TGIF - share your weekend plans for the BeagleBone Black!

My weekend plans are to hunt down the postman and to pry my BBB out of his hands    I'll work on the rest if that's successful.

it looks like from your recent posts you were successful in that first task?

Well I have just called CPC (a farnell company) and they have 400 in stock web site here.

The good thing is they are £27.87 + VAT with free UK delivery on orders placed on-line

selsinork wrote:

 

the numbers are all rubbish ?

Well I'm trying to avoid that gloomy prospect, and hoping that there is some actual meaning to them.  If there is, it sure is deeply buried, it must be said.  Farnell's numbers and CircuitCo's numbers can't both be true simultaneously unless we're talking about two entirely different factories, on the face of it.

This is why I requested earlier that a Farnell representative help us out with some authoritative assistance.  Unfortunately it hasn't happened yet, but if you recall the bad old days of seemingly random Pi manufacturing figures, Jennie from Farnell or Element 14 did come forward with official explanations, so there is still hope.

Come on, Element 14, help us.

Morgaine.

I was going to say that I'm not sure that there is a significant problem with supply, Farnell delivered my second BBB on Friday 17th (ordered on 5th) and as Brian Welsby has observed they are in stock at CPC.

But then I see that Farnell, Mouser and Digikey have none.

Better get one from CPC pdq if you are in a hurry.

MK

How odd, BBB does indeed appear to be in stock at CPC, a Farnell company in the UK, despite not being in stock at Farnell UK.  CPC even uses the Farnell ecommerce software, although I haven't tried using my Farnell login there --- I expect their login database is separate, given that their product stocks are separate.

I haven't succumbed to the feeding frenzy over BBB (yet), so I haven't set up an account at CPC.  Do they quote their stock levels once you're logged in there?  Without being logged in, the site merely says the BBB is "In stock".

Good price too, £27.87 excluding VAT,  £33.44 with VAT, free delivery in the UK, same-day dispatch, and no minimum order.  That's impressive.

No they don't show stock levels. I called them to check they actually had stock and they told me then they had 400,  that was on Saturday so maybe one or two less by now.

farnell logins don't work on the cpc site, but it's reasonably obvious it's just some sort of branding of the same software from the message you get when you try to use the farnell login - and that it won't let you create an identical login name. 

It gives a 'does not exist for this website / locale' when you try to use the farnell login then when you try to register the same name it says already exists or words to that effect..

CPC have better prices for the Pi too, but sadly not for the camera.

It seems that for small stuff like the BBB / RPi it's probably going to be worth the small effort to register with CPC, even if you don't really use them for much else

If you have a Farnell account it's worth getting  a CPC account as well since they sometimes have exactly the same thing at much lower prices (and I think occasionaly higher !).

eg GW Instek power supply, PSP405, Farnell = £241.34, CPC = £203.81

and sometimes one has stock and the other doesn't.

MK

Michael Kellett wrote:

 

I was going to say that I'm not sure that there is a significant problem with supply,

I suspect all of the distributors are getting drip fed and the more popular ones simply have bigger backlogs.

When you go through the ones linked via the beablebone homepage, several claim to have stock, but if they list a number it's mostly sub 100.

CPC probably still have stock because a lot of people (me included!) never even thought to check if they were selling them. Credit to Brian for spotting they were..

Notch up another +1 for Element 14 community advice, on the ball and informative.  I took that advice, registered at CPC, and placed an order for a BBB and its entourage of accessories.  There's a good chance I might receive it tomorrow.

Strictly speaking I don't have an application immediately in mind, but having the hardware in front of me will help answer questions.  And given the very odd stock/delivery quotes at uk.farnell.com, this may turn out to be quite strategic.  Thanks, all!  And yes, well spotted, Brian!

PS. The helpful CPC salesperson said on the phone that there were a couple of hundred units in stock.

As I said, if you want one, order one. I think there are plenty.

Mike

As I said, if you want one, order one. I think there are plenty.

Mike

Michael Conners wrote:

 

As I said, if you want one, order one. I think there are plenty.

The specific good advice I followed was "It's in stock at CPC, register and get one next day."  There certainly are not plenty of BBBs around, since virtually everyone else is out of stock.

Pre-ordering is not my idea of efficient.  I made an exception for Raspberry Pi, and it proved to be a good decision since I still would not have one today, one year+ after launch, if I'd waited for them to appear in stock.  Lacking an irrational feeding frenzy over BBB, the fact that it was ex-stock at CPC was what drove my purchasing decision.

Good for CPC.