(Perhaps) Free eval boards/Arduino shields/sensor boards etc. from Maxim

[Spirit532]

Just received a warm letter from my customs office asking something along the lines of "what is this and how did you get it", as well as "why is it addressed to a nonexistant company at a residential place".
No shipping notice, signed up months ago. This was a rather scary surprise. Thanks, Maxim, now I have to pay an exorbitant amount to receive my free stuff.

[Kalin]

Just received a warm letter from my customs office asking something along the lines of "what is this and how did you get it", as well as "why is it addressed to a nonexistant company at a residential place".
No shipping notice, signed up months ago. This was a rather scary surprise. Thanks, Maxim, now I have to pay an exorbitant amount to receive my free stuff.

You filled out a form with a nonexistent company at a residential address and then blame them for the import charges? Do you see how that is ridiculous?

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Macbeth]

Just received a warm letter from my customs office asking something along the lines of "what is this and how did you get it", as well as "why is it addressed to a nonexistant company at a residential place".
No shipping notice, signed up months ago. This was a rather scary surprise. Thanks, Maxim, now I have to pay an exorbitant amount to receive my free stuff.

Mine arrived clearly stating on the outside of the parcel: "Engineering Samples. No Commercial Value. Not for re-sale".

How do customs assess the import charges?

I can't see how Maxim is at fault here.

[Macbeth]

You filled out a form with a nonexistent company at a residential address and then blame them for the import charges? Do you see how that is ridiculous?

How do we know this business is non-existent? All businesses have to start somewhere. Also I don't see why people can't run a business from a residential address?

Maxims promotion is clearly aimed at "start-ups" don't forget. 

[medical-nerd]

Just received a warm letter from my customs office asking something along the lines of "what is this and how did you get it", as well as "why is it addressed to a nonexistant company at a residential place".
No shipping notice, signed up months ago. This was a rather scary surprise. Thanks, Maxim, now I have to pay an exorbitant amount to receive my free stuff.

Mine arrived clearly stating on the outside of the parcel: "Engineering Samples. No Commercial Value. Not for re-sale".

How do customs assess the import charges?

I can't see how Maxim is at fault here.

I received mine today - labelled exactly the same with no customs charges.

Cheers

[Kalin]

[quote/]

How do we know this business is non-existent? All businesses have to start somewhere. Also I don't see why people can't run a business from a residential address?

Maxims promotion is clearly aimed at "start-ups" don't forget. 

I agree. I have a business at a residential address, But he clearly stated that it is a nonexistent business. How can you blame someone else at that point?

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Brumby]

I just used "Independent Designer" in place of a business/company name.  Both TI and Maxim were happy enough to use that.

Mine arrived clearly stating on the outside of the parcel: "Engineering Samples. No Commercial Value. Not for re-sale".

Same

How do customs assess the import charges?

Mine had a "Commercial Invoice" included, stating a total value of USD$115.28 for the contents - so if Customs wanted a number, that's one place they could get it.

[Spirit532]

You filled out a form with a nonexistent company at a residential address and then blame them for the import charges? Do you see how that is ridiculous?

They'd let it through, but DHL doesn't operate well within our country(Belarus), so they sent it to customs instead.
It's not the business part they care about, it's the declared value. I can easily explain away that I sent it to my own nickname online(which is what I did, but with legitimate purposes of evaluating the part's use in a product I hope to market and sell).

I was expecting a much lower value package though, there's over $110 of parts in there, ha. A nice gesture from Maxim though.

[Macbeth]

Mine had a "Commercial Invoice" included, stating a total value of USD$115.28 for the contents - so if Customs wanted a number, that's one place they could get it.

No invoice with mine, just some packing notes. Thankfully, as we have a pathetically low customs allowance in the EU.

[timelessbeing]

it is normal for these to be behind a covering panel, which will hide this

When the LEDs are on, there is nothing that will hide that uneven spacing running right through the middle, making it look like 4 panels rather than one. I thought that was pretty clear. 

[Brumby]

it is normal for these to be behind a covering panel, which will hide this

When the LEDs are on, there is nothing that will hide that uneven spacing running right through the middle, making it look like 4 panels rather than one. I thought that was pretty clear. 

I find that hard (but not impossible) to believe.  The very concept of these modules being designed as they are is to allow for building up the array size you want by fitting multiple modules together.

If you've fitted them together properly (which they haven't been in your original photo) and they don't line up, then that's a big fail, IMHO.

[timelessbeing]

Obviously it would look fine if it was assembled properly.

But you said, "... a covering panel, which will hide this" , which I took to mean this panel that I possess, which has been the subject of conversation.

Ambiguous pronoun reference I guess.

[timelessbeing]

And what's that gob of solder doing underneath it?

An excess of solder paste.  I doubt it would do anything to affect operation ... but it isn't pretty.

What kind of solder paste exerts enough force to bend a solid pad of plastic?

To me it looks like there a was a blob of solid solder already on the PCB when the pick&place machine whacked the cap on there. Possibly damaging it in the process.

[bitseeker]

What kind of solder paste exerts enough force to bend a solid pad of plastic?

To me it looks like there a was a blob of solid solder already on the PCB when the pick&place machine whacked the cap on there. Possibly damaging it in the process.

I concur. First I've seen something like that happen. Of course, the cap being blown already is pretty weird too.

[CJay]

Well that's two for two.

The  MAXREFDES99 LED board died and now I'm trying to bring up the 62630FTHR ARM Cortex board.

Following the excruciatingly patronising video here:


The DAP programmer contains a HTML file which links to the wrong board on the MBED site so it looks like you need to choose the right one, not difficult but selecting the correct board on MBED is a waste of time.

The examples compile correctly but copying the BIN file to the DAP in exactly the same way as I copy the BIN to my original LPC1768 MBED board just doesn't work, the file copies, the device pauses then disappears only to reappear with a file named 'FAIL' that says the transfer timed out.


Definitely a FAIL as far as I'm concerned.

****EDIT****

MAXIM are innocent, at least mostly, lesson I should have learned long ago, RTFM, never take anything for granted and always verify for yourself, the MBED page references the DAPLink board needing a firmware image to match the board

https://os.mbed.com/platforms/MAX32630FTHR/

which leads you to here for the images needed:

https://os.mbed.com/teams/MaximIntegrated/wiki/MAXREFDES100HDK

Pressing and holding the reset button on the DAPLink board when plugging it in will put it in Maintenance mode, then you can drag and drop the correct firmware to it and it will program itself.

Once that's done it works nicely.

Be aware though, the pinout of the DAP connector in the pin diagram on the first page is wrong, that lead me astray for a little time as there are two GND connections on it where the pinout says there should be a USB connection and the SWCLK connection so I am wary of trusting the rest of the pinout information.

The pinout in the schematic is correct.

[timelessbeing]

I just used "Independent Designer" in place of a business/company name.  Both TI and Maxim were happy enough to use that.

I think TI is cracking down on free samples since they've launched their online "TI Store". I've been getting free samples from them for some time. But my latest one, a few weeks ago, was declined and I was told to buy them from their store.

[Mr. Scram]

I think TI is cracking down on free samples since they've launched their online "TI Store". I've been getting free samples from them for some time. But my latest one, a few weeks ago, was declined and I was told to buy them from their store.

They're just shooting themselves in the foot. I've had trouble buying MSP430 boards from TI to give those a whirl. Not getting for free, buying. I gave up jumping through their hoops. Not having toyed with their chips means those aren't on any shortlist for potential parts for my projects. I'd rather pick parts I have some experience with. It's their loss.

[W2DML]

It looks like they are still doing this promotion. I applied months ago and finally received my 24 bit adc kit today, can't wait to mess around with it.

[rrinker]

 I forget when I actually signed up - some time after I happened to discover this thread, a couple of months ago I would guess. Just got my stuff yesterday. I got the power module one and the PLC Arduino shield one. Haven't had a chance to actually apply power to anything, just took them out and looked over the boards.
 I can think of a few things to use the PLC board for. But the extra swag might be the most useful - that notebook is fantastic.

[CJay]

Notebook is a win, lovely piece of swag and the pen writes quite nicely too but the card holder rubber thingy? WTF?

[KaneTW]

Got my boards without any issues, addressed to myself. Haven't tested them, but might be useful for some stuff.

[Ysjoelfir]

Notebook is a win, lovely piece of swag and the pen writes quite nicely too but the card holder rubber thingy? WTF?

That cardholder thing is actually quite usefull. I threw mine in the trash but a friend gave me his one (as well as some other stuff along with it, meaning "here is your electronic....things you made me order"  ) and I thought I should give it a try. It graps on cards really well and when you are just on the go somewhere it is very usefull when you just want your ID card and a public transportation ticket with you, instead of carrying around a bag or your purse.

[maxwell3e10]

I also got the free MAX11410 EV KIT 24-bit ADC with this promotion. Its a very nice board with galvanic isolation and I am starting to think about how to turn it into a logging platform.
They provide the firmware code for the MAXQ622 processor that controls the ADC. So it should not be too hard  to modify it so it can stream the measurements continuously. But I thought I would ask if someone has done it already before I start playing with the IAR Embedded Workbench that I have no experience with.

[Vgkid]

The one problem with the 11410EVK is that sometimes it will freeze every time while trying to make a measurement , then close , time after time.

[metrologist]

Maybe we could start a project to create a DAQ with the 24 bit ADC? Would there be interest in such project?

What's anyone got?