Slashdot Mirror
Electronics Surplus Shop 'WeirdStuff Warehouse' Is Closing (fastcompany.com)
Fast Company's harrymcc writes: When technological goods are no longer of use to anyone in Silicon Valley, they end up in the WeirdStuff Warehouse -- where, it turns out, there often is someone willing to pay for them. Sadly, the 32-year-old Sunnyvale store is closing forever on Sunday. I paid a final visit and, as usual, felt like I could rummage through this vast storehouse of obsolete gadgets and software forever. WeirdStuff first made an appearance on Slashdot in 2003 when editor chrisd asked Slashdotters about their favorite surplus stores. Also mentioned was Skycraft.
What are you talking about? They sold recycled junk. That place was cool as a museum, but not much.
Also, if you want junk, Halted is still around. And there are a few other places like that in the Bay Area.
I used to pay them a visit when I was in the Bay for work, I had my hobby-related itinerary that touched WeirdStuff, Halted, HRO, and a few more places. They sold mostly junk, the few things worth of reuse were way too overpriced, given their obsolete and used conditions. I think I never bought anything there.
In the 1990's they had a larger store across from the Sunnyvale Fry's of that time. The expected computer gear was mixed in seldom seen industrial devices. I remember walking in and finding an electron microscope for sale. I bought a logic analyser there that must have been a dozen years old when I bought it yet was still capable for contemporary designs. I shudder to think what it must have cost when new.
The more recent location is remote from everything. It isn't a place you can drop in and look around because you happened to be next door. Once there, it is just computer gear, very little of which is interesting.
The big difference is not people shopping online, but the change in technology. Computers used to have hackable buses, parallel ports that were basically just pins on a TTL chip, and serial ports that were easy to bit-bang. You could go to Weirdstuff and buy some weird stuff that you could actually rig up to your Linux or DOS box and get working.
Today, I am afraid to even open the case on my Macbook. I need a microscope to see the traces on the PCB. Everything is BGA.
I still have my oscilloscope and a reflow oven, but haven't used them in a while. I am trying to get my kids interested in breadboarding some circuits for a Raspberry Pi, but it is hard to pry them away from their phones. It is a lot easier to get them interested in coding, because they can still see the point in that. But home hardware hacking is dying.
One thing is missing here - why it is closing? The answer is - because Google has acquired large real estate area in Sunnyvale and asked WeirdStuff leave their premises in just one week. Essentially Google is killing the very nature of Silicon Valley - the environment where engineers and their kids created their unique creatures.Halted (HSC) is in similar position - they had to leave their building and they are looking for a buyer.
Say hello to the newSilicon Valley - full of advertising scum and social network companies.
I looked at the company Outback that bought all of the inventory, their prices are crazy high for old, end of life equipment. Thanks, but I will stick with my local government auctions. I've been able to buy medical xray machines and metal detectors for 20 dollars. Radio trunking system from the police department, 300 dollars.
Sunnyvale sucks, it's a Mexican barrio.
Sunnyvale is too expensive for many Latinos. It is mostly Asian (41%) and white (35%).
Sunnyvale demographics
Computers used to have hackable buses, parallel ports that were basically just pins on a TTL chip, and serial ports that were easy to bit-bang.
This niche has since been reborn and taken back into our hands, thanks to Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and all the numerous other that came after and all feature GPIO.
Today, I am afraid to even open the case on my Macbook. I need a microscope to see the traces on the PCB. Everything is BGA.
But luckily, that iShiny still has USB ports and Ethernet/Wifi, so you can still communicate and control the modern devices that still allow the same level of fun.
(Now with even less risk to blow up your expensive laptop, and only blow up instead a cheap credit-card sized computer or micro-controller)
But home hardware hacking is dying.
Until they reach the point where they want to do some cool hardware stuff (robotics, home automation): think arduino controlling valves to make a water show in the garden.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
If you are a photography/optics/astronomy nerd, the Surplus Shed in Fleetwood PA is an excellent resource, consisting of all kinds of interesting and bizarre consumer, educational, industrial, and military gear and parts, including the remaindered stock of Jaegers and Wollensak. Most of their business is online, but if you can get in the half day a week they are open, their warehouse (a converted 4 room schoolhouse) is a paradise of optical treasures mixed with a fever nightmare of hoarding and cat fancy.
American Science & Surplus in Milwaukee, WI (www.sciplus.com) has a ton of oddball stuff I've never seen anywhere else. Some electronics, but chemistry supplies and educational stuff too.
Its amazing that I am seeing Skycraft mentioned here. That little store in Winter Park, Fl has been my go-to place for all sorts of projects since I was a little kid. It is a great place for every type of surplus you can imagine. I know you can order most everything online nowadays but when you needed that DPDT locking rocker switch at 4PM on a Saturday, you had a place to get it. And Cheap too. The only issue is that it is not open on Sundays.
"A 'person' is smart. 'People' are dumb, panicky animals and you know that."
A solid knowledge of analog should br a prereq for digital...
Went Saturday to pay my final respects. Picked up 3 old fluke DMM's last calibrated in the 1990's and 2 1ft USB cables for just under $23. My buddy picked up a HP 35 in perfect cosmetic condition, with the case. Waiting on a battery to test it.
I remember my first walk about in the late 80's. They seemed to concentrate on old office cubicle furniture back then. One of the owners, made his own wine. Got to taste it. It was really bad.
It was always the place to go to either buy some older hardware you needed, or to walk around with a buddy a reminisce as you saw hardware you used at some point in a previous life.
So, computer literacy gone for years. We lost the local HRO and Digital GURU in the last year. Both due do soaring rents. HRO, it was going to be a 60% hike. Just over a year later, the HRO sign is still there over the door to the empty store.
So you guys know, Bob is looking to retire. So unless someone makes an offer to buy it, HSC is next.
Part of the issue is the number of hardware manufacturing and R&D companies has dropped to nothing. So possible new inventory is disappearing. Some of the inventory at weird stuff and HSC has been on the shelf for over 10 years. Techshop, a short 10 year existence, great concept, wrong execution. Action electronics also gone.
Anchor Electronics on walsh is still around.
Much of today's electronics won't last long enough to be resold. Bang Good, either goes bang or might be good.
Talking about old electronics and junk, Electronic Flea Market will be at Fry's Sunnyvale Saturday April 14, not at De Anza.
You're comparing Europe to North America again. Around nearly every "surplus" store here, parking is free. If it's not, it's usually $1-2/2-5hr parking because they also own the lot. On top of that, surplus stores have shifted and cater to larger groups of people. One of the ones nearly me is called "London City Surplus" you can find pretty much everything there, from used military goods to stuff that's been dumped by 3M and EDM(Electro-Motive Diesel) which builds 'slugs' and train engines. Both with the ability to be 'hot dropped' into areas for electrical power without requiring an inverter. On of the other surplus stores in Kitchener/Waterloo has more stuff from Blackberry for instance, and used stuff from the tri-univerisities(Waterloo, Wilfred-laurier, Conestoga) in the area.
The problem in this case is that the above mentioned store is being pushed out. And that 'hobbyists' aren't going in as they used to, this likely has more to do with people who work for SV companies no longer being able to afford to live there and commuting in.
Om, nomnomnom...
Last time I checked, I could not even get a full schematic for the Raspberry Pi.
Here you are
The product does not seem friendly to hardware hacking at all.
The most interesting thing with Pi and Arduino is not *hacking the devices themselves* (the boards are pretty much boring, its almost pin headers directly wired to the CPU / to the microcontroller, resp).
The most interesting thing with SBCs and microcontroller board is that you got the *pin headers exposing gpio* themselves.
Fully programmable in the case of microcontrollers.
re-assignable to tons of common protocols or crudely bit-bangable in the case of sbcs.
Meaning that you can hack tons of hardware *with* them.
Nearly anything that you used to be able to hack using the parallel port of an old pc-compatible : you can do the same (and much more) with the above.
From simple things like controlling leds, to complex stuff like interfacing proprietary protocols of some weird hardware.
Or connecting a vintage console's controller.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]