How not to overpay for Arduino and modules for it

Honestly, I am always depressed by the posts related to Arduino-based crafts, or rather, that part of them where it is discussed where to get the Arduino boards themselves and the various components to them - sensors, shields, and other devices. The price of an Arduino UNO in Russian online stores (I will not call them here if you are interested in Arduino, then you already know many of them) averages $ 36, but you will be surprised that you can buy it for $ 12. Small sensors that sell for $ 10 .. $ 15, can be bought for $ 1 .. $ 5. Where is this "freebie"? The answer is simple: eBay .

This article will be interesting first of all for beginners - professionals are unlikely to find much useful in it. It can also be viewed as a quick guide to shopping on eBay, and although I’ll look at examples of ordering Arduino and its components, this also applies to any other product. I already have more than 500 purchases on eBay, so I can call myself an experienced Iber.
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eBay for a simple Russian person is not a wonder lately - many of us use it. Previously, it was difficult to work with him, we had to use the services of intermediaries, who first received parcels to their address in the US, and then sent them to Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries for a fee. Forget the middlemen. We will order in China, and they send parcels to almost any country.

What do we need?

We will definitely need a PayPal account . Most eBay sellers work only with him (in any case, I have not yet met other payment options). Fortunately, registering and adding a card for payment will not take you more than 10 minutes. To verify your account and pay, you will need a credit or debit card of any bank, on which you can make payments online - be sure to check with your bank manager if your card is suitable for this. Be sure to include your exact address (Latin!) As the delivery address, some sellers use it (and not the delivery address specified in your eBay profile).

EBay shopping

It is necessary to arm yourself with the knowledge of the English language (or at least a Google translator). All eBay sellers use English as their primary language. We register an account on eBay, and be sure to fill in the shipping address (it must correspond to the shipping address in PayPal, then there will be no problems at all).

Now the most interesting is the search and order of the goods we need. For example: " arduino uno ". Also, you need to specify in the search options in the left menu: Buy it now, and Free shipping. The first filter will hide auctions and save us a lot of time (although at the auction you can buy Arduino for another $ 1- $ 2 cheaper, but I'm just sorry to waste time on it). The second filter will show only goods with free shipping - and this is what we need, because the delivery cost of some sellers may be ten times higher than the cost of the product itself. Be sure to check the shipping cost before you buy - I once oversight ordered an Arduino sensor, which cost $ 1.99, and delivery cost $ 35.

Now go to the product itself. We see that the price of this fee is $ 11.98, shipping is free (Shipping: Free economy Intl shipping) - or rather, shipping costs are already included in the price of goods (in China, postal delivery is so cheap that it is often included in the price of goods). As a rule, for small goods, you can always find free shipping.



Next, be sure to pay attention to the rating of the seller. In this case, it is 99.7% with 3854 goods sold, which is very good. Top-rated seller - a seller with a very good reputation. I recommend ordering from those sellers whose rating is not less than 99% - in this case, delivery problems will not arise. Sellers care about reputation (in the end, their business directly depends on it), so if any problems arise, they can be resolved by writing off with the seller via internal eBay mail.

Click Buy it now (or Add to cart if you want to buy other products and pay for them all at once). After that you need to check the order details:



We are convinced that the cost of the goods suits us ($ 11.98), that the delivery is free (FREE), and click Commit to buy. This is a kind of point of no return - from this moment you can not cancel the purchase, and according to the rules of eBay, you agree to pay for it. Of course, you can not pay, but in this case you will earn a minus in karma on eBay (which may adversely affect subsequent orders). In truth, an erroneous purchase can be canceled - you need to write to the seller by internal mail and explain that you accidentally made an order without looking (for example) at the cost of delivery - most often, the seller will cancel the purchase without any consequences.

After ordering, you will be transferred to the PayPal website, where you need to enter your email and password from PayPal, and confirm the payment.

What's next?

And then you just need to wait until the parcel arrives. The disadvantages of buying on eBay include a fairly long delivery time (on average, from 2 weeks to a month, and sometimes more). As practice has shown, our own customs and mail are to blame for this (parcels from China are sent fairly quickly - 1-3 days). The notice of the parcel post will be thrown into the mailbox (although sometimes they also put an envelope with a purchase in it — I had it several times). Therefore, make sure that you have at least a mailbox, or even better - locked with a key. With the notice we go to our post office and get a parcel. After that, it is desirable to unsubscribe a positive review on eBay and put the seller a rating of "5 stars". Then just enjoy shopping.

Chinese brothers obviously know the features of our mail, so the packages come packed on the conscience. The other day, I received a distance sensor HC-SR04, packed in a box, which was 100 times larger than the sensor itself (the rest of the space was taken by the compactor). Also, do not look for descriptions and documentation in the package - fortunately, this can always be found in large quantities on the Internet. As a free bonus, you get a large amount of bubble wrap that you can use for relaxation :-)

Purchase returns

Cases when the device you received turns out to be inoperative, unfortunately, there are. Although this is a rare phenomenon (I have more than 500 purchases, the number of rejected ones is about 5, that is, 1%) - almost always you can return the goods and either replace them with a similar one, but work, or ask the seller to refund you. In most cases, the money will be returned to you, because the sellers do not want negative feedback. Sending goods always occurs at the expense of the buyer. I once returned a non-working charger for HTC Desire HD to the seller, it cost $ 7, just as much as the purchase itself. The seller sent a replacement (assuring me that the new device was tested) - and it really turned out to be working.

But this is China?

The times when "Chinese" meant "poor quality" are long gone. Sometimes, having received another device, you understand: we simply do not have such a production that allows us to make such high-tech electronics. Yes, and your laptop or "iPhone" are also made in China.

Sensors, and other devices

The most valuable advice - experiment with the search. On eBay, you can buy everything (provided that it exists in the real world). Here are some links to start:

" arduino sensor " - all kinds of sensors for the Arduino (ascending price).
" arduino relay " - relay modules.
" arduino shield " - all sorts of shields - ethernet, wifi, screens, etc.
" arduino lcd " - all kinds of LCD screens.
" arduino ethernet " - shilda ethernet to Arduino.
" sainsmart " - SainSmart - the main manufacturer of motherboards - Arduino clones, and various devices for it.

Links to stores

The secret of successful purchases on eBay is to buy from trusted sellers, so you can minimize the amount of undelivered or defective goods. In addition, for the regular customer, as a rule, there are never problems with the return of money (in which case). Here are some links to sellers from whom I have already ordered many times.

TxHang Electronic - a huge number of different sensors and shields for Arduino, as well as test equipment. All very high quality, no return.
Chip Partner is another good store with the same properties as the previous one.
TomTop - a lot of interesting electronics, instrumentation, batteries and batteries.

Interesting components

Arduino UNO , or rather, its Chinese clone. For starters, the average price is $ 13.
Arduino Nano - similar in characteristics to the Arduino UNO, but much more compact ($ 8).
The DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor and its “big brother” DHT22 is the second more accurate and allows you to measure a wider range of temperatures ($ 1.5).
Ultrasonic Range Finder HC-SR04 ($ 1.6).
The Micro Servo TowerPro SG90 - it's really very small - weighs only 9 grams ($ 2.5).
Arduino Sensor Shield v5 is a convenient card for connecting sensors and other devices. It is recommended for beginners, although its presence is not mandatory ($ 4).
LCD screen 20x4 (4 lines of 20 characters). Cyrillic is missing in them, if Cyrillic is needed - look towards the MELT screens. I recommend to take also the IIC / I2C / TWI / SPI serial interface board - it is possible without it, but then 10 conclusions will be involved on the Arduino, and with it only 2.

I am planning a series of articles for beginners about Arduino: reviews of various components, wiring diagrams, sketches. I now have in stock more than 30 different devices - so that will be what to write about. Also, I develop home automation systems based on Arduino (the so-called "Smart Home", and I also have a project - "Smart Dacha").

We are happy to answer your questions in the comments. Constructive criticism and refinement are also welcome. Well, I wish you creative success and interesting experiments.