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[on:]

Has anyone ordered from littlebird electronics in australia?

I ordered my arduino at the start of the week, and had no email saying it has been sent or anything like that.

Have sent them a email and no reply.

[Reply #1 on:]

Interested in your outcome. They seem to be the only supplier of the Lantronix Xport in Australia.

Looking at their "Arduino Mini USB Adapter" they have this note:

We're experiencing extremely high demand for the Arduino line, order now to secure your Arduino for shortly after easter!

although it doesn't appear on the decimila page. Sounds like they don't keep much in stock in Australia, which is fair enough, it's not a massive market.

They seem to have a bit of a markup on the products, but still they end up being cheaper than shipping stuff from the US. For example the motor shield PCB is $AU18+GST, compared with the US$5 it's going for on the NCK and adafruit shops. Although their new "reduced" price for the Decemila is pretty competitive.  

[Reply #2 on:]

Yeah im in NZ. So I thought it would be quicker to get it from Australia since there is no supplier here. Maybe it would have been quicker to get it from the US. :/ I hope I don't have to wait until after easter If I do I will try and get a refund and order from somewhere else.

Im a bit annoyed they haven't replied to my email I sent 3 days ago.

[Reply #3 on:]

I'm from aus and I ordered from adafruit for my second arduino and with the US exchange rate at the moment it worked out cheaper and also faster getting it from US than Little Bird. It was just b4 xmas as well.   I recommend adafruit.

[Reply #4 on:]

Try SGBotics in Singapore, I've dealt with Vivan and the service and delivery (to NZ) is superb.

I passed on LB in Oz because the freight price from Oz to Wellington, was more than SG charged for FedEx from Singapore to Wgtn, FedEx takes 3 days, Vivian's totally On2It  

[Reply #5 on:]

I received it today. Took a week to get here which isnt to bad.

Just that Little Bird didnt reply to any of my emails and didnt let me know what was going on.

[Reply #6 on:]

I received it today. Took a week to get here which isnt to bad.

Just that Little Bird didnt reply to any of my emails and didnt let me know what was going on.

Good to know. One week is very acceptable!

[Reply #7 on:]

Try SGBotics in Singapore

Seems, it's actually SGBotic (singular)--Google doesn't find it with the plural (oddly)...

I've dealt with Vivan and the service and delivery (to NZ) is superb.

Seems like they have "reasonable" prices for bare ATMega168 also--I haven't managed to find a non-exorbitant price for them in NZ.  

I passed on LB in Oz because the freight price from Oz to Wellington, was more than SG charged for FedEx from Singapore to Wgtn

Really? I just went to their site and they quoted this for shipping a Deicimila to NZ:

      Standard Shipping Rates (Air Mail : 30 gram(s))      US$4.88
       Express Shipping Rates (FedEx Internation Priority : 30 gram(s))      US$28.68

I take it you're in Wellington? I'm in Christchurch. Do you have a blog/site? (I'm interested because I maintain Planet NZTech and am also keen to locate more NZ hardware hackers. :-) )

--Phil.

[Reply #8 on:]

Just that Little Bird didnt reply to any of my emails and didnt let me know what was going on.

I have mixed feelings about Little Bird--when I was looking for an Arduino around July 2007 they were the most reasonably priced (due to shipping) source I found for delivery to New Zealand. I ordered a Deicimila which was delivered in reasonable time (as I recall) once they actually started shipping from Europe.

But on the other hand in my experience they are (as you found) extremely poor at responding to emails and sending shipping status updates. (Even when it would be to their benefit that they respond.) Sometimes an email "ping" elicts a response--but the accuracy of the shipping time estimates they've provided have been mixed.)

I'm yet to hear from someone who hasn't received their order--but noone's had much email from them either, so I guess if you're patient and not too anxious they're an okay source. I also do like to support a more "local" supplier. (And I think probably still price competitive.)

BTW Where in New Zealand are you? Do you have a blog/site? (I'm interested because I maintain Planet NZTech and am also keen to locate more NZ hardware hackers. :-) )

--Phil.

[Reply #9 on:]

I just received my Arduino yesterday from Little Bird.  I sent an email last week to find out when it would ship and I got a reply about 5 minutes later.  It took about a week to get to me.  I'm playing with my board now so no complaints here

[Reply #10 on:]

I just moved to Wellington from Canada, and I really want to order an Arduino. I was thinking of getting it from LittleBird, but now I'm thinking twice. nice to see some NZ'ers on here.. maybe someone will point me in the right direction?

I'm also looking for places to get other electronic parts and such maybe even right in the Wellington area? (I found Jaycar down the street for resistors and crap if need be).

Lastly.. is there anything in Wellington where hardware type nerds get together and shoot the shit?

Mike

Just that Little Bird didnt reply to any of my emails and didnt let me know what was going on.

I have mixed feelings about Little Bird--when I was looking for an Arduino around July 2007 they were the most reasonably priced (due to shipping) source I found for delivery to New Zealand. I ordered a Deicimila which was delivered in reasonable time (as I recall) once they actually started shipping from Europe.

But on the other hand in my experience they are (as you found) extremely poor at responding to emails and sending shipping status updates. (Even when it would be to their benefit that they respond.) Sometimes an email "ping" elicts a response--but the accuracy of the shipping time estimates they've provided have been mixed.)

I'm yet to hear from someone who hasn't received their order--but noone's had much email from them either, so I guess if you're patient and not too anxious they're an okay source. I also do like to support a more "local" supplier. (And I think probably still price competitive.)

BTW Where in New Zealand are you? Do you have a blog/site? (I'm interested because I maintain Planet NZTech and am also keen to locate more NZ hardware hackers. :-) )

--Phil.

[Reply #11 on:]

I received it today. Took a week to get here which isnt to bad.

Just that Little Bird didnt reply to any of my emails and didnt let me know what was going on.

My experience is the same. I communicated via their forum thing, where they said they'd sent emails and didn't know why I hadn't received them. Seems like their outgoing email server is dodgy and they cbf fixing it. Item did arrive in fair time though.

[Reply #12 on:]

I just moved to Wellington from Canada

Welcome to New Zealand then. :-)  Where in Canada did you move from?

and I really want to order an Arduino. I was thinking of getting it from LittleBird, but now I'm thinking twice.

My understanding is that a New Zealand distributor is in the process of being established but I don't think they're taking orders yet. Probably LittleBird is going to be the most straight forward for now--even if they are uncommunicative. YMMV.

Lastly.. is there anything in Wellington where hardware type nerds get together and shoot the shit?

I don't know of anything in particular--Wellington people seem to be mainly into software--but I'll PM you an email address of a friend of mine who lives there.

--Phil.

[Reply #13 on:]

hei...i juz bought a arduino and motorshield from littlebird electronics ..i found out that the motorshield is only a pcb board.
hav anyone bought the motorshield from them? where can i get the other components like h-bridge ic n stuffs

[Reply #14 on:]

hei...i juz bought a arduino and motorshield from littlebird electronics ..i found out that the motorshield is only a pcb board.
hav anyone bought the motorshield from them? where can i get the other components like h-bridge ic n stuffs

Altronics have the H-bridge IC (if it's the L293D one).

Altronics have dealers all over AU. If you're in NZ, they dist. through Global PC in Christchurch, Papanui and Riccarton.