Let's discuss the best way to give away the extra copies of our PCBs

[t1d]

At 10 copies per order from the Chinese board-houses, I have ended up with a quantity of spare boards. I bet you have, too. It is a shame for them to sit around, so let's give them away for free. There are considerations, though, as to how to do that...

There are a couple of overall concerns... The security of the personal information (name, address, email address, etc.) of the giftor and the giftee. Laws regarding the transfer of technical devices... I am sure there are other broad areas...

So, how do the individuals communicate safely? I have already been subjected to phishing, when sharing researched information on this website. (Yes, I reported it. Yes, I was knowledgeable enough to catch on to what they were up to and not give away my personal info. I just uploaded the files to GitHub.)

I would like for the only cost to the giftee to be the actual postage cost... No handling, packaging, etc. But, how do we do get the money to the giftor? Pay Pal?

I would think that we will need a permanent thread to "advertise" what is available. How should items be listed, on a single thread, or individual ones?

There needs to be some sort of house rules, I guess... No sales. No international exchanges. No boards from hijacked sources; reversed engineered commercial products, etc ... No liability for the giftor for any cause, whatsoever. No guarantee that the circuit works, is fit for any purpose, won't catch on fire, etc. What else?

I have lots of pre-revision boards that have some error... Those errors might be bodged, or just use the portion of the circuit that works... Like the circuit might not work, but the power supply is usable for whatever... Could those be included, or must a board be 100% perfect?

I guess we need to know the level of interest in doing something like this. So, please leave a comment as to whether you would like to be a giftor, giftee, or both.

This could be a really good way to support people that are new to electronics. It would be a nice way to do some good in the world.

[retiredfeline]

I would be interested in being both, but only within the country as international transport is too messy for me: cost, customs declarations, etc.

One aspect is whether the design is bespoke or a widely used one. If the former, then the project page (Github, Hackaday, etc.) might be the place to offer since that's where interested people will look and you can mention that this is beta, v1, etc.

My one experience: When I offered and gave away a vintage CPU to someone in Poland, he reimbursed me by Paypal to my email address (only a couple of $ as it went into an airmail envelope, and I was not fussed about the money). I was satisfied that he was bona fide as he wrote up a project repairing a piece of old gear that used a similar chip.

[james_s]

What I've done is just post them on this forum, sell them at my cost + postage which is usually not very much at all. It's not worth it for international since a person could order 5 boards from JLC shipped directly to their country for less than it would cost just in postage for me to send them one.

[t1d]

Great replies, folks; thanks.

IIRC, I have shared, one or two. They were small enough to go in a common envelope. I think I just stuck an extra stamp = two stamps =~ $1USD on the envelope and put them in the mail box. I did not bother with trying to get the postage repaid. I could do that for those few times, but not for as many extra boards as I have and want to give away.

I hope we get more interest. If not, I guess we can just do our own individual postings. If that is the result, I might just create a package with a selection of multiple boards and do a single forum post. Multiple boards per package will be more economical on the shipping cost, but it does not share the boards as broadly. I will have to think on it.

[S. Petrukhin]

If you are doing some kind of public and useful open source project, it is very good and kind to just send the extra PCB.
I did this with all the extra boards of the digital probe logic analyzer. 

[t1d]

If you are doing some kind of public and useful open source project, it is very good and kind to just send the extra PCB.
I did this with all the extra boards of the digital probe logic analyzer. 

You are correct. This is the method I used for "advertising" the few that I have given away in the past. Thanks for joining in the discussion.

[joseph nicholas]

I really like this idea.  What about contributing something to a patrion (sp) account?

[t1d]

I really like this idea.  What about contributing something to a patrion (sp) account?

That's an interesting idea, Joseph. Help my understanding... Do you mean for general contributions to the cause, or as a means for a giftee to transfer the needed postage cost to the giftor?

If you mean general contributions, I had not thought of something like that. But, that would take some centralization... Having the funds go to an account, someone to manage the account and send postage money to the giftor, when needed... I was just thinking that we would have a central/permanent thread where people would know to look for, and to post, free PCBs.

The point has been made that, if a person has made a thread about their project, it makes sense to just offer their extra boards there. The thread that I am suggesting, in this posting, would be helpful to get the word out about free boards that were not the subject of a specific project thread.

Aside: I have thought of another use for boards that have errors... They would be great for people that are just learning to solder to practice on.

This type of discussion is exactly what I was hoping for. Keep the comments coming!

[joseph nicholas]

I was thinking of making a you tube video of the board and describing what it does.  It doesn't need to be a contribution to a charity, it could be a linked PayPal account with your address provided to get the board.  I'd trust people for a few dollars.

[Renate]

This is a nice idea.
I'd be inclined to throw something in an envelope, put a stamp on it and send it out,
but only if there was a thread or some specific tie-in. I can afford a stamp.
I'm not going through my bag of PCBs though and say, "Who wants this one?"