ALMOST had the new Arduino Uno R4 boards!

@dronebot-workshop

Damn ! Hope you get them back from your neighbour !

Some days it's just not worth chewing your way through the restraints 🙁

I hate when that happens. Most of the time the package somehow shows up because of honest neighbors. Whats also bad is when you get your credit card bill and it is taped up after whoever got it, then opened it and realized their mistake (or were being nosy). I had that happen once. 😥 I hope you get yours as I am going to order a few myself soon.

Good Luck!

Posted by: @voltage

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Whats also bad is when you get your credit card bill and it is taped up after whoever got it, then opened it and realized their mistake (or were being nosy).

So far no good Samaritan has arrived at the door, and it's 8pm, so I doubt they will show up tonight.  I checked the local Arduino distributors, but they all have the new Uno's listed as "coming soon".  So the Arduino store is my only option for replacements.

I did have this happen a few years ago with the OpenMV Camera. That time I got a visit from someone who lived a few blocks down the street, he found it in his bushes!  Canada Post must have dropped it, then marked it as delivered. I was very grateful that he took the time to bring it over.

To be fair, I have had hundreds of deliveries from Canada Post and most go without a hitch. Right now we have a temporary mail carrier, our regular guy is probably on vacation.  We have a few "regular" carriers who are all very friendly people and who always seem to get the mail to us on time. 

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop That is so disappointing. I have had quite a few packages go missing from Amazon or AliExpress, but all were either replaced or refunded. In a few cases, the original showed up a week or more later, and in other cases, a neighbour brought it over later. Isn't it sad that our own Canadian postal service gives the poorest service unless you insure the package?

I am still hopeful a neighbour will show up with your missing package.

Posted by: @zander

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I have had quite a few packages go missing from Amazon or AliExpress, but all were either replaced or refunded.

Unfortunately, I have no such option with the Arduino Store, they did what I asked them to do, and it's not their fault that my mail carrier made an error. And I don't see the Canada Post ticket going anywhere, besides, it's 3 "business days" and I made my claim on Friday.

I ordered the new boards in two separate orders, as once again the WiFi board is backordered. Instead of Canada Post, I selected DHL for each order, it's faster, and it wasn't really that more expensive. Of course, I probably will get hit with customs and duty (twice), that usually happens with DHL, so it may be a lot more expensive by the time it gets here!

These now qualify as the most expensive microcontrollers I have ever purchased, even more than the Giga!

😎

Bill

P.S. Our electricity has been fluctuating up and down all morning, my UPS devices are all going crazy. I anticipate the third power failure in a row any time now!

@dronebot-workshop I have an item on my 'todo list' of Emergency Power. Maybe it's time you considered a full DIY UPS or at least inverter from scratch using raw prismatic lithium cells. Using the resources of Will Prowse the cost can be kept very low relative to off the shelf. The LiPoFE4 is about 1/3 the price(when in stock), similar savings for a very good quality BMS. No idea about the inverter but I would imagine at least 1/3 the cost.

I have the money put aside for an off the shelf unit, but would like to spend less. Building it myself is a scary exercise for me with my Autism as I am easily distracted and can make a deadly mistake so having excellent step by step instructions from someone like you is highly desirable.

All indications are that power failures are going to be more frequent for many of us so a UPS or at least a manually switched inverter backup is more than a nice to have.

Thanks for listening.

Posted by: @zander

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Thanks for listening.

No problem, you're singing to the choir actually! Believe me Ron, ever since I spent 5 days bored and freezing in the dark during the ice storm, I have been scheming up ways to create my own electricity. 

I've looked into getting a couple of Jackery's or similar devices, but the high-capacity ones are very expensive. You may be right about a DIY approach being cheaper, at the very least I want to pick up an inverter to try out with some LiPo batteries that I always have charged up.

Wish I had it in place right now, our lights are still flickering, and our voltage is at 114 VAC, according to all of my UPS screens, but so far we haven't completely lost electricity. Of course, I'm adding to the problem by running four air conditioners full blast, but I want to freeze the house in case we do lose power as the humidex today is around 40 degrees.

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop I recently moved out of my 42ft 5th wheel that had 600AH of LiFePO4, 6x180W solar panels and a 3,000W inverter with lot's of features. I am feeling very exposed in the apartment. I will in the next few days look into replacing the conventional refrigerator with one of the new inverter compressor types as they do not have the peak or surge currents that an old style has.

There are better units than Jackery, but any of that type are much more expensive than a DIY solution even if you use off the shelf components.

At least in a house you can also use a generator although if it were me, I would get a Generac but with two or three 400lb propane tanks or for best fuel economy diesel.

Good luck!

A very nice lady from down the road just delivered the missing package with my new Arduino Uno R4 boards!

😀 🤩 👍 

My faith in humanity has been restored, at least temporarily!  And, so far, we have managed to keep the lights on all day, which is a relief as I'm getting really tired of setting the clocks on all the kitchen appliances every day!

Things are looking up in the workshop!!

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop Fantastic!

@dronebot-workshop Now if only mine would show up but it looks like once the USPS hands it off to the Canada Post it loses tracking.

Posted by: @zander

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once the USPS hands it off to the Canada Post it loses tracking.

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop Agreed, I have done that, but any of the numbers I can see do not work, it's some swiss based shipper and I can click on one number to get USPS but it ends in Jamaica NY.

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

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A very nice lady from down the road just delivered the missing package with my new Arduino Uno R4 boards!

😀 🤩 👍 

Outstanding !

I'm already looking forward to your project(s) and review.