Arduino in the wild?

[slowcoder]

What is the likelihood that an Arduino board would be found in cheap commercial toys or other gadgets, that could be reprogrammed/repurposed? Like, what could I look for at a Goodwill (US) or junk shop?

Have you ever found one in the wild?

[anon73444976]

@slowcoder

What is the likelihood that an Arduino board would be found in cheap commercial toys or other gadgets,

Very slim chance.
Or fat chance.

[LarryD]

Not going to happen.

[J-M-L]

Not really an Arduino but the some Sonoff products embed an ESP8266 or ESP32 that you can hack

see GitHub - arendst/Tasmota: Alternative firmware for ESP8266 with easy configuration using webUI, OTA updates, automation using timers or rules, expandability and entirely local control over MQTT, HTTP, Serial or KNX. Full documentation at

[xfpd]

Teddy Ruxpin - these actually got on (a) government list of electronics forbidden from entering secure facilities BEFORE cellular telephones!

[camsysca]

Better to see if you have a maker group, or other electronics enthusiasts club in your area, to see if someone has some surplus. If you were here*, I could direct you to a couple.
C

[cedarlakeinstruments]

Arduino in the wild wouldn't surprise me: I've seen machine prototypes built with them. Arduino in the wild in a cheap toy is simply not going to happen unless someone already bought the toy, put it in there and then gave it to Goodwill, etc. later. Even the clones are far too expensive for that.

[madmark2150]

Old 3d printers, laser engravers and the like often used embedded Arduinos.