MIDI Hack Competition at NAMM 2021

The MIDI Innovation Awards, a design competition for MIDI hacks, DIY projects, or innovative MIDI products is now open with final judging at NAMM 2021.  This competition was announced by Music Hackspace, the MIDI Association and NAMM.

The first prize includes an exhibition booth and free advertising at the 2022 NAMM show.  Other prizes to be announced.  Submissions of existing commercialized products and art installations are also eligible.  For more details see the Music Hackspace Innovation Awards page.

Arduino Sensor Kit

Arduino and Seeed have released the Arduino Sensor Kit for $23 (USD).  The kit includes 10 modules and sensors including light, sound, air pressure, temperature, an accelerometer, buzzer, button, and a small OLED screen.  The Arduino sensor kit base is an Arduino Shield (daughterboard) so you will need an Arduino UNO or compatible board to use it.  If you buy both from Arduino you can get them bundled for a discounted price ($38.70).  The Arduino Sensor Kit can be purchased directly from Arduino or Seeed and Arduino has developed a step-by-step tutorial to go with it and the Arduino UNO. 

Seed has a very similar all-in-one board, the Seeed Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino ($19.90), which includes an Arduino compatible base board.

Electronics Deals Cyber Monday 2020

Cyber Monday electronics deals are here.  Many of the deals listed in my blog post on Black Friday are still available from Adafruit, Polulu, SparkFun, and Tindie.

1BitSquared has a 15% discount off any piece of hardware with the checkout code BLACKFRIDAY2020 through Midnight (US PST).  They have a few unique development boards and JTAG accessories.  They have hard to find JTAG adapters and cables that are useful for ARM processor debugging.  I have used the Black Magic 0.1in Pin Header JTAG cable for STM32 debugging.  They also have STM32 and FPGA development boards and the Black Magic Probe for ARM Cortex MCUs.

MikroE is having deals until Tuesday December 1st on many products.  This includes 25% off most Click Boards.  These are small accessory boards that use the microBUS socket available on many different development boards including the low cost Microchip Curiosity Development Boards.  MicroBus Click Boards are great for prototyping or general DIY projects.  You can add just about any sensor, analog or digital interface, or communications module you would need.

RobotShop is discounting specific products from 5% to 50% for it's Cyber Monday sale.  Of course this includes robot kits and parts, but you can also find Arduino boards, electronic learning kits, drones and Raspberry Pi development boards.

Electronics Deals Black Friday 2020

Black Friday is a great time to get a new development board or some parts for a DIY electronics project.  Here are a few great online electronics stores where you can find deals.

Adafruit is having two sales, one is for 15% all items in stock with the code ADATHX see more details in the Adafruit Thanksgiving Weekend Sale blog post.  The Adafruit Feather line of development boards is 20% off today only with the same code, see Adafruit Feather Friday Sale for details.

Polulu has a few different Black Friday deals.  There are coupons for individual products, discounts on your entire order and the unique design your own deal sale.  Follow this link to Pololu Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale 2020 for the details.

The design your own deal allows you to propose propose a discount for up to three products.  Last year I was able to get even bigger discounts than I asked for.  I don't recall the original prices but I was pleasantly surprised that they were all approved and discounted further.  Here are my three wishes and the deals I was offered.

Pololu item #3103: A-Star 32U4 Mini LV

You requested: 1 at $12.00 each.

We can do even better!  Up to 3 at $8.88 each.

Pololu item #3110: A-Star Prime Accessory Pack

You requested: 1 at $3.00 each.

We can do even better!  Up to 3 at $2.75 each.

   

Pololu item #3113: A-Star 32U4 Prime SV

You requested: 1 at $15.00 each.

We can do even better!  Up to 3 at $14.00 each.

SparkFun Black Friday Deals are discounts from 15 to 60 percent off select products.  There are not as many deals here but you might get lucky and find something you want.  You can also check out this sneak peak of Cyber Monday Deals.

At the Black Friday Sale on Tindie many development boards are discounted.  Tindie is a unique online store featuring independent sellers of all kinds of development boards and accessories for unique applications.   If you haven't been to this site before it's a great time to look around.

SparkFun A La Carte Custom Board Designer

SparkFun Electronics is offering a web based custom board design service called SparkFun A La Carte (ALC).  You can choose from a few different microcontrollers that can run Arduino programs.  You also have a choice of I/O, connectors and power options.  Communications options include RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth.  There is a one-time design fee for each board and a per unit cost calculated as you add the components.  You can get a 50% discount on the design fee until 12/31/2020 with the promocode ALCSPARKFUN50. For more information see this ALC post on the SparkFun Blog  

This YouTube video on the custom board designer goes over an example design.