SparkFun: As used by NASA

Reading about the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (with my nom de plume, of course I was), I was kind of astonished to see an interview with Tim Canham, Mars Helicopter Operations Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he discusses how they used COTS stuff to build it: “[W]e literally ordered parts from SparkFun.”

I love SparkFun, I’ve browsed it countless times. Never quite committed to start making stuff, though. Until today, when I discovered their Cherry MX keyboard switch tutorial. Oh, man, too many ideas! (Including one I’ve been toying with for a while, an unofficial “ASOS” type weather system I could build with, e.g., a SparkFun Weather Meter Kit.)

AdaFruit is another good supplier; I have some of their pieces hanging off an old Apple IIgs.

I have an old Arduino kit I picked up a while ago - I should really start playing with it. (An Arduino Nano 3.0 (clone, maybe, based on reviews), and a “Sidekick Basic Kit.”) I remember fondly my old RadioShack “160 in One” electronics kit, and I’m definitely experiencing the paralysis described here: “I have no idea what I can practically use these devices for in my life. They all sit in a box...” Indeed.

I’m kind of excited I dove into mechanical keyboards, and through that rediscovered soldering and the euphoric high you get when you tediously plow through an electronics project (even one as, let’s face it, mundane, as replacing keyboard switches), plug it in, and everything works! (Or, at least, whatever you screwed up, you can fix.) I’m kind of intrigued by the 30 Days Lost in Space kit I’ve seen RadioShack ads for. (Interestingly, this used to be $99 on the “new, relaunched” RadioShack site and $50 as a pre-order on the manufacturer’s site; now it’s $75 both places.) Would definitely provide some structure to getting back into this stuff, and might be kind of fun to boot? Update 4/28: I ordered it, what the hell.