Discussions

Just got a Ardruino-clone MEGA kit and playing around with some of the crazy things you can do. The model railroad club is looking to incorporate them into the layouts. There's tons of lighting and animation model railroad projects that can be done with them.  
 
Just wondering if there is a place in Brandon that carries Arduinos/ Rasperry Pi's, sensors, electrical components and such. Would be nice to have a local source instead of going online all the time.  
 
Hint Hint, to a possible business venture or just an add on to existing business. This is probably something one of the computer places like Geeks, Brandon Computer could get into if they aren't already.  
 
https://www.arduino.cc/

We have an Arduino-obsessed kid, and we got him the Snapino intro Arduino kit for Christmas (put out by Elenco) and he's loving it. We'd be a customer I'm sure if there was somewhere local to buy it (we bought the kit locally at ToyMasters).

Elegoo that I got off Amazon. When I was younger, I got for Christmas a Radio Shack 130 in 1 electronic kit. That was fun to make different circuits. I miss the old Radio Shack for the electronic parts, need resistors, capacitors, transistors, breadboards, etc. they had them. Now you can't.

but would be nice for a place to carry the basics like resistors, capacitors, LED's, blank circuit boards, etc.. The more specialised items could be special ordered. In my search online found a few Canadian distributors, one is more of a wholesaler that sells in volume.  
 
https://www.digikey.ca  
 
https://elmwoodelectronics.ca/

A couple of years ago I went through all electronics / computer shops in Brandon, and non of them were selling Arduino / Raspberry Pi types of electronics.  
I had to order many things online, and used these two websites, but mostly the first one:  
1) http://www.canadarobotix.com/  
2) http://www.bc-robotics.com/

I don’t think a local place could justify the cost. It would be nice for sure. As a note digikey is not a Canadian company. That is the Canadian distributor. They are good and can get you parts next day. I prefer Newark and they have a ton of arduino stuff. Newark again is American but have Canadian distribution and can get you parts fast. I always need stuff fast so not sure if they ship slower for free.

You and my husband must have the same spirit animal, LOL. He was lamenting Radio Shack the other day when he was browsing the Elenco website and noticed they now make the 130 in 1 board/kit. He had one as a kid as well and bought lots of stuff at Radio Shack over the course of decades.

Maybe one day there will be a local place that sells components.  
 
I mean being able to build a carriage for your beer cooler that follows you is intriguing, or other cool things that you can build and use Arduino's.  
 
 
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/hackershack/make-an-autonomous-follow-me-cooler-7ca8bc?ref=:platform&ref_id=:424_trending___&offset=:90  
 
Edited by Trevor B, 2019-01-06 18:51:38

There is know where local to get anything like this. TipTopElectronics in Winnipeg is about the closest.  
 
I have likely 25 raspberry pi''s that we use for things like the haunted forest, control systems for clients and of course my Christmas light display.  
 
I use mouser.ca for most of the electronic components that I need and use amazon (canakit) for purchasing raspberry pi''s because their kits are very convenient. Most of the Christmas light controllers I purchase now I participate in group buys to get the kit that i:ncludes the PCB and the components and then just solder them up. Works out to the same price after shipping and someone else has to find all the proper substitutions for discontinued or out of stock components  
 
Haven''t done much with arduinos in years as I like having a full OS along with network, hdmi, gpio and usb without having to add hats to the device, but there are lots of projects I wish I had one mostly for boot speed and low overhead.  
 
Edited by Jason Cross, 2019-01-07 00:19:50

How often are you looking for a breadboard and resistor??  
 
Buisnesses typically need to make money to stay in buisness. Unfortunately that market is very niche, in fact I'd be surprised if half the people that even opened this thread knew what we are talking about. However the beauty of the internet and sites like Amazon is that we can basically buy anything and have it in a day or two. So I don't think it would make sense for someone local to stock something like this even though I would likely make a purchase or two the majority won't. And not to mention there is not much mark up on that stuff to begin with. It's a hobby and not that costly of one to boot.  
 
And ya digikey is certainly not "Canadian"

I think the point Jason was making is that a business could add these types of products to their existing businesses. while I do agree not a ton of margin in it generally, as you pointed out most people can google the products and order with 2 day shipping.  
 
But their is something about forming a community around the hobby, where the business could serve as a sort of a hub and the staff would know or at least offer advice as to what products to buy.  
 
Think Brandon Computers or Geeekz having a small section of wall space with a few skus. The products don't really expire and it likely wouldn't be a huge investment in inventory to stock a couple common items.