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General suggestions or questions about the SparkFun Electronics website
By Gravis
#138094
1) there are several sections under Development Tools that are ARM only products. merge them!

ADuC, LPC, mbed, SAM and ST should be merged into ARM.
at the very least copy their contents into ARM.

2) it would be nice if there was a section under Development Tools that was only Arduino shields. you could call it something like say... Arduino Shields.

3) retire the Zune connector as well as the entire Zune section. they dont even make the Zune anymore!
4) retire the IMU 6DOF v4 Sensor Board. it's $350 and the 9DOF stick is only $100 and soooo much better!
By CS Paul
#138141
1) Noted, but it's not how we do it. it would be like putting all the arduino stuff into ATMEL, since they make the main IC.
2) Maybe in the future, but not planned at this time.
3) & 4) Both are on their way out - we're not making any more, just selling what we have, then they'll retire.
By Gravis
#138188
CS Paul wrote:1) Noted, but it's not how we do it. it would be like putting all the arduino stuff into ATMEL, since they make the main IC.
The analogy is flawed because ARM isnt just a company, it's an architecture. So it would be more like filing Arduinos under AVR, not Atmel. However, Arduino is more than just AVR dev boards, it's an entire platform with addons. None of the sections I listed have addons for anything. Until they do, they should be consolidated in the same way that PIC has been consolidated.

I'm on IRC all the time and people say they want to get into "ARM" development. I've never heard anyone mention LPC development without mentioning the exact chip. If people that wish to do ARM development, go to the Sparkfun and look in the ARM section they will only see three items. Few hobby people even know that LPC is a line of ARM chips.

The idea is to make products more accessible to the customer so they will buy products which is exactly why Arduino has it's own section. The SparkFun site is for business, not for displaying a well organized collection of items.
3) & 4) Both are on their way out - we're not making any more, just selling what we have, then they'll retire.
I can understand the zune connector but the IMU... did you look at it? NOBODY in their right mind would buy it. Also, when was the last time you sold one of either?