Hi,
Last night, I had an opportunity to discuss some of the new products with a young man and his mother about the upcomming new products from Parallax. He can't wait! He was so excited to find someone in a Radio Shack store that could mentor his electronics interests. I really had a story to tell because of the upcomming products from Parallax. I will bet that he can introduce me to more individuals that need that kind of mentoring and this kind of product. Now, with Verizon cell phones on the Horizon and Props a commin things are looking up at the shack!
Jim
someone in a Radio Shack store that could mentor his electronics interests.
Hey! There's an idea!
Perhaps parallax could help us organize a way for forumistas to become mentors for specific radio shack stores? We could probably "wander in" and maybe strike up a conversation with individual managers, but it might better if something were organized as a "program" for legal, safety, organizational, etc.
Even if it were to arrange for mentors and neophytes to communicate on a forum location, or arrange a time to meet in the store to look at a project.
In the past I have attended local "user group" meetings for this or that. There are sometimes community rooms available for groups to meet in for free or at little cost. Ask your city/county/parks department or some restaurants have separate rooms for meetings.
These would meet once a month in the evening typically. And someone from the group would make a presentation about something he/she was working on or knew about. Then after that there might be a general questions time. Anyone could throw out questions to the group. Every so often they might have a pot luck. And there might be a visiting guest speaker from out of town every so often. For programming, businesses would show up looking for someone to hire. Etc.
And these groups might be computer, ham radio, Microsoft Access Database programmers, etc.
People would come from 100 miles away to attend these meetings.
Perhaps parallax could help us organize a way for forumistas to become mentors for specific radio shack stores? We could probably "wander in" and maybe strike up a conversation with individual managers, but it might better if something were organized as a "program" for legal, safety, organizational, etc.
Even if it were to arrange for mentors and neophytes to communicate on a forum location, or arrange a time to meet in the store to look at a project.
Ideas?
Maybe if it was a club or a group that wanted to meet there and have a common goal. At least they would all be doing the same thing and maybe the outcome would be profitable.
I've tried to give my employer advice but they don't listen because they've tried everything before. Or why should they listen to me when they pay a professional or a consultant?
If mentors aren't representative of society as a whole then any store might stock up on some items that people don't want to buy and they might end up putting their money in stock that won't sell. Owners are afraid of getting stuck with inventory.
How would a store know if a mentor had the right stuff? How many projects has the mentor made? How many of those products are worthwhile? I think they might be self employed if their ideas were profitable.
How many of those mentors had their products on Instructables? How many of those mentors had their products on Kickstarter?
And there are smart people who make products that fail. Remember the PC Junior by IBM? I'm also trying to understand why HP wants to drop their product line. Would someone want them guiding Radio Shack?
Gordon, we sure appreciate your input in this way.
We can produce the book and then offer it to them. Parents, teachers, and anybody else raised without digital media would find this valuable.
At the moment, I'm on an airplane to a RadioShack Biz Summit (select AA flights have WiFi!). We're spending a couple of days with their store managers (five thousand of them) to share our products. From this event we will collect some additional feedback about how we could best assist them. It would be our pleasure to have your assistance - I'll drop you an e-mail in a few minutes.
Sincerely,
Ken Gracey
Found this browsing so it is a bit late, but regarding the little book idea, I think Radio Shack may even still have their Experimenters handbook out there. Remember these from a ways back, they were supposed to look like an engineering note book with "hand drawn sketches of the napkin style common from to long a late nighter tossing ideas around at Denny's", and also print looking like hand written printed text. If I am not suffering from early onset CRS, I think the author was Forrest Mims. Would be a not bad idea to have your Parallax FAEs do a couple of these for the MCUs and perhaps a sensors book that would be "independent" (yeah, I know watch that political stuff) of processor.
Hey all - totally slammed with the "mystery project" all day today - all great stuff/ideas here...
Yeah, Matt, I know just what you mean. I'm slammed with my own "mystery project". It's fabulous and it's gonna set the world on fire, not just Maker Faire. Gee Whiz, it's a dang shame I can't tell you anything about it...
Seeing this and the "Sparkfun at Micro Centers" thread makes me wonder if the good folks at Parallax have ever tried to get space at Amateur Electronic Supply. Sure, they don't have a lot of traffic, and they only have four stores (right?), but the people who do come through there all receive a monthly magazine (QST) that describes do-it-yourself electronics projects, and most of them know more about that kind of thing than I ever will. The photos in that "Micro Center" thread really look just like the "do-it-yourself" corner at the Milwaukee store.
I was at a mall Radio Shack and the manager told me there is a difference between the mall stores and the strip mall stores. The mall stores are more consumer oriented and the strip malls are more hobby oriented. The strip malls may have more part cabinets and carry a more full line of your hobby line. The mall stores will not carry a whole hobby line and won't have all the parts.
Mall stores tend to be "shopper's stores" and Strip stores tend to be destination stores. I generally have seen more hobby activity at strip stores than Mall stores.
Jim
re: Do you have a similar plan for the Canadian market? We don't have Radio Shack stores.
Hey Bob, who's the leading electronic retailer in Canada? Let us know your preference and we'll put the product into their stores.
We used to have Radio Shack stores but they were taken over by "The Source". They would be a good fit for your products.
The Canadian counterpart of RadioShack, also known as RadioShack, was run by a company called InterTAN, acquired in 2004 by Circuit City. However, RadioShack sued InterTAN one week after the purchase, claiming InterTAN had breached the terms of their agreement. On March 24, 2005, a U.S. district court judge ruled in favor of RadioShack and cancelled their agreement, meaning that all 950 RadioShack stores in Canada must stop using the brand name in any of their products, packaging or advertising by June 30, 2005. As a result, all of the InterTAN stores were rebranded under the name The Source by Circuit City and RadioShack Corporation planned to open its own stores in Canada under the RadioShack name. URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RadioShack&action=edit§ion=14"]edit[/URL Post-2005
After preventing InterTAN from using the RadioShack trademark, RadioShack announced its intention to re-enter the Canadian market itself with a Canadian division. InterTAN pursued court action to prevent RadioShack from using the trademark in Canada until the original 2010 expiry date of the original licensing agreement. The company had planned to have 20 to 30 stores operating in Canada as RadioShack by the end of 2005, mostly in the Toronto area, but progress was slower than anticipated. As of September 2006, nine company-owned stores had been opened and 16 dealer stores were operating under the name RadioShack, signing new agreements with RadioShack Corporation.
In January 2007, RadioShack Corporation announced that it closed its nine company-owned stores in Canada in order for the company to refocus its attention and resources on strengthening its core business in the U.S.[17]
You're welcome, but it's the whole Parallax team and you that make this possible.
There's an interesting generational gap about the value of RadioShack for this kind of product. Ask anybody over 35-40 if RadioShack had anything to do with their interest in electronics and the answer is an obvious "yes". Heck, I used to go there with Chip and we'd buy speaker drivers, 8-tracks, CB radios, soldering stations, etc. while my dad was waving around his free battery card to get another D-cell for our flashlights. But, check in with somebody younger and they primarily know RadioShack as a cell phone source. RadioShack is back in the electronics game and this perception will be altered. I'm not one to be "won over" but they're in this for real.
Hello!
I agree! I remember those cards. I even found a few whilst sorting out stuff some weeks to months previously.
I even saw these new items at the Maker Faire, It was an interesting discussion that ensued regarding them. I mentioned what happened when I mentioned on the Forum about two sensors being sold at prices that implied that the company, (RS) was discontinuing the effort of carrying them. They were the RFID reader, and the optical sensor, the TS230.
Now I thought that you were Chip, because the group there referred to you as such.
Good greif yes, I can't wait! I remember blowing my allowance each week on another proto-board and some more ICs. Then it turned into a cell phone store and even getting a pack of resistors, or a useful switch was becoming difficult. Yes, Jameco, Mouser, ect. has a whole warehouse of stuff but there is nothing more irritating to me than waiting 4 days for a resistor or capicitor and having to order a ton of Smile I don't really need just to justify the shipping. This is great news. I love being able to grab something interesting to try out this week without the hassel of online orders.
Hi,
Just learned this week that there is a reset occuring at the end of October. That means the new products will get displayed in the late October time frame.
Jim
Excellent! That means I now have a deadline for the "Radio Shackable Propeller Based Reverse Geo-Cache Box" project. I am remaking my Reverse Geo-Cache project with Parallax parts that will be sold at RS. This means that the 4 major components (GPS, Microcontroller, Display, and Servo) can be picked up at RS. The rest of the components can be picked up between RS and Walmart.
Hey everyone!
So sorry for the silence here on our end. This has been an amazing few weeks here with Eddie-bot, and RS production and shipping readiness.
Our Kitting Department has been working 6 days a week with lots of extra help from all departments within, and extra help from outside as well.
Today (Sat), for example RS Kitting was staffed by the Regulars as well as part of the Sales team too.
We have Pot-loads of Full-Blown Eddies in production as well. Today, I was on "Charger modification duty".
I say all this to let you know we have not forgotten about this thread and those of you who are interested in helping usher in the next batch of DIY'ers through the RS doors
Just learned this week that there is a reset occuring at the end of October. That means the new products will get displayed in the late October time frame.
Hey RSJim -
This sounds about right from our viewpoint too. We have big outgoing shipments pending for first week of October
Hey RSJim -
This sounds about right from our viewpoint too. We have big outgoing shipments pending for first week of October
-Matt
Hello!
Well group, I just ran a search on the key word Parallax on the Radio Shack site, all it that <Crude description of site's search engine deleted> found was the WAM and the PING!!! sensor. It didn't even think of the Memsic sensor as well.
When about is this big delivery of new stuff going to land at Radio Shack? (Note there are two stores within walking distance of me, on is on 31AVE by the Astoria BLVD-Ditmars Subway stop, and the other is on Steinway Street. Both sadly are inhabited by people that are barely above the capabilities of individuals who did not make the cut to become members of the Grand Army of the Republic, or even Borg Drones.)
Buck,
Don't expect to find anything about the new Parallax Products until the third week in Oct. If Parallax wants good exposure on the shack web site, I suggest that they make up some electronic data sheets that follow the format of the shack web info and forward to corporate. Particularly important would be the tech spec sheet. The individuals that enter that info are electronically challanged and can bearly read what is written on the package!
Jim
About those so-called "Tech Specs": now there's something that just has to change if RS is serious about supporting the experiment/hobbyist community. Here's an example of what I'm talking about (from the RS website for a dual op amp):
Tech Specs
General Features
Model: TL082/TL082CP
Product Type: IC-Analog
Enclosure Color: Black
Fits What
Model: TL082/TL082CP
Miscellaneous Features
Min Operating Temperature: 32 Fahrenheit
Max Operating Temperature: 158 Fahrenheit
Supported Languages: English
Mounting Kit: Requires 8 pin dip socket
#per pack: 1
"Enclosure color?" Seriously? It's a chip, for heaven's sake! Who cares what color it is? And where's the spec for voltage? Are the inputs/outputs rail-to-rail? What about the gain-bandwidth product?
I disagree that Parallax should follow the "leader" with the Tech Spec stuff; they need to be the leader and guide RadioShack's hand if RS expects to garner any respect for it's hobbyist/experimenter offerings.
Phil, I agree that Radio Shack's lack of technical data compared to competitors is a problem. I recently bought a 38 KHz IR detector came from Radio Shack and the packaging only had the pin out diagram. The Radio Shack website has no pointers to data sheets and the part number looked like a radio Shack catalog number and not an industry one.
Now it worked for IR remote decoding, but when I tried to send it my own IR pulses, I had to use trial and error coupled with forum help (thanks Gordon) to figure out what its tolerances were.
Comments
Best ideas I've heard all year!
Paul
Last night, I had an opportunity to discuss some of the new products with a young man and his mother about the upcomming new products from Parallax. He can't wait! He was so excited to find someone in a Radio Shack store that could mentor his electronics interests. I really had a story to tell because of the upcomming products from Parallax. I will bet that he can introduce me to more individuals that need that kind of mentoring and this kind of product. Now, with Verizon cell phones on the Horizon and Props a commin things are looking up at the shack!
Jim
Hey! There's an idea!
Perhaps parallax could help us organize a way for forumistas to become mentors for specific radio shack stores? We could probably "wander in" and maybe strike up a conversation with individual managers, but it might better if something were organized as a "program" for legal, safety, organizational, etc.
Even if it were to arrange for mentors and neophytes to communicate on a forum location, or arrange a time to meet in the store to look at a project.
Ideas?
These would meet once a month in the evening typically. And someone from the group would make a presentation about something he/she was working on or knew about. Then after that there might be a general questions time. Anyone could throw out questions to the group. Every so often they might have a pot luck. And there might be a visiting guest speaker from out of town every so often. For programming, businesses would show up looking for someone to hire. Etc.
And these groups might be computer, ham radio, Microsoft Access Database programmers, etc.
People would come from 100 miles away to attend these meetings.
There is even a wikipedia page for this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Users'_group
List of user groups...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_users%27_groups
...and this is at least as important as that :-)
Maker Fair prep going on too - thread coming soon on that.
Stay tuned and keep ideas coming...
-Matt
Maybe if it was a club or a group that wanted to meet there and have a common goal. At least they would all be doing the same thing and maybe the outcome would be profitable.
I've tried to give my employer advice but they don't listen because they've tried everything before. Or why should they listen to me when they pay a professional or a consultant?
If mentors aren't representative of society as a whole then any store might stock up on some items that people don't want to buy and they might end up putting their money in stock that won't sell. Owners are afraid of getting stuck with inventory.
How would a store know if a mentor had the right stuff? How many projects has the mentor made? How many of those products are worthwhile? I think they might be self employed if their ideas were profitable.
How many of those mentors had their products on Instructables? How many of those mentors had their products on Kickstarter?
And there are smart people who make products that fail. Remember the PC Junior by IBM? I'm also trying to understand why HP wants to drop their product line. Would someone want them guiding Radio Shack?
Found this browsing so it is a bit late, but regarding the little book idea, I think Radio Shack may even still have their Experimenters handbook out there. Remember these from a ways back, they were supposed to look like an engineering note book with "hand drawn sketches of the napkin style common from to long a late nighter tossing ideas around at Denny's", and also print looking like hand written printed text. If I am not suffering from early onset CRS, I think the author was Forrest Mims. Would be a not bad idea to have your Parallax FAEs do a couple of these for the MCUs and perhaps a sensors book that would be "independent" (yeah, I know watch that political stuff) of processor.
Frank Freedman
Yeah, Matt, I know just what you mean. I'm slammed with my own "mystery project". It's fabulous and it's gonna set the world on fire, not just Maker Faire. Gee Whiz, it's a dang shame I can't tell you anything about it...
Jim
She said corporate said more DYI parts would be coming but she hasn't seen anything yet.
From the expression on her face, the "Parallax" name didn't seem familiar to her...
He indicated 3 in town are corporate stores, the rest are franchises.
Jay
I was at a mall Radio Shack and the manager told me there is a difference between the mall stores and the strip mall stores. The mall stores are more consumer oriented and the strip malls are more hobby oriented. The strip malls may have more part cabinets and carry a more full line of your hobby line. The mall stores will not carry a whole hobby line and won't have all the parts.
Jim
re: Do you have a similar plan for the Canadian market? We don't have Radio Shack stores.
Hey Bob, who's the leading electronic retailer in Canada? Let us know your preference and we'll put the product into their stores.
We used to have Radio Shack stores but they were taken over by "The Source". They would be a good fit for your products.
Background on The Source - How it came to be:
Operations in Canada
URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RadioShack&action=edit§ion=13"]edit[/URL Pre-2005
The Canadian counterpart of RadioShack, also known as RadioShack, was run by a company called InterTAN, acquired in 2004 by Circuit City. However, RadioShack sued InterTAN one week after the purchase, claiming InterTAN had breached the terms of their agreement. On March 24, 2005, a U.S. district court judge ruled in favor of RadioShack and cancelled their agreement, meaning that all 950 RadioShack stores in Canada must stop using the brand name in any of their products, packaging or advertising by June 30, 2005. As a result, all of the InterTAN stores were rebranded under the name The Source by Circuit City and RadioShack Corporation planned to open its own stores in Canada under the RadioShack name.
URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RadioShack&action=edit§ion=14"]edit[/URL Post-2005
After preventing InterTAN from using the RadioShack trademark, RadioShack announced its intention to re-enter the Canadian market itself with a Canadian division. InterTAN pursued court action to prevent RadioShack from using the trademark in Canada until the original 2010 expiry date of the original licensing agreement. The company had planned to have 20 to 30 stores operating in Canada as RadioShack by the end of 2005, mostly in the Toronto area, but progress was slower than anticipated. As of September 2006, nine company-owned stores had been opened and 16 dealer stores were operating under the name RadioShack, signing new agreements with RadioShack Corporation.
In January 2007, RadioShack Corporation announced that it closed its nine company-owned stores in Canada in order for the company to refocus its attention and resources on strengthening its core business in the U.S.[17]
The Source by Circuit City was sold to Bell Canada and rebranded as The Source and continues to operate in Canada despite the closure of all US Circuit City (big box) stores in February 2009.
Info copied and pasted from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RadioShack
The Source Website:
http://www.thesource.ca/estore/default.aspx?language=en-CA&swlang=true
==================================================================================
Corporate Info:
The Source (Bell) Electronics Inc ***
Phone: (705) 728-1617Fax: (866) 384-3420279 Bayview Dr, Barrie, ON L4M 4W5http://www.thesource.ca
Hello!
I agree! I remember those cards. I even found a few whilst sorting out stuff some weeks to months previously.
I even saw these new items at the Maker Faire, It was an interesting discussion that ensued regarding them. I mentioned what happened when I mentioned on the Forum about two sensors being sold at prices that implied that the company, (RS) was discontinuing the effort of carrying them. They were the RFID reader, and the optical sensor, the TS230.
Now I thought that you were Chip, because the group there referred to you as such.
I already know what I am buying.
Just learned this week that there is a reset occuring at the end of October. That means the new products will get displayed in the late October time frame.
Jim
Jim
So sorry for the silence here on our end. This has been an amazing few weeks here with Eddie-bot, and RS production and shipping readiness.
Our Kitting Department has been working 6 days a week with lots of extra help from all departments within, and extra help from outside as well.
Today (Sat), for example RS Kitting was staffed by the Regulars as well as part of the Sales team too.
We have Pot-loads of Full-Blown Eddies in production as well. Today, I was on "Charger modification duty".
I say all this to let you know we have not forgotten about this thread and those of you who are interested in helping usher in the next batch of DIY'ers through the RS doors
More to come!
-Matt
Go WBA, Go!
-Matt
Hey RSJim -
This sounds about right from our viewpoint too. We have big outgoing shipments pending for first week of October
-Matt
Hello!
Well group, I just ran a search on the key word Parallax on the Radio Shack site, all it that <Crude description of site's search engine deleted> found was the WAM and the PING!!! sensor. It didn't even think of the Memsic sensor as well.
When about is this big delivery of new stuff going to land at Radio Shack? (Note there are two stores within walking distance of me, on is on 31AVE by the Astoria BLVD-Ditmars Subway stop, and the other is on Steinway Street. Both sadly are inhabited by people that are barely above the capabilities of individuals who did not make the cut to become members of the Grand Army of the Republic, or even Borg Drones.)
I might try my luck asking at two others....
Don't expect to find anything about the new Parallax Products until the third week in Oct. If Parallax wants good exposure on the shack web site, I suggest that they make up some electronic data sheets that follow the format of the shack web info and forward to corporate. Particularly important would be the tech spec sheet. The individuals that enter that info are electronically challanged and can bearly read what is written on the package!
Jim
General Features
Model: TL082/TL082CP
Product Type: IC-Analog
Enclosure Color: Black
Fits What
Model: TL082/TL082CP
Miscellaneous Features
Min Operating Temperature: 32 Fahrenheit
Max Operating Temperature: 158 Fahrenheit
Supported Languages: English
Mounting Kit: Requires 8 pin dip socket
#per pack: 1
"Enclosure color?" Seriously? It's a chip, for heaven's sake! Who cares what color it is? And where's the spec for voltage? Are the inputs/outputs rail-to-rail? What about the gain-bandwidth product?
I disagree that Parallax should follow the "leader" with the Tech Spec stuff; they need to be the leader and guide RadioShack's hand if RS expects to garner any respect for it's hobbyist/experimenter offerings.
-Phil
Now it worked for IR remote decoding, but when I tried to send it my own IR pulses, I had to use trial and error coupled with forum help (thanks Gordon) to figure out what its tolerances were.