I still check here every day looking for something to read. Sure is a shame to see this site go dead.. I personally have learned a lot from here. Any body got any ideas as to how we could revive this & be of use to us nerds....

Jim Kitson

I'm not sure, I still check in daily as well and have been wondering if anyone else is still out there. Maybe many are just tinkering with other non-electronic projects or since there is no new blood the questions and new projects aren't popping up. I for one, have not been tinkering with the electronic side quite as much and have played a bit more with other ventures. But my money is tighter than it was a few years back too, so the play money has dried up considerably. But what has been occupying most of my spare time is my new granddaughter. My daughter got married and she and my son-in-law have been living with my wife and I until they can get on their feet. My daughter also has added a grand-daughter to the mix so a lot of my spare time is spent playing with her :).

Well, if this site ever goes away, anyone here can reach me at my website rs-micro.com by leaving a comment because I screen all before they go live.

Rick

Sounds like you have a full life. This is good.

I would like to talk to Mike or Humberto and see if there were some way to get them to release the site to me or a group of us to try & revive it. I have thought about starting a new one but it wont have the history & core that is the heart of Nerdkits. I also would like to continue & expand on the Nerdkits hardware side for users/customer relations.

I think this could happen if contact could be make with them...

Jim

I think Humberto has moved on to smart frying pans with his Pantellignet venture Here's his Linked in address. I think Mike is tied up with his Circuitlab venture. It seems neither frequent here anymore. Interesting note, on Mike's Linked in account, it lists him as the founder of Circuitlab and Nerdkits LLC and Nerdkits isn't mentioned on Humberto's. So maybe Mike is the decision maker.

Well just to add a thought, I check in every couple of days. I am also not doing any electronics but on my list is the ESP8266. A WiFi module for less than $3.00.

I am intrigued with the Internet of Things concept, I also have a smart phone coming so I can play around with that, I'd like to follow up on some of Noter's bluetooth projects.

I am also finally, after twenty years, clearing out a shed and setting up an actual shop.

I am starting to do some woodworking projects and having to learn how to use a band saw and router and other tools.

It's so interesting having to use precision in my work. I have always done construction where "close enough" was good enough. If a cut piece was off by a 1/4" I could make do. But with wood working I have to learn to make exact cuts, it's a challenge as I am suffering with the AGE virus.

This has been such a great site, I really cannot thank all of you for the help and learning I have gained.

Ralph

Rhulslander g mail

I actually just got a esp8266 (ESP-12) module the other day. Haven't even taken it out of it's anti-static bag yet, but I too hope to play with it soon.

Wood working is fun, Waaay back in my high school days, I had 4 years of wood shop. I loved it and still like to play around with it. I haven't made much of anything lately, but the skills learned come in handy for other aspects like finish trim work in the house or laying laminate flooring. The last real wood work project I built was a potato bin for my wife several years ago.

Rick

I also check in to see if there is anything new on this site just about every day. It could be such a valuable source of good information for anyone interested in electronics and working with micros. There is a great deal of knowledge and experience available here to anyone, especially if they are just starting out or interested in learning the fundamentals. The Nedkits approach is not a canned solution ready made for you, but can be more of a build your own solution or project that you personally thought up. As such Nerdkits may not be as quick or powerful as other approaches to complete a project but is very flexible and opens up the possibility of a genuine understanding of the potential of embedded programming and micros. To me, it seams like such a waist of potential to see it just fad away, primarily do to a lack of any possibility of new interest or members coming on board.

I have not been doing much with electronics in the last while either. My kids got me a couple of kits to play with when I get the time, A CanaKit Rasberry Pi 2 starter kit and a sunfounder supper kit for Rasberry Pi. They look interesting but I will not likely get a chance to do much until late fall/winter. I have a couple of ideas about the Rasberry Pi and my drone or possibly grain temperature monitoring systems but have not had time to investigate the feasibility of success.

I have thought up a couple of different approaches or ideas with regards to my milling project, other then buying the required components and software. I will likely play around with that again this winter.

Darryl

Now we can have discussions about Lua, there also seems to be a Arduino implementation and some straight C code for the ESP8266. I got the introduction book from Random Nerd Tutorials Community.

The founder Rui Santos would have fit right in here on Nerdkits, extremely helpful.

Ralph

I also try to check in a few times a week. I got this IR remote and plan to write the code to get it to work with a Nerdkit.

Sask, I have had a Nerdkit connected to a raspberry pi logging apartment temperature data for 14 days now, I kept running into problems with it loosing internet signal and glitching out, but I think I have that resolved now. I will share more when I get it all sorted out.

scootergarrett

Any information about temperature monitoring would be great. I would be interfacing with grain temperature monitoring cables that are using the Onewire communication protocol (Dallas) DS18B20 or some very similar sensors. There would be multiple sensors on each cable and perhaps hundreds of sensors at each location. A link to the internet via Wifi or possibly cell tower data link would be make the project comparable (in theory) with the commercially available systems that cost $$$$.

Harvest season is just about to get started up here so I will not likely be active with electronics for a few weeks. I will be checking in here to see what may be posted.

top of my list when I eventually get around to is a eight station one wire ground temperature sensor station using the ESP8266 so I will have WiFi. Probable late this winter I will get around to it.

Luckily there already is existing code for a two sensor station so adding the other sensors "should" not be that hard.

I too check in from time to time. It saddens me the decline of the site. I would have liked to have purchased more nerd kits for various projects. I guess I will have to work out a new plan.

Recently, I have been working on my adaptation of the weight sensor project. It hasn't progressed as well as I have hoped. The weight output I get bounces all over from 0 to 10 to negative 20. I haven't a clue where I have gone wrong whether it be wiring, wrong gain value on the op-amp or bad code. As for now I am too busy with other things to work on it.

Dave

There's nothing special about the hardware in a NerdKit, all the parts can easily be sourced from other vendors or ebay. Sparkfun or Adafruit are both Very reliable US Vendors that sell genuine products. Most of the time you'll have good luck on ebay, but there are clone chips out there that may or may not work. FTDI (USB/Serial Chips) were heavily cloned and The OEM changed their drivers to not work with the cloned chips. For the most part, I typically buy from Reputable US companies for chips. Hardware such as jumpers, connectors, PCB's, I source for best price.

Rick

I still come by from time to time. The founders may have moved on to other things but there is a community here too.

I wonder who is paying for site hosting?

I don't know, a quick who-is shows it's hosted by gandi.net. So someone is paying to maintain it.

Ha, I was thinking two things in the last 24 hours: 1) I sure hope the lights don't go out on this site, and 2) I'd love to sprinkle a bunch of temp and other sensors around the yard with WiFi capability. I hope if someone does do a 2-wire WiFi implementation they post notes about it.

Hey guys,

I am also reading from time to time in this Forum and it makes me sad that there is so less activity.

I have met nice People and learned a lot during the time here.

Thanks to everybody who helped me during my Projects. (Especially Rick & Ralph)

I hope we stay in contact. And for the case this site goes down some time, you can reach me on my Website (http://www.squirrel-crafts.com) where I show all of my projects and their progress (wood, electronics, 3d printing, carving, etc.) The site is still in Progress, so not every section is well filled.

greetings Nino

Hi all....

I have had a few people email me as "how do I get an account" setup on Nerdkits so they could be part of the group. I tried this evening to put my wife in as a new user. NO GO.

Any body got any ideas as to how we could maby bypass the "support" part of setting up new users?

I think this site could come back to life if possible..

Just my thoughts

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL

Jim

I think that only Nerdkit purchasers were added to the forums by the administration at the time. Since Mike & Humberto are nowhere to be found on this site anymore, I don't think there is any way to add new members. Repeated attempts by multiple people to contact them regarding the NK site have seemingly fallen on deaf ears so short of trying to move everybody somewhere else that is open and running, I don't know what the options would be. At least non members can still browse to see the information that was posted in days gone by.

From what little digging I was able to do I came to the same conclusion. A real shame. I down loaded the info for the LED array for a person and emailed it to them. I have built a few webb sites but they were all "read only" informational type. No login or posts from the outside. It costs us about $500 for 5 years for domain name and site hosting. There may be other hosting services available that may be less expensive. Then we need core members to moderate the site to keep junk stuff down.

I would be glad to try and help if enough of us feel it is worth while....

This type of site has been and still is very helpful to me and a lot of others.....

Lets kick it around and see what others think....

For those that cannot post here, my email address...

jkitson@canyoncountry.net

Jim

I could easily setup a forum on my site, and actually had one there for a short time kind of as a test. But to get users would be the key. Also, keeping out the Spammers can be a royal pain in the back side. That's why on my blog I don't allow comments to go live until I actually approve them once. Then people can freely post.

If enough people were interested, I could set the forum software back up on my site.

Rick

I think there is a lot of educational value and good practical information still available on this forum. The library when it was available had the potential to be an efficient and organized way to find good solutions to common questions.

As has been mentioned before there is nothing special about the hardware in a Nerdkit. It is the information available and very helpful and friendly atmosphere that I find unique about this site.

It would be great if Rick or anyone else, including the original founders of the site, could set up a forum that would allow new fresh members to participate in the discussions and post questions and project ideas. Without general publication of the existence of a new forum, inclusion and appeal to new members, we basically have what is here now. The disappointing part about this circumstance is that most of what is required to increase membership and general interest was set up and working here at this site. I personally do not see much potential for an economically profitable venture selling a few dollars’ worth of hardware to each new member as a standalone business. I suspect that without a starter kit available the appeal to new beginners would be greatly diminished. Ideally it would be great if a kit was available to purchase on line, from some hardware supplier. A basic inclusive hardware kit would supply all the hardware that is required to get started. If each kit included a USB-ISP and some basic instructions the Micro would not even require a bootloader. Micros could be shipped raw, software could be made available on the site. I don’t know for sure but I feel it very likely that there would be a group of individuals that would make available, on the site, good simple to follow instruction detailing how to get stated with your new hardware kit.

I could invitation a rebirth of the Nerdkits concept, building and expanding, if hardware kits where once again available on line, advertised and promoted by an existing electronics parts retailer, and the owners of this site would be inclined to sell or otherwise modifying this site so that new members purchasing a kit could be evolved with the forum, library and downloads. I suppose the Nerdkits store would just be a link to the retailers site, that should be worth something to the economic viability of the site. The actual technical content and information available on the forum could very likely be maintained on a member based voluntary basic. The forum and web site may, or may not, be directly related to the kit sales. The site funding and maintenance costs would have to be addressed.

Unfortunately, I think without the kits and publication available there is little that would change by moving to a new forum location. It would be a considerable undertaking to accomplish with, I feel, little advantage over the existing site and forums. As long as this forum is still up and functioning, even as it has been lately, and there is little likelihood of attracting new members the use of a new site may be very limited.

I realize that none of this is at all likely without the full support and cooperation of the Nerkits site owners.

Darryl

I don’t want play favoritism for one retailer over another. I have absolutely no connection to any electronic parts retailer. I think an updated Nerdkit type kit combined with a version of this web site would have some real potential for growth. I have never actually ordered from this example, but does anyone else think that a kit that was made available on a site like this would have appeal to beginners?

Humberto and Mike if you are still out there somewhere, why not consider outsourcing the hardware sales and give this great idea that you started a chance at a new life?

Darryl

Hi

If Rick or someone else could manage the web site I would be able and have the warehouse to stock and provide kits and parts and tech support as far as I have knowledge of. This would need to be a teamwork thing as far as what kind of kits we would provide and additional part etc, I think we could use the top thread of the Nerdkits site to advise visitors to the new site. Think about it and lets discuss it.

Jim Kitson jkitson@canyoncountry.net 928 645-3962

NOTE: in the process of upgrading to Win 10 I nuked my XP address book so have lost all of the email addresses. If any of you would like to send me an email I would appreciate it.....

Jim

I wasn't referring to selling hardware, especially the micro-controllers themselves. An arduino is so readily available and can still be programmed the way we are accustomed with straight C like we did with the NerdKits. All you have to do is change a couple of parameters sent to AVRDUDE and away you go. We could make "Shopping lists" for special projects like the LED Array. The only issue I could see some people having would be items like the LCD where the NK guys had soldered on a header so all people needed to connect were wires.

I was more referring to setting up a Forum for communications. After all, while the few of us left still enjoy a bit of chatter now and then, I would imagine that the life of this board is going to end at some point. It'd be nice if everyone who wanted to could have a new common place to go. For me to setup a forum would cost me nothing over my regular site cost which I pay anyway.

I still have your e-mail, so I'll send you a message just so you can get my email address back in your contacts. Remember though, you can always contact me by posting a comment on my web site ( http://www.rs-micro.com )

Rick

I warned Humberto and Mike back in my first year on the forum that they could not maintain the level of "free" support they were furnishing.

I think that was what burnt them out. Still wondering who pays for the site, I certainly am grateful to them.

I am not doing anything at the moment as I am spending all of my time setting up a workshop, once I am done I have a lot of projects in mind. The ESP 8266 WiFi module is really interesting.

Honestly, I don't know how much free support they were giving. Sure, they would pop in and answer questions on the forums regarding their product, but it never seemed overwhelmingly so. I'm not sure how many "kits" they even sold. Considering everyone who purchased one would have been given forum access, I didn't see that many different names around here. If we assumed only 10% of the purchasers used the forums, how many different names would you say have been on --- maybe 100 to 200?? thay would only put them in 1,000 to 2,000 sold kits.

Face it, a lot of us users answered a lot of the peoples questions anyway. I don't think it was a support issue, I think their problem is what most other competitors to the arduino was. Arduino's became the standard by which everything was measured against. That made the NerdKit more only for a niche market of people who wanted to do things themselves and learn the "hard" way. Arduino's make it simple with their dumbed down language, standardized hardware, and vast support network.

That's why in my response to Jim about hardware, I wouldn't even go there. Even if we want to program them the way we do, you can without any changes to our code. The only thing you have to change is a couple of lines in the makefile and you're in business.

I think when Mike and Humberto saw the hardware sales bleeding off, which was what supported their business, they each went their own ways looking for other money making ventures. Mike with his Cirucuitlab, and Humberto with his smart skillet.

As to why they hold on to the NK site and it's still around is anyone's guess. Maybe they just have a rough time letting go of their first major venture out of college?? Doing a whois on the sites IP though shows that it was registered in March of 2008, and updated in March of 2012. If we assume a 4 year plan, then it will be up for renewal in March of 2016... Bad things may happen then. Maybe that's why it's still up and running... they were paid for until this year?? I noticed, the Nerdkit domain is up for renewal in October of this year as well.

March of 2016! Can we form an 'the end is coming' cult? The Arduino will control us all, no one left will know bit wise arithmetic. Joking aside this is my go to forum, so if something were to happen I would be moving to Ricks sight.

I currently don't have forums setup, but if enough people were interested, I'd set them up. So, is there interest out there????

Rick

I think we should set up a new site while we still have some time on Nerdkits to alert others where to go. If we loose this site trying to get others to yours will be much harder...

If I can help you in any way let me know....

Jim

OK, I'll work on setting up the forum after I finish up with my amplifier project. I picked up an old '60 Gibson skylark GA-5 for $50 and am in the process of repairing it. If anyone is curious about it, you can see the progress at the Gibson forums - HERE

Rick

I have a lot of experience with web design. I can code in C#, VB.Net, Php, etc. Not blowing my own horn here (but I have a few sites I designed decades ago still up and running albeit updated). I am a little rusty but I can try to help. I am not volunteering a server and hosting but would if I had to. Bandwidth would suck and my time is limited though. But I would be glad to help where I could, if I could.

(I wrote the Philadelphia Eagle's 2001 web site from scratch. Petfooddirect.com, Chemical.net (sucks but they wanted it that way), and more.)

Setup isn't a big deal for me, I'd just use an off the shelf forum software. I already have hosting with with no restrictions on monthly transfer amounts for my website. I'm thinking of either phpBB or Simple Machines Forum. I'm leaning toward phpBB simple because it is probably the most used and as a result, I would have to guess, the most supported. (At least a lot of forums I visit use it)

I'm not a web designer by any means, but setup and configuration of one of those off the shelf packages is fairly straight-forward.

My biggest concern is keeping out the rif-raf and spammers while still allowing people to use it without major difficulty.

I like phpBB, you might add the regulars of the Nerdkit forum as administrators.

At least you should have reasonable trust of us, so we could help with administrative task.

Ralph

I have tentatively setup phpBB on my site. It should allow open registration. If you're interested, give it a run. Jim had mentioned possibly copying and moving our posts we made here and putting them on my forum. If you'd like, give it a shot.

The forum is at http://www.rs-micro.com/forums

Rick

I had a major career change over the winter into the early summer. As a result I have let my projects get dusty and finally, the other day, I tried to log in. The site was down and I almost cried. Thank you, whomever has kept the site alive, it is greatly appreciated.

I thought for sure when it was down for a couple of days that we had seen the end. I was glad to see it come back to life. I don't know who is watching these forums but whoever it is, I'm glad they got it back up.

In the mean time, if you haven't signed up for an account over at my forum, please feel free to do so. I have to authorize any new subscriber because I just couldn't get the spam under control otherwise. I was getting anywhere from 5 to 50 new user accounts a day virtually all with .ru email addresses. Several would post long lists of spam. Finally I just locked it down to where I have to approve any new account. The problem is sometimes I may think a legitimate account is bad and delete it.

For anyone who is a member of this forum, if you would like to join my forum to be able to continue discussions should the NK site go away, just send me a private message when you register and I'll be sure to validate your registration.

Rick