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[on:]

We would like to carry Arduino in our store and would love some suggestions from you guys. Just post what you would like to see in our store! We cannot get everything but it will give us a better idea of what people are looking for.

Thanks,
Hobbytown - Sunnyvale

[Reply #1 on:]

We would like to carry Arduino in our store and would love some suggestions from you guys. Just post what you would like to see in our store! We cannot get everything but it will give us a better idea of what people are looking for.

Thanks,
Hobbytown - Sunnyvale

Well my suggest of what any beginner should buy before or at the same time they purchase an arduino board is a digital multimeter, probably a very affordable model to encourage it's purchase. Arduino projects almost always involve wiring something external up to the board and errors and damage can be greatly decreased if the beginner is using his/her meter to double check wiring, voltage, and current in the process of building their projects. Of course learning to use the meter properly is just as important as learning the arduino usage.

Lefty

[Reply #2 on:]

What about the starter kits?

______
Rob

[Reply #3 on:]

Don't forget clock chips & crystals, or modules.
Also decent shift registers, from the TCIP6x595 line, for working with 12V LED strips.
Logic level MOSFETS, good ones with Low Rds, low gate capacitance, N & P channel
Current limiting resistors.
100nF caps
parts to make standalone arduinos: blank chips, sockets, perf board, 16 MHz xtal, 22 pf caps, 10K resistors, 1N4148 & 1N4158 diodes, low dropout regularors, 5V switching regulator wallwarts.
LEDs.
LED matrixes
AVR Programmers

[Reply #4 on:]

Books - all the Arduino related books you can find. Give the buyers some idea why the Arduino is a good buy.

[Reply #5 on:]

solder irons?

sensors !

robot-kits

[Reply #6 on:]

Flux pen for soldering
0.025" diameter solder, 60/40, 2.2% flux, MG Chemicals
http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/solder/leaded/sn60-pb40-4890/

Wirewrap sockets/pins (I use pins for just about everything now, no need to have the right size socket anymore),
female long lead headers/receptables,
male header pins, straight, right angle, single & dual row
30 guage wirewrap wire,
wirewrap tools (I prefer Okidata Industries WSU-30M)
small needle nose pliers,
small cutters,
perfboard to build projects up on,
2-pin/0.2"/5mm pitch screw termininals for power,
5.5mm/2.1mm DC power jacks; PCB mount & panel mount/thruhole,
USB/Serial adapter modules,
AVR programmers, flyer on using an Arduino/equivalent as an AVR programmer,

Hook up wire, 22 guage
Male-Male crimp terminated wires to connect up boards with female headers
Male-Female crimp terminated wires to connect up things with male headers to things with female headers
Crimp housings to plug the crimp terminated wires into to keep things tidy and prevent them from shorting

www.pololu.com has a great selection of this stuff, I keep a lot of it on hand for connecting things up.
My wife is on her to Portland, OR right now even to put male crimp connectors on pre-wired LEDs, arrange them into groups, and plug them into a control board I make to light up  a commercial sign.  Luckily I had just enough parts to build up one prototype, and have a bunch on order from pololu to make up 4 more.

Ribbon cable & crimp-on female IDC connectors to connect to male header pins on boards
Digikey & Mouser carry the interconnect stuff too, but it is very difficult to find it.
Phoenixent.com has the same stuff but a lot more conveniently named & organized to make it easier to find.

[Reply #7 on:]

You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the recommendations so far.

[Reply #8 on:]

What does your store normally carry ?

Duane B

rcarduino.blogspot.com

[Reply #9 on:]

Right now we carry most everything from R/C to Slinkydogs. We can also help with anything R/C and have lots of models, tools, toys, and paints.

[Reply #10 on:]

If you have a way to broadcast the Arduino stuff to the folks at Lockheed Sunnyvale you may get some strong interest from some of the guys their for their kids, and maybe a workshop or two aimed at all ages.

Oust some thoughts.

[Reply #11 on:]

If you have a way to broadcast the Arduino stuff to the folks at Lockheed Sunnyvale you may get some strong interest from some of the guys their for their kids, and maybe a workshop or two aimed at all ages.

Not a bad idea, I have got quite a lot of my colleagues to by Arduinos just by showing them a couple of projects - most of them had not heard of and were not looking for Arduinos before seeing the projects.

Duane B

[Reply #12 on:]

If you have a way to broadcast the Arduino stuff to the folks at Lockheed Sunnyvale you may get some strong interest from some of the guys their for their kids, and maybe a workshop or two aimed at all ages.

Oust some thoughts.

That is definitely something we are thinking about (although I would need a few projects under my belt first). We are thinking of doing a few R/C car workshops to teach younger kids how to maintain and repair their cars.

[Reply #13 on:]

The Sunnyvale store IS CLOSED and a new store in their location, and the phone is disconnected with no new number!

Too bad as I wanted to say hi again.

[Reply #14 on:]

Wow, he already went out of business?

A "me too" store isn't going to survive, me thinks. Not unless you hold some competitive advantage, like:

Pololu - robotics niche, + their own PCB production/reflow/assembly/designs/etc... selling something costing less than $1 to 10x markup (and that's for their cheapest boards/modules)

Adafruit - Lady Ada... girl engineer, super cool products, lots of open source libraries created in-house to support items they sell, etc., like pololu they have their own PNP machine, reflow oven, etc.

Sparkfun - same as pololu, in-house designed modules, made cheaply, sold cheaply, and still maintaining a huge markup for them.

several chinese companies - cheap access to parts, automated manufacturing, and millions of cheap chinese labor.