I live in US but have a project with a client in UK. Last time I sent the parts over, the customs took very long to clear. I wonder where you would get arduino and adafruit parts in UK.
I need their ultimate gps shield and an antenna.
I visited farnell. They mostly have arduino.org stuff. I have been badly burned by their Arduino MEGA2560. Their voltage regulator absolutely sucked. 12V DC will make the adapter go into thermal shut down in a few minutes. Their adafruit stuff are mostly for raspberry pi.
I also tried rs-online. They have a gps module and mostly raspberry pi stuff, not gps shield.
I tried maplin. They appear to have arduino mega from arduino.cc but no gps shield, just a module.
Say if you live in the UK and want a mega2560, from arduino.cc, where would you get one? What about anything from adafruit? Thanks.
I was able to find all GPS-related components from makersify.com and it's got a nice collection of adafruit stuff! When I make prototypes, I tend to buy adafruit so they get the profit and keep up with their open source efforts. It's also easy to source parts (in US, now I know in UK as well).
coolcomponents.co.uk seems to carry a lot of those components as well, similarly priced. I'll do some comparison to get some ideas of common components I can secure on both sides of the pond, as recommended components for building projects.
I have another question: I am trying to use genuino mega 2560. Does anyone have experience with the quality of this board? I'm in the US and have no access to these boards. I know the arduino.org boards have for a long time been using a low-quality regulator, the one marked with ||). The ) looks like a backward C. Thermal shutdown, and unable to supply enough current (in case of 3.3V version) to xbee modules on wireless sd shield.
They mostly have arduino.org stuff. I have been badly burned by their Arduino MEGA2560. Their voltage regulator absolutely sucked.
Did you complain via whomever you bought them from? That would be part of the reason for buying "genuine" boards; not just that quality "should" be higher, but to have an actual "owner" who can correct problems.
AFAIK, the arduino.org manufacturer is the only one who ever manufactured the Mega2560. When the two parts of the company split, Arduino.cc never found a new manufacturer for the "less popular" boards... (and now, they're back together again...)
I believe I did complain to adafruit and mouser about wireless sd shield and mega 2560, either late 2013 or early 2014. In the past, the regulator was a typical 1117-5 and 3.3 version SMD component. If memory serves, around late 2013, I started noticing the new regulators with ||( symbol. They were awful. The original ones made with decent regulators quickly sold out and were replaced by various vendors with the new stuff. I know that the smart project has been the manufacturing facility of all arduino boards. I didn't know that they were splitting from arduino LLC at the time I noticed the regulator change. I soon found out about the split. The change of regulators may be just a coincidence with the split, or it was a means to cut cost that backfired. In the later time, 2014-2015, all arduino megas were from arduino.org and they came with stickers to ask you to download IDE from arduino.org. Same poor regulators, same issues: thermal breakdown (12V input) and insufficient current (can't run xbee pro on wireless sd shield). I have avoided using anything that says arduino.org for about 3 years. Once arduino.cc resuming producing megas, I grabbed one from them to test the quality. It had a decent regulator!
I have been dealing with Farnell both as an account holder with them and through employers accounts for over fourth years. I have only had about three things go wrong in all that time and it was dealt with in an exemplary fashion each time.
On the other hand RS refused to sell to me in the 1970s even returning my cheques because in their words I did not have adiquitly staffed full time premises. I know it is different now but it still wrankers with me.