Hackaday Omnibus 2014 — Our First Ever Print Edition

January 19, 2015 by Mike Szczys 101 Comments

Here’s your chance to grab a tangible piece of Hackaday. This morning we are starting pre-orders for the Hackaday Omnibus 2014. This is our first-ever print edition. It collects some of the best original content published on Hackaday in 2014.

We’re proud of what the Hackaday crew accomplished last year. From stories of old and new to articles that encouraged you to stretch your hacking universe, we are thrilled with the original content articles we saw published last year. To go along with this top-tier content, we added amazing art and illustrations from [Joe Kim]. The product is something that demands commemoration in print and thus the Omnibus was born.

This full-color, 80 page, perfect binding volume is just what your coffee table has been crying out for. Of course it will look spectacular covered in solder and clipped resistor leads on the bench. And if your company is serious about hardware you need to send that message with a copy of the Omnibus in the reception area (or comically in the commode).

We are pricing the Hackaday Omnibus 2014 at $15 but we will sweeten the deal if you get in on the preorder. Use this coupon code to get $5 off: OMNIBUS2014. The coupon will work for the first 500 copies pre-ordered with an estimated shipping date of 2/9/15.

Hackaday Links: March 9, 2014

March 9, 2014 by Brian Benchoff 4 Comments

Thinking about starting a CNC machine, 3D printer, or laser cutter project? Misumi has you covered. They’re offering up $150 worth of free stuff with a coupon code. [CharlieX] is putting together a BuildLog laser cutter, a whole bunch of people on reddit are building 3D printers, and I have most of the rods for an i3 build. Just use the promotion code First150 on your order. Actually, read the terms and conditions, but rest assured – this is legit.

A few months ago, we saw this Enigma cypher machine that combines the classic late-30s aesthetic of the original with modern hardware – including a few 16-segment displays. Now there’s a Kickstarter for the Open Source Enigma replica, and it looks like it’s going to end up being pretty popular. Here’s the site with all the deets. Check out that QWERTZ keyboard.

[Jason] has a love of LEGO and a terrible keyboard. Combine the two and he came up with a functional LEGO keyboard. The electronics are, sadly, an old PS/2 membrane keyboard, but the mechanicals are a work of art – all the keys are mounted on a grid of Technic parts that can be positioned over each of the membrane buttons.

Want a really cool look for your next enclosure? How about LED pipes? They’re those clear plastic bits that direct the light from LEDs around corners and can make any enclosure looks like a Star Trek set piece. You can cut these things with a laser cutter like the Alima team did with their indoor air quality meter. Looks pretty cool.

$25 Coupon Code For Texas Instruments Store

September 18, 2013 by Mike Szczys 108 Comments

ti-25-buck-coupon

If you’ve been coveting a piece of Texas Instruments hardware you should put in an order before September 30th. A coupon code for $25 off a purchase was posted to the Stellaris ARM Community forums and it should work until that date. Above is the overview of an order placed yesterday for two Tiva Launchpads (apparently TI has rebranded the Stellaris chips as Tiva for some odd reason). After applying the coupon code “National-1yr” the total price of [BravoV’s] order is just under one dollar (including shipping). The coupon code can be entered into a box on the right hand column of step #3 (payment) when placing an order.

UPDATE: There are now multiple comments reporting that the coupon code no longer works.

We’re pretty sure you can use this coupon code on anything in the TI store. But if you don’t have a Stellaris/Tiva Launchpad yet we highly recommend getting one. We picked ours up about a year ago. It’s a great way to try your hand at ARM programming. We have had some issues with how the breakout headers are organized — there’s some gotchas with multiple pins being connected (read the last five paragraphs of the project write up linked in this post for more). But for the price and ease of programming this will get you up and coding in no time. If you need some ideas of what to do with the board look at our posts tagged as “Stellaris”.

[Thanks Vlad]

Devboard Deal: TI Experimenter Board For $15 (50% Off)

June 17, 2011 by Mike Szczys 77 Comments

Cheap things come to those who wait. If you’ve had your eye on a TI Experimenters Board (MSP-EXP430FR5739) now’s the time to pull the trigger. You can use the coupon code MSP430_FRAM to get 50% off. This pulls the total price down to $14.50 ~~plus shipping~~ with several readers reporting free shipping.

The board features an upgraded MSP430. Instead of using flash memory, it’s got ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) which boots the power savings of these aready lean-mean chips.

We’ve posted a few deals from Texas Instruments before, like the announcement of the Launchpad which was just $4.30, as well as a coupon-deal gone awry with the evalBot. There were huge threads in those posts reporting back how long shipping took, as well as how well the codes worked. So feel free to share your thoughts on this deal by leaving a polite comment.

Of course if you get one, we want to see what you do with it. Don’t forget to write up your projects and send in a tip.

$125 Off The Evalbot Is A Steal

October 4, 2010 by Mike Szczys 518 Comments

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

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