DPRG mailing list archives: DPRG: scrounging

Sat Feb 15 15:51:51 CST 1997

Dear DPRGers:

I went scrounging today with my dad.  I had a ball.

We went to CDC Surplus.  I found some nice electronic grab bags
for $2.00 that had bunches of good stuff.  I bought 3 ($6) and came
away with about 60 reset buttons, about 30 19mhz crystals, a few buttons,
a few switches, about 20 3.3 uf caps, about 20 cotten swabs, about 10
shrink wrap tubes, and gobs of other stuff that I really don't know what
to do with such as BNC connectors, and DIP insertion devices, lugs and more.
I thought it was a good deal.  There on Beltline east of Bowser in
Richardson.  They also some sheets of plastic and sheets of aluminum at
reasonable prices (in the back of the store).

We went to Tanner's (my favorite place) and found what looks like 8 character
LCDs that use that hitachi 78xxx chip.  I hope it's the same interface as
the 16 char ones.  I believe it is.  They were only $1.49 each.  They have
backlight, the common 14 pin interface.  While I was there I noticed the
DPRG fliers on green paper that Chris Nelson dropped off.  Great going Chris!

And while I was there at Tanner's I saw someone who was at the DPRG 
meeting.  I forgot his name - oops.  We talked for a long time about 
robotics.  He mentioned that he wanted to make a SBC and after he made one
or bought one, he didn't know how to interface it to stuff.  I replied
that it would be nice if we had some interfacing articles in the newsletter.
That seems to be a big hurdle for many in the group.  I don't mind doing
it, but I feel there's probably some that have much less of a limited
knowledge than me that would love to lay out sample schematics and the
like and maybe some code fragments.  We can have some electronics and
robotics design web pages made up or something.  Think about it and submit
whatever you can.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Brown       jbrown at why.net  or  jbrown at spdmail.spd.dsccc.com 
                http://users.why.net/jbrown
                http://www.dprg.org (next meeting is March 22nd) Bring robots!
Rom 3:23,24     http://users.why.net/jbrown/pcb.htm