ATTENTION FUNDERS!

In order to receive your perks you MUST verify and confirm your shipping address from the page:
 http://bemaker.borderlesselectronics.org.
No perks will be shipped to the unconfirmed addresses!

Click here if you want to order the Perk #1

Click here if you want to order the Perk #2

Click here if you want to order the Perk #3

Click here if you want to order the Perk #4

Click here if you want to order the Perk #5

Click here if you want to order the Perk #6

Click here if you want to order the Perk #7

Click here if you want to order the Perk #8

Click here if you want to order the Perk #9

Click here if you want to order the Perk #10

Click here if you want to order the Perk #11

Click here if you want to order the Perk #12

Click here if you want to order the Perk #13

Click here if you want to order the Perk #14

Click here if you want to order the Perk #15

Click here if you want to order the Perk #16

Click here if you want to order the Perk #17

Click here if you want to get the BIG DEAL with the Perk #18!

*YOU WILL GET A FREE 100MHz DIGITAL SCOPE!!!

*If you win the Referral Contest.

What is a Referral Contest? That's simple: you and anyone else can promote the campaign, in any way (but spam) and the person who raises the highest amount of money based off of referrals will get a prize.

How do you enter the contest? Well, you are already in! If you liked this project on facebook, tweeted it, or plused it on Google, commented on forums or reddit for example, then you are automatically apart of the referral contest.

How can I refer this project? You can see here in the page, just below the video, a box saying "Share This Campaign:" followed by a link (something like http://igg.me/at/bemaker/x/1234567). The seven digit number in the link (that will be different from 1234567 in your case) is your very own personal code. This means that when you share this link with anyone, you are sending a tracked visitor and you can actually view this activity on your personal page on Indiegogo, where you will find a box dedicated to the referrals.

So all you have to do is get online anywhere and share with as many people as possible your link, and then wait. The person who brings the highest amount of funds by his/her referral code will get the stunning prize!!!

A Digital 100MHz 2 channels fantastic Oscilloscope with 7" display, this is the same one I use on daily basis in my lab! It's worth $400 and is a fantastic tool that you must have!

It is going to be FREE, if you win the referral contest, so I suggest you start to like this project on facebook, tweet, share, and post (again, no spam) your link (dedicated to this campaign) everywhere.

BE MAKER!

Hi, I'm Harold Timmis, an Educator and Author of books dedicated to teaching electronics. Maybe you know me from the project Borderless Electronics, dedicated to the affordable education of electronics using the Arduino™.

Two months ago I started with the first phase of this project, offering the low cost Arduino™ compatible board, the one we simply call the BE BOARD, and the success was far more than any of my expectation, I had to shut down everything when over 15,000 electronics kits were sold.

That was just the beginning.

With just an electronic board and few components everyone can start to learn something about electronics, but to receive a better education a complete kit and a good learning system is necessary, and this is what many of my supporters have asked me.

There are several kits available on the market, including the official one from Arduino™.

Looking at the price tag for a single kit and thinking about the markets in North America or Europe, 80 to 120 US dollars can be considered affordable, but if you want to organize an average class like the one I usually teach at or if you want to teach in a less developed Country, then this cost could be too high.

The other problem is that most of the tutorials and lessons are available only in the English language, and mostly only in the written form. This is one more huge limitation.

Education on electronics is getting easier and affordable, but it is still not enough.

This is why I proposed Borderless Electronics and now this second part of the project: BE MAKER

BE MAKER is a complete learning system made of three parts:

1. The BE MAKER KIT
2. The BE MAKER COURSE
3. The BE SHIELD

Plus an additional component: The BE BOARD, low cost Arduino™ compatible.

THE KIT

The most complete kit that I can put together at the incredible price of only $29 including shipping anywhere in the world. The affordable price doesn't mean that this is a cheap kit. The kits on the market include 80 to 220 different parts. With the KIT from BE MAKER you will receive 600 components!

The kit is also focusing on components that no one else offers, like a microphone, speaker, and a fantastic multicolor LED Strip. You will learn how to switch on, off and change the colors of the lights just by clapping your hands :-)

To help you understand the value of the KIT, this is a comparison table between three of the most popular kits available on the market and the KIT part of the BE MAKER project:

(BOLD = Best Offer - *,**,*** includes Arduino™ or compatible board and printed docs)

A detailed description of every component of the kit is available at the end of this page, for your reference.

If you have your BE BOARD or any other Arduino™ Leonardo compatible board, then you can just select the KIT, and you will have all the material that you need to create dozens of electronic projects, plus spares!

If you don't have an Arduino™ compatible board, or you want more, then you can find that perk here; that includes the BE BOARD and this will complete your KIT.

THE LEARNING SYSTEM

The learning system is based on two parts: the video lessons and the book.

Video Lessons

Following the instructions from a book or from a website like Instructables is not easy. What I believe is that having a friend in front of you talking about the project and making it together is the right way to learn, and I want to be your friend on this adventure.

I will record 20 lessons each more than 30 minutes long, for a total of over 10 hours of learning.

During the lessons I will take you by the hand to discover the basics of electronics and I will guide you to learn more and more. At the end you will be able (for example) to change the color of the lights in your house from the Internet.

The lessons will be published in Full HD on YouTube, because I want to use the amazing captioning function on that website. While the spoken language will be in English, all of the content of the course will be translated in as many different languages as possible and the captions will be added to the videos.

So you will be able to select your favorite language to follow the lessons more clearly.

The video lessons will be released totally free, after a period of private use only for the supporters of this campaign. For the first period the video will be published privately on YouTube and an invitation will be required to access the content.

If you decide to select a perk that includes the $10 volunteer fee to support the production of the multimedia content, you will receive the right to access the videos for six months, before these videos are released to the public on September 1st 2014.

One Google/YouTube account invitation will be sent for every $10 you offer. This means that if you request two perks each including the $10 for the videos, then you will have the right to request private access for two accounts.

Illustrated Book

A book made of more than 150 pages will cover the same content of the lessons. It will be a book based 90% on illustrations and I'm not going to draw them. The artist that will design all the content for the book will be Alberto PighiXXX, the author of the famous Arduino Basic Connections: http://igg.me/at/arduinoabc

For every lesson you will find the description, the step by step guide, and all the information necessary to successfully complete the project, in a simple and clear way. This is an example of how, together with Alberto, we think the content will be laid out:

The book will propose for every lesson the solution using the breadboard, and (if available) the one based on the BE SHIELD:

The book will be available in PDF form, and it will also be translated into multiple languages, but you can also request a printed copy, in English, as part of the Deluxe edition of the KIT.

The English edition of the book will be available for download at the time the KITs ship, while the multiple languages translation will be available only for the funders who offer the $10 contribution, until September 2014, when all the materials will be released for free.

THE SHIELD

For a long time I wanted to propose a shield that can be used for several different projects. Breadboards are one of the most amazing tools a maker can have in his toolbox, but projects built on breadboards are not portable. Push buttons will fall out and are usually not easily accessible because they are surrounded by jumper wires, LCD screens can't find a stable position, parts that are plugged in to a breadboard like servos, motors, etc. often loose their connection to the breadboard.

This is the opportunity I was waiting for, to propose a shield specifically designed for education:

The SHIELD was designed to be the perfect companion of the Borderless Electronics Arduino Leonardo Compatible Board, the BE BOARD. Most of the circuits you will learn can be built from scratch on a breadboard, but you can also use the shield and save time, and it will also give you a more portable result. Please note that the BE SHIELD is compatible with any Arduino, but some functions are not guaranteed for boards that are different from Leonardo Compatible Boards. 

Plus, the shield will add Internet capabilities to your Arduino and to your projects. The last five lessons of the course will all be dedicated to the Internet of Things and I will teach you how to connect anything to the cloud.

This is a list of functions available from the SHIELD:

• LCD 16x2 circuit, including the contrast regulation: it allows you to plug an LCD like the one included in the kit and to use all of its functionality without the use of any wires;
• 5 push buttons on one analog input: These can be used to control anything from just one pin of an Arduino compatible board;
• microSD card reader: allows you to store too and retrieve data from a microSD memory card;
• 2 servo connectors: helps you connect up to two servo motors directly to the shield;
• RGB LED Strip driver: based on MOSFETs this driver allows you to directly control an RGB Strip like the one included in the KIT without any additional components;
• ETHERNET Adapter: connect your Arduino compatible board to the Internet!!!

Every one of the functions of this SHIELD, beside the Ethernet Adapter, can be replicated on a breadboard, but these functions are common to a ton of projects and it is very useful to have them available on a single shield.

I believe the BE SHIELD is the perfect tool to educate anyone about electronics.

If you want to receive the BE SHIELD you can select one of the perks that includes it.

THE DELUXE KIT

Optionally you can choose to add a plastic carrying case and the printed copy of the book, in English.

This will require an additional cost of $10.00USD to cover the cost of printing, the cost of the carrying case, and the additional costs for shipping.

Every combination of KITs is available in standard or deluxe.

THE PERKS

I wanted to make this project as modular as possible.

So you can choose any combination of these elements. 

THE SHIPMENT

The $9 Arduino compatible kit gave me a good lesson about shipping. I will spend all my efforts to avoid the same problems as the $9 Arduino compatible kit had.

The shipping will be directly from China, using registered Airmail.

I will not use envelopes for the shipments. Every perk will be shipped in boxes.

The shipments are scheduled to start from the middle of February 2014, at the end of the celebrations for the Chinese New Year, to avoid the risk of any issues, and will take between 7 and 25 days according to the different destination.

The shipping is FREE for any level and anywhere in the World!

THE MULTIPLE PERKS

Some of you may want to buy more than one kit. So here is how buying additional perks works. If you want to buy multiple perks all you need to do is add the amount of the additional perk minus two dollars, for example:

If you wanted to buy 3 x BE SHIELD ONLY perks then you pay this:

Select the first perk and pay $15.00 then pay $13.00 for each additional BE SHIELD ONLY perk:

$15 + $13 + $13 = $41.00

You can only subtract this $2 dollars if you are ordering the same perk multiple times. If you want to purchase a different perk you will need to make a separate order of that perk. You can not mix orders. For example

If you want to purchase a BE SHIELD ONLY perk + LESSONS ONLY perk + KIT ONLY perk you would pay this in three separate orders.

What if I want multiple perks of different perks? 

As stated above you will need to purchase each perk separately. You cannot mix your orders as this would cause a lot of problems with our shipping system.  

Remember that you only subtract $2 if you are purchasing multiples of the same perk.

Please don't mix perks, as it will be a problem to handle.

WHY NOW

I know some of you will think: "hey, you have some packages from the previous project that have not yet been delivered, how dare you start a new campaign?!?"

The reason I had to start this campaign now and could not wait until all of the $9 Arduino compatible boards are delivered was due to the fact that I have 40 days to source all of the components for this kit and my suppliers are all in China, a country that literally stops any kind of industrial activity during the period of celebrations for the Chinese New Year. Next year this day will be January 31st, so it is very early in the year. 

By experience, as I was in China this year a few days before this important date on the local calendar, everything will start to slow down or stop for up to two weeks before the Chinese New Year, and it will take another two weeks or more after the festival, before production can get back at its usual pace. Then they will have a huge amount of back orders to handle.

So the math is easy: I need at least 40 days to source everything, giving 5 days of margin and a known date that the 15th of January is the deadline, the campaign must finish by the end of November.

It is a complex campaign that will require at least 5 weeks of run time and so the 25th of October is the latest safe date to start it. Which is why I am starting it now.

Now I also want to make sure all of you are confident in my campaign so I will only accept payments through PayPal for this campaign. This is because you will have the option to ask for a refund for up to 45 days, and if you do ask for a refund you will be given it immediately without question. This is to give you peace of mind. If you don't want to register with PayPal you can use your credit card and PayPal will process it like a cash register. If we accepted credit cards it would take longer for these processes to be completed, as you will need to fill out a request of chargeback with your card issuer and all the procedures can take up to six months. With PayPal this problem will not exist.

WHAT YOU WILL GET

Description of the content of the BE MAKER KIT

• 400 tie point solderless breadboard
  The 400 Tie Point Interlocking Solderless Breadboard is a cute half size breadboard, good for small projects. It is 8.2cm x 5.4cm in size with a standard double-strip in the middle and two power rails on both sides.
• Jumper wires
  The kit includes two sets of Jumper Wires: Breadboard jumper wire 65 pcs pack. Including 4 different lengths:200mm,165mm,125mm and 80mm. Perfectly design for the solderless breadboard. Comes with M/M connectors. Plus a set of Jumper Wires 9" F/F (10 Pack). These are 9"(23cm) long jumper wires terminated as female to female. Use these to jumper from any male header on any board such as the IO Shield's. Multiple jumpers can be connected next to one another on a 0.1" header.
• 9V snap connector
  This cable is terminated on one side with a standard 5.5x2.1mm, center-positive barrel jack, while a connector for 9V batteries is on the other side. Use this cable to battery-power any device that needs 9V power, it is perfect to power up the BE BOARD.
• 4xAA battery holder
  This battery holder is perfect as it can host 4xAA 1.5V batteries and is terminated with a 9V snap connector compatible plug. This can be used to easily power up your projects on the go.
• 16x2 LCD
  Standard 16x2 character LCD display. It has a basic 16 character by 2 line display with a yellow-green background with black characters.
• Small servo
  This is a very small but powerful servo; it only weights 9 gram and gives you a 1.6kg.cm torque. Pretty strong relative to its size.
• Small DC motor
  This is a small hobby/toy motor that can operate in a range between 3 and 6V and is perfect for learning how to add movement to your projects
• 5V relay
  This is a standard and small relay that can be used to control lighting, electrical and other equipment.
• Photoresistor
  The photoresistor, or photocell, changes resistance depending on the amount of light it is exposed to. These little sensors can be used in light-interacting projects. 
• TMP36 Temp Sensor
  The TMP36 is a low voltage, precision centigrade temperature sensor. It provides a voltage output that is linearly proportional to the Celsius temperature. It also doesn't require any external calibration to provide typical accuracies of ±1°C at +25°C and ±2°C over the -40°C to +125°C temperature range. 
• 74HC595 Shift Register
  This chip has eight outputs and three inputs that you use to feed data into, a bit at a time. So It allows you to control 8 devices (for example LEDs) using only 3 pins of the BE BOARD.
• NPN Transistors
  The kit includes a set of 2N2222 NPN signal transistors. Rated at up to 600mA and 40V; these transistors are perfect to add power to many of your projects and can also be used to drive small motors or even a set of LEDs, like the RGB Strip that is also part of the kit.
• Diodes
  The kit includes two kind of diodes, ten each: 1N4148 small but fast diodes and 1N4007, capable of high voltages and currents.
• Piezo Buzzer
  Projects will get noisy. The buzzer can be used to generate simple tones directly from the BE BOARD.
• Potentiometer 10K
  The Trimpot or variable resistor. This 10K trimmable potentiometer has a small knob built right in and it's breadboard friendly.
• Pushbutton
  Miniature Single Pole Single Throw switches. These are high quality momentary on switches. Perfect for many projects, mounts directly into a standard solderless breadboard. Rated up to 50mA.
• RGB LED
  These 5mm units have four pins - Cathode is the longest pin. One for each color and a common cathode. Use this one LED for three status indicators or pulse width modulate (PWM) all three and get mixed colors!
• LEDs
  5mm LEDs in the colors RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE and WHITE. The BE MAKER KIT carries 60 of them!
• Resistors
  300 resistors! 50 each of the values 330R, 1K and 10K plus 10 each of these other values: 100R, 220R, 470R, 560R, 820R, 2.2K, 4.7K, 8.2K, 12K, 15K, 22K, 47K, 100K, 1M, 10M. All that you will need for dozens of projects.
• Capacitors
  In the kit there is space for a pack of 100 ceramic capacitors with mixed values, including: 10pF, 1nF, 10nF, 100nF, 1µF, 10µF
• Male pins strip 40x1
  Sometimes you want to connect devices directly to the breadboard, or to the female headers on your BE BOARD, like Servos, LED Strips, etc. and most of them have female headers. These male-male headers will make your day easier!
• Speaker
  A small speaker ideal for audio projects, with an impedance of 8 ohm, it is rated at a ½ Watt of power. It will be easy and fun to create noisy projects with this speaker and few other components, all part of the kit.
• Microphone
  Enter your home and clap your hands and the lights will turn on, magically. This is one of the many tricks that can be performed using a microphone, together with your BE BOARD.
• RGB LED Strip
  Strips of multicolor LEDs are cool. You can have a lot of fun with these and the BE MAKER KIT is the only kit around to offer a 1m (3.3ft) long RGB LED Strip, loaded with 60 super bright 5050 RGB LEDs. This is probably the funniest component of the KIT and can be connected directly to the BE SHIELD and controlled from Internet!

Additional information on the kit comparison:
* Arduino Starter Kit - source store.arduino.cc product id 185 - price as displayed on October 25th 2013 - includes Arduino Uno R3, printed book and accessories not listed in the comparison table
** Sparkfun Inventor's Kit - source sparkfun.com product id kit-11576 - price as displayed on October 25th 2013 - includes Arduino compatible board, printed book and accessories
*** Adafruint Ardx Kit V. 1.3 - source adafruit.com product id 170 - price as displayed on October 25th 2013 - Includes Arduino Uno R3, printed starting guide and accessories
**** Borderless Electronics BE MAKER KIT - available only from Indiegogo pre-oreder until November 30th 2013 - Board, Book and accessories not included.

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