Destroy an old MCU board - get a free Cortex-M0 one from NXP - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2011, 03:30:06 pm
content: http://www.nxp.com/campaigns/cortex-m0/

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2011, 06:18:03 pm
content: I am not a fan of pointlessly destroying equipment and find this a rather disgusting marketing ploy.And note the weasel words in the NXP "offer":QuoteSo, when your video is not accepted, and you actually did destroy a board NXP has the excuse that you were supposed to "demonstrate what you would do", and not actually doing it.

author: Chasm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2011, 06:28:36 pm
content: I like way to get the STM development board better. Just sign up for the contest and get one.And if you do what you should do not and design the discovery board into a smallish project it also is cheaper, like 50% the cost. Ok, it's a Coretex-M3 and not M0.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2011, 06:36:48 pm
content: Here's my entry :

author: Sionyn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2011, 11:12:49 pm
content: that will teach those bloody bears heheepic stuff

author: CafeLogic
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2011, 12:39:19 am
content: Now I feel stupid for buying one of those boards when I could have just photoshoped something.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2011, 12:53:01 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on January 27, 2011, 06:36:48 pmhaha, best video ever

author: sonicj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2011, 10:52:47 am
content: Quote from: Chasm on January 27, 2011, 06:28:36 pmi dug around the other day and couldn't find this...?-sj

author: CafeLogic
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2011, 03:42:24 pm
content: Quote from: sonicj on January 28, 2011, 10:52:47 amIt ended on the 17th. It still only costs 10$

author: Chasm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2011, 04:32:20 pm
content: Quote from: CafeLogic on January 28, 2011, 03:42:24 pmOops. Yes, no more free kits for entering the contest.Still it is a nice kit, basically a breakout board with USB debug Interface as the NXP one.

author: CafeLogic
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2011, 04:39:23 pm
content: Quote from: Chasm on January 28, 2011, 04:32:20 pmIt is better because the NXP version locks you to Code Red IDE. You can use whatever you want with ST and most IDEs support the ST-Link.

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 29, 2011, 12:33:48 am
content: Hm... I have a dead xmega chip to fry, doubt they would know the difference.

author: frank26080115
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2011, 03:51:41 am
content: Quote from: BoredAtWork on January 27, 2011, 06:18:03 pmI think they are just covering their ass, I put a pretty lame video up and they accepted it pretty quicklySomebody in marketing is just bored, if they are going to give away stuff, might as well let people have fun while doing it.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 15, 2011, 04:33:21 am
content: Quote from: frank26080115 on February 15, 2011, 03:51:41 amSomebody in marketing it being a dickhead.Just another pathetic way to get people to generate free content for them so they can make their site and product look really popular.Dave.

author: frank26080115
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2011, 12:20:56 am
content: There was a recent discussion on Hack a Day about this exact same promotion herehttp://hackaday.com/2011/02/19/free-as-in-free-beer-arm-kit/. I do not understand any of the irrational hate towards NXP at all.Look what I got in the mail today:Best dickheads everI didn't even actually destroy anything, I pretended I microwaved a AVR while the microwave was in "demo mode". I had fun filming my video, and I liked watching the other submissions too. I don't see anything wrong (or pathetic) with having customers generate contentand become a part of the promotion by choice.If you seriously think NXP is encouraging you to be wasteful or tricking you into destroy a competitor's product, you are completely misinterpreting their intentions. They simply came up with a way to gauge interest so they know who they can send a sample of their product to, so that they have the best chance of making a new customer. Realistically, you have absolutely nothing to lose by participating, unless you are stupid enough to actually destroy something of value.The other half of the criticism I hear is regarding the LPCXpresso's JTAG link itself and the IDE it comes with, but it's free so I don't really care. I already knew it's sort of crippled on purpose and I plan on using GNU anyways. Plenty of other companies are guilty of this too, and this criticism doesn't even relate to the promotion at all.So why is NXP suddenly the Devil? And who's the Saint?

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2011, 02:31:44 am
content: Quote from: frank26080115 on March 04, 2011, 12:20:56 amthe device is not the devil (or saint), the human is.Quote from: hackadayi see some points in hackaday. can you disprove that?

author: frank26080115
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2011, 03:44:48 am
content: I already knew it was crippled, so is MPLAB when I tried to get started with PICs, the IDE that Ti gave me for my eZ430 was also crippled. Xilinx Webpack and Quartus II web editions are also crippled. AVR Dragon was even crippled before somebody came up with a hack and then Atmel uncrippled it.My point was that it's pretty common. So I stopped caring about vendor provided IDEs. Also this has nothing to do with the promotion itself. I knew that WinARM and YAGARTO exists and would work fine once I get an OpenOCD compatible JTAG debugger, which I already planned on getting when I submitted my video, and just arrived a few days ago. AVR Studio doesn't even work with avrdude and people still buy Arduinos like water, my point is that alternative tools are available.Sure, if I didn't already have plans that involved never using the LPC-link (the crippled closed source debugger), then I might not like the LPCXpresso. And that's a legit excuse for not liking it, but I'm alarmed at people calling people at NXP "asshats" and "dickheads", calling NXP "reprehensible", and people planning on "boycott" NXP, somebody said that "If anything, I will now NEVER use one of this company’s products because they are detracting from the hobbyist EE scene.", one guy even thinks he might become "enslaved".I am a hobbyist, how is this "detracting" from the hobbyist EE scene? Being a hobbyist doesn't mean you are limited to the Arduino. The Arduino Decimila cost $40 when it came out, this LPCXpresso cost $32 on Digikey, so it's perfectly within the hobbyist's price range too.The stuff about the email address and email spam is just silly. I get updates from so many other companies that I wouldn't even notice, and I haven't even seen one from NXP thus far. A domain name costs $10/year these days by the way, and Google can handle emails for your domain name for free. The corporate email requirement is probably just to keep 4chan out, if they typed in my email domain into a web browser, they can probably tell I'm just some kid who can't even drink yet.And Hack a Day simply misrepresented NXP themselves with an inaccurate blog post.I'm not praising this thing yet, but people seem to started the hate even though it's just a cute giveaway promotion.Thumbs up to NXP. My mbed arrives tomorrow too.By the way, I said NXP, not LPC, I did mean the human(s) when I asked that question.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2011, 10:26:34 pm
content: Quote from: frank26080115 on March 04, 2011, 12:20:56 amOh, the old "I got support via e-mail". That was already laughable when USENET was popular.But the thing is, it takes two to tango. One asking others to do stupid things, one doing the stupid things.

author: House91320
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2011, 11:53:54 pm
content: How long did it tack you guys to get you board.

author: truhlik_fredy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 05, 2011, 03:13:41 pm
content: Quote from: House91320 on March 30, 2011, 11:53:54 pmI would be interested too, I send the pictures about 3 weeks ago.