Last week we launched “Fetch, Tindie!”, a weekly roundup of amazing things on Tindie. If you aren’t already subscribed, go ahead and click here to get on the list!

Here’s a quick peek at what you might have missed from the newsletter:

Ultimate Sensor Fusion Solution by Pesky Products

EM7180 Sensor Hub coupled with the MPU9250 IMU provides 2 degree heading accuracy!

The Ultimate Sensor Fusion Solution is a beautiful example of the pride that goes into Pesky Products’ work. Everything you could ever want to know about this project from details of the design to typical results and everything in between can be found on the project wiki. Additionally, the product description gives you a good look into just how much work they put into their designs. Take a look and get one today!

Easy touch proximity sensor (assembled) by Azzy’S Electronics

Touch and proximity sensor 2-5.5v – use any metal object as sensor! Now, using a touch sensor is as easy as using a switch!

Azzy’S Electronics became a Tindie seller in June of 2015 and is quickly becoming a Tindie top seller. With a great variety of project boards, good pricing, and great customer service, they are what we love to see in a Tindie community member. This neat project is tiny and can be connected to anything conductive (must be electrically connected to the Sense pin on the board). Check it out and pick one or two up!

EtchABot by Geekmomprojects

A versatile, easy-build kit that turns an Etch A Sketch into a CNC drawing machine

Have you ever seen a project online and thought “that is really cool, wish I had one of those!”? The EtchABot is exactly one of those projects. Another project with an extensive and helpful wiki, simply add  a Pocket size Etch A Sketch and an Arduino Uno and you will be on the road to building your own self-erasing CNC drawing machine!

SMD Adapter SOT23/323/353/363 to DIP6 Double Sided by Mozzwald

SMD Adapter SOT23/323/353/363 to DIP6 Double Sided for Breadboard Prototype

Don’t skip over this breakout board from Mozzwald. Got a surface-mount component that you want to breadboard with?  If it’s in a SOT23/323/353/363 layout, use this handy breakout board!

Switching Breadboard Power Supply by Tall Dog

An adorable and efficient power supply for your breadboard projects.

Tall Dog is a veteran Tindarian. On board since almost the beginning, they have one of the top selling products ever on Tindie with their Teensy 3.1 Breakout.  On track to be another great seller, the Switching Breadboard Power Supply is ready for your breadboard projects. Small, efficient, affordable… what more could you ask for?

IO Over Restful Services by Chipspeak

USB I/O Control Board with Rest API

Chipspeak is a new dog to the Tindie community, across the ocean from Tindie HQ, right outside of beautiful Sydney, Australia. Another project with a tiny footprint (just 19.68 x 17.48 mm!), this little board provides control on analog and digital input output interfaces over restful web services. Don’t rest until you snag one!

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In case you missed it, Atmel had an awesome blog post about creating an infrared smart heater for just $15. This post linked to a very popular product on Tindie, the Cactus Micro. The Cactus Micro incorporates the esp8266 with Arduino to make a great IoT board. The project came from a well documented Instructable post from user Yuvaltz that includes Youtube videos and even a photo of their cat enjoying the finished product. It’s well worth a read.

This got me thinking about other potential projects that could involve pets. Maybe setting up temperature alerts for a gecko cage or an automated fish feeder (the feeder is actually on my list of eventual projects to complete). How about a tennis ball launcher for your dog? Have you made any projects for your pets?

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At a recent meeting, this link was shared and I found it incredibly interesting: http://documents.latimes.com/la-2013/

Last year, on the “official” day that Marty McFly went to the future, many articles highlighted the differences from the movie and present day. This archived magazine article from 1988 imagines what Los Angeles would be like in 25 years. Here are a few highlighted thoughts:

• “In the classroom of tomorrow, computers will replace desks, wall-size computer displays will replace overhead projectors, and students will be able to use the Library of Congress at the touch of a button.”
• “It’s his dog, ‘Max’, waking him up for school. Although Zach thinks of him as a real dog, Max is a robo-pet- a mobile home robot….”
• “He calls the house through the network and asks the system what kind of food is in the refrigerator. Almost instantly, a readout of the running food inventory kept by the fridge appears on Bill’s computer screen.”
• “Alma tells her mother-in-law just to load the floppy with the enchilada program into Billy Rae, so he can cook it and they can be on their way.”

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Recently I went to an electronic parts surplus store here in Silicon Valley and wanted to share the trip, especially if you are local. There is something really interesting about seeing thousands of tiny components neatly organized in one space. Surplus stores are usually hit or miss. You can sludge through aisles of obsolete equipment looking for something relevant and useful for your projects.

Occasionally these are the only places to find that last little part you need. For me, it’s just fun to look and get ideas for future projects.

On one side of the warehouse, they have a long shelf of equipment. At the end of that row is a large table with access to outlets labeled “customer test bench” to test out the pieces.

Additionally, at the front counter they have LED testers so you can check those as well.

and they have plenty of them to test.

In the back of the warehouse there are spools of self-serve wire.

I also found shelves stuffed with bulbs, nixie tubes, and LED strips.

There was no shortage of fuses, connectors, headers, and screws.

And then my personal favorite aisle of switches, buttons, and toggles.

Do you have a place like this near you? What’s your favorite source for electronic components?

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2015, the year of exploding hoverboards, the Arduino split, and the Raspberry Pi Zero, has come to a close. Anyone making a new year’s resolution? For me personally, I want to bring more creative ideas to life and not be afraid if they fail. I started early and did my first 3d printing project this week. I’m excited to see what else comes of it. 

For those of you who are still thinking of a resolution, Tindie can help. Take a look at these ideas and perhaps pick one for yourself.

Learn a New Skill

Not only do we have an entire DIY category devoted to beginners, one of our best selling products is the I Can Solder Badge. If you’ve never tried it before, it’s a handy skill that’s easy to pick up!

Be More Punctual

Being on time is a great character trait! Maybe you don’t even need to be more punctual and you just want a sweet new clock. We’ve got you covered!

Become More Secure

From the incredibly popular Mooltipass Offline Password Keeper to the p@ss Mark II, many in our community have created projects to keep you more secure. Don’t forget the TrueRNG V2 random number generator!

Get Greener

We have an entire section of Tindie devoted to all things IoT. Get connected and go green with internet-connected sensors and controllers for a huge variety of things.

Have More Fun

There is no shortage of super fun projects and products on Tindie. The Automatic Rubber Band Blaster Kit is just one example, plus it’s a great way to use your 3d printer as well!

Keep a Plant Alive

Want to keep it a simple resolution? Grab a Wireless Indoor Garden Monitor and keep a plant alive and well.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, creative, and prosperous new year!

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Hi Tindarians!

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Hello Tindarians!  

Being the first Blog post since the acquisition we wanted to get our ducks in a row before we went public with too much, but I promise this is the first in what we’re hoping is a series of communications that discuss some of what we have planned for the buyer / seller community on Tindie.  Firstly though, let me preface everything with a bit on what we’re NOT going to do:

As you know by now, Hackaday / Supplyframe acquired Tindie and you’d be forgiven for wondering if we/they intend to jump in there and a) change a bunch of stuff, thus changing what Tindie is all about and b) if the new company has ‘dollar signs in their eyes’ and is intent on somehow extracting every ounce of cash from buyers and sellers, again thereby corrupting the spirit of Tindie.  So for the record, the answer to both is a resounding “no”.  1)  We are not planning to come in like a maelstrom and change a bunch of stuff (only try and improve things…keep reading) and 2) nor do we intend raise rates or somehow make it unfavorable to anyone buying and selling on Tindie.  If anything, the pressure to deliver to investors has subsided since the acquisition and we have some much needed breathing room.  What’s more, we have a really amazing development team to work with in improving things and fixing bugs more quickly.

So, that out of the way…Here’s what we’re thinking in the short-medium term as a sort of who’s-who of things we intend to add / modify / improve.  This list is not in any particular order and there’s no fixed timeframes, but rest assured, it’s all on the roadmap…

First up is the much needed “Vacation Mode” for sellers.  This requires a few things like allowing you to set when you’ll be gone, when you’ll be back, and providing some user-side feedback indicating as much.  All good things and we intend to do this.

Next up is a system for Backorders.  We really want to add this however it does require that we think thru a few details like “how long is too long…” and then with that, how do we refund the buyer in the event the seller fails to keep up their end of the bargain.  This is really a mix of technical and business mish-mash that we need to work thru but we’re working thru this now and it’s something we’d really hope to implement.

We have also discussed taking preorders though this carried a somewhat higher risk for the buyer than backorders (we know you can build a backorder product, but preorders create a risk that can’t compromise the user experience for all Tindie customers).  Still putting it out there so you know we’re thinking about this but in terms of sequencing, this is a bridge we’ll cross once we’ve worked out backorders.  

Next up is better inventory synchronization.  A number of issues arise when a product is returned or refunded for some reason and we are going to get the inventory synchronization sorted and working properly asap.  This is really a bug fix but an important one.  

Hopefully this preview of what we’ve got in store sounds good but we’re not so arrogant as to think we got it all perfect!  If you have questions, want to make suggestions, etc. please let me know!  I’m open to any feedback (good and bad) that you might have and the suggestion box is open.

Best regards,

Matt

Tindie.

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In case you missed our official email this morning (to sign up for our newsletter, click here), here is the official news!

Hi Tindarians!

Today is an exciting day in the life of Tindie. For the last 3 years, we’ve grown Tindie from my apartment in Portland to the world’s largest hardware marketplace.  Together we’ve built an amazing community that has supported hardware creators of all ages and helped build hardware businesses all over the globe.  However, it is now time for the next chapter.

It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that we’re announcing Tindie has been acquired by SupplyFrame, the company behind Hackaday. After talking for several months, it became clear that together we could do much more than we ever could apart.

So what does this really mean for everyone? In the near term, few changes will be seen as we integrate the business. Over time, SupplyFrame will begin rolling out improvements we pushed off but can now build with their resources & engineering team. Hackaday will soon have a post up on their ideas and plans as well.

Thank you again to everyone. This has been an amazing ride and we can’t wait to take it to the next level with the SupplyFrame & Hackaday teams. Get ready!

-Team Tindie

Other posts from the web:

Hackaday Official Announcement

Adafruit

Makezine

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Every Thursday we send out a curated list of featured products from Tindie. In case you missed it, here are last week’s products!

ATTiny841/84 breakout w/serial header (bare board)

Simple breakout board for ATTiny841/84 w/serial header Arduino compatible

ATX Board

Make the most of your PC Power Supply for your personal projects with this easy ATX Adapter, with 12V, 3.3V, 5V and 2 USB Ports.

Electronic Owl

Owl with glowing eyes; battery-powered wearable pendant

little²wire

A tiny, SMT version of Little Wire

Pi-DigiAMP+ 2x20w PowerDAC for the Raspberry Pi

Pi-DigiAMP+ HAT compliant Full-HD (192/24) HiFi quality DAC & 2x20w Class D AMP for the Raspberry Pi / Just add speakers!

RedBitOne 1″ micro Dev board

The Heart of your next Micro Project! Tiny but powerful – just add a battery!

Sharp Memory LCD breakout A2

A small and simple breakout board for Sharp Memory LCD displays

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Every Thursday we send out a curated list of featured products from Tindie. In case you missed it, here are last week’s products!

ProtoCam+

The Raspberry Pi Camera Module Prototyping Board

Raspberry PIIO – ArcadeIO add-on board (Kit only)

Kit Only!

Slim RFM69HW Breakout Board – 1km+ range

Long range, easy to use, ISM band wireless RF module. Great for microcontroller / Arduino projects where you want an RF link.

The Ultimate PCB ruler

“A great reminder tool for all PCB designers”

USB to Serial / UART 5V or 3.3V

A USB to Serial adapter switchable between 3.3V and 5V with a 250mA 3.3V regulator and activity LEDs with Free Shipping

WIFI temperature and humidity sensor and control

WIFI temperature and humidity sensor and control using the ESP8266 WIFI module and a DHT11 temp/hum sensor.

Sharp Memory LCD breakout A2

A small and simple breakout board for Sharp Memory LCD displays

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