@Whit, in our household donations to charity don't require spouse approval. But we'll tell each other afterwards so we can feel we both made the gift. So I told Sharon we made a $100 donation to the food bank and she was pleased. I then told her we're getting an educational thank you gift from Parallax, so far so good.
@Erco, really cute kids. Toddlers are a fun age, but child proofing is an ongoing battle. Eventually they climb, so be prepared to bolt book cases to the walls! I told my wife that I heard humans have 98% of their DNA in common with chimpanzees, but after having kids I think that's an under estimate!
I explained to my wife that I wanted to make the donation to Maryland Food Bank, and showed her the data sheet for the Penguins showing their cost. I told her Parallax was giving not one but two of them as a thanks for the donation. She knows I enjoy working with small robots, so making the donation was no problem at all. I usually run my hobby purchases past her, it avoids surprises when the credit card bills and boxes arrive. I think of this donation as a Win-Win-Win; Parallax is happy the Penguins are going to good homes, in my case the Maryland Food Bank is getting money to help feed people, and everyone who makes the donation gets to enjoy working with the Penguins.
Regards,
I made my donation to Bread for the World and sent in my email. Now I'll have to patiently wait for the Penguins!
I have a SMT oven, will that make it easier repairing the pcboard?
Bruce: Just shove your whole Penguin in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, baste liberally & frequently with solder flux... and you are in for a real treat!
I feel your pain! We have 4 children and have spent an embarrassing amount of money paying someone to childproof our home. I am still surprised they manage to get back inside somehow.
Glad to see these are finally on the move! I believe I covered everything in the rework instructions, but if anyone has any questions on the rework required for these guys, feel free to send me a PM.
We are up to 35 submissions, over 1/3 of the way there!
We have a good supply of all colors, with the preliminary balance at:
21 Red
24 Blue
48 Black
40 Clear
There are another 16 birds that are "don't care", so those have to come off of those numbers. Also, these counts are based on "allocating" both the colors for birds one and two, and there may need to be some re-allocation of bird 2...
We've been picking up steam, but there are still almost 60 slots still available!
John R,
Thank you for doing something to help others. This is a great way to inspire people to go above and beyond what they might normaly do. And I want to remind everyone not to forget to look for oportunities to help people, especialy in our own comunities, where we might not recieve anything in return.
I had a request, so here is a marked up schematic snippet that reflects the work being done in the rework instructions.
Andrew,
Thanks very much for the marked up schematic.
It is much easier for me to understand what the circuit changes are, and why they work, looking at the schematic.
Nothing has shipped yet. The initial plan was to get all the submissions collected and colors assigned before any shipments. We'll have to see how things fill up, and I'll be in touch with Ken next week to see if Parallax wants to do a "Partial Shipment" or not. Stay tuned for more info...
I revised the marked up schematic snippet that reflects the work being done in the rework instructions, to show the Source (S), Drain (D) and Gate (G) pins of the P-Channel MOSFET
Nothing has shipped yet. The initial plan was to get all the submissions collected and colors assigned before any shipments. We'll have to see how things fill up, and I'll be in touch with Ken next week to see if Parallax wants to do a "Partial Shipment" or not. Stay tuned for more info...
That would be great - I'm anxious to get started on them!
We are up to 45 submissions, almost halfway there!
We have a good supply of all colors, with the preliminary balance at:
15 Red
23 Blue
41 Black
39 Clear
There are another 21 birds that are "don't care", so those have to come off of those numbers. Also, these counts are based on "allocating" both the colors for birds one and two, and there may need to be some re-allocation of bird 2...
There are fourth eight (48) slots still available!
Interesting notes:
Our farthest submission is from Mars. We also have terrestrial submissions from Australia, Hungry, Canada and of course, the US of A.
Not everyone is giving the "minimum" $100! (Thank you for being so generous!)
So a couple questions:
Have we made this too complex?
Is it just taking time to make donations and get submissions together?
Are you having problems convincing your "Financial Advisor" that this is something you should do?
Was there really this little demand for these little guys?
I know this group cares about helping people. I can't believe that asking for a $100 donation to a charity is the problem. That's way cheaper than buying even just one of these Penguins, and you have the chance for two!
I saw the advertisement for this every day.
The reason it took so long to respond is because give aways are not usually easy. Any time I see the word "free" I think "Catch". Therefore I did not bother to look at the details. I have now submitted my request. I hope I was not too late.
I'm working with some robot clubs in my local schools. The more robots to work with the better.
You already said you can't reserve any Penguins but if you can, put me down for two more. It will take a short time to get the goodwill contribution receipt and email it over.
Comments
@all - Does a $100 donation to charity count as far as the spousal approval question goes?
See the following thread - http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?129088-When-you-buy-Parallax-products-what-is-your-spousal-approval-level
I'd probably be okay until the package arrived!
@Erco, really cute kids. Toddlers are a fun age, but child proofing is an ongoing battle. Eventually they climb, so be prepared to bolt book cases to the walls! I told my wife that I heard humans have 98% of their DNA in common with chimpanzees, but after having kids I think that's an under estimate!
Hi Whit,
I explained to my wife that I wanted to make the donation to Maryland Food Bank, and showed her the data sheet for the Penguins showing their cost. I told her Parallax was giving not one but two of them as a thanks for the donation. She knows I enjoy working with small robots, so making the donation was no problem at all. I usually run my hobby purchases past her, it avoids surprises when the credit card bills and boxes arrive. I think of this donation as a Win-Win-Win; Parallax is happy the Penguins are going to good homes, in my case the Maryland Food Bank is getting money to help feed people, and everyone who makes the donation gets to enjoy working with the Penguins.
Regards,
zappman
I have a SMT oven, will that make it easier repairing the pcboard?
Thanks,
Bruce
I feel your pain! We have 4 children and have spent an embarrassing amount of money paying someone to childproof our home. I am still surprised they manage to get back inside somehow.
We now have 24 donations made! I'll be getting confirmation to the newest 12 out tomorrow sometime, possibly not until the evening (darned day job).
Let's keep it rolling!
Jim
We are up to 35 submissions, over 1/3 of the way there!
We have a good supply of all colors, with the preliminary balance at:
21 Red
24 Blue
48 Black
40 Clear
There are another 16 birds that are "don't care", so those have to come off of those numbers. Also, these counts are based on "allocating" both the colors for birds one and two, and there may need to be some re-allocation of bird 2...
We've been picking up steam, but there are still almost 60 slots still available!
Thank you for doing something to help others. This is a great way to inspire people to go above and beyond what they might normaly do. And I want to remind everyone not to forget to look for oportunities to help people, especialy in our own comunities, where we might not recieve anything in return.
Andrew,
Thanks very much for the marked up schematic.
It is much easier for me to understand what the circuit changes are, and why they work, looking at the schematic.
Regards,
zappman.
That would be great - I'm anxious to get started on them!
Status Update as of 9:45 CST:
We are up to 45 submissions, almost halfway there!
We have a good supply of all colors, with the preliminary balance at:
15 Red
23 Blue
41 Black
39 Clear
There are another 21 birds that are "don't care", so those have to come off of those numbers. Also, these counts are based on "allocating" both the colors for birds one and two, and there may need to be some re-allocation of bird 2...
There are fourth eight (48) slots still available!
Interesting notes:
Our farthest submission is from Mars. We also have terrestrial submissions from Australia, Hungry, Canada and of course, the US of A.
Not everyone is giving the "minimum" $100! (Thank you for being so generous!)
I saw the advertisement for this every day.
The reason it took so long to respond is because give aways are not usually easy. Any time I see the word "free" I think "Catch". Therefore I did not bother to look at the details. I have now submitted my request. I hope I was not too late.
I'm working with some robot clubs in my local schools. The more robots to work with the better.
I'm trying to match my shoes.