such are around that frequency. Just imagine the fun of sitting on someone’s couch and ringing their doorbell from your watch.
I have some remote switches (actually power strips from Aldi) as well, I know a lot of RC toys share the band and possibly every 1 in 2 RC device coming from CHN.
Strange thing though, I also ordered a launchpad in the same basket and it was sent three days later with a different package (arrived today). I guess for that thing the shipping costed them way more than 4.30$.
Not to mention that both the chronos and launchpad probably cost at least double to manufacture and package and they are really a full development kit like the ICE or PicKit3.
Got my 433MHz Chronos today! Turn it on and what time is it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86omL8uzks
You guessed it, 4:30!
Some people said it was big… I was expecting much bigger by how they were reacting. I don’t think it’s that bad at all, it’s sweet.
I can’t wait to start developing with this puppy. Thanks again HAD and Ti!