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Comment by weinzierl | Hacker News Reader

I have their T-Echo and several T-Beam and T-Display-S3. I'm pretty happy with them so far, but have to admit that none of my projects is finished and so far I just have been playing around.

I'm based in Germany and delivery from their German warehouse was pretty fast, some parts came from China but didn't take much longer.

They don't ship batteries though so you have to get them elsewhere. This was a bit of a challenge for me because I had no prior experience with industrial type batteries and the market is confusing. I was also afraid of fakes that, in the worst case, explode in my face or burn my place down. I finally ordered some from the Netherlands which have not exploded so far.

Anyways, I learned a ton for next to no money, so I can definitely recommend the devices mentioned above for educational purposes.

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>> have to admit that none of my projects is finished and so far I just have been playing around

No-one ever uses the microcontrollers they buy and they certainly don’t finish projects - that would be breaking the laws of nature.

No, we buy these devices because we like the idea of making a project with them and enjoy the satisfaction that hitting the “buy” button gives.

When the item is delivered (only a 50/50 chance if you bought it from Aliexpress), put it safely in a drawer and think happily about how your project would work if you ever did it. Which you won’t. You will feel an ongoing warm glow from your accumulated collection of microcontrollers and oddball electronics that you’ve bought and you’ll marvel at how little it cost to buy so much computing power that you’ll never use.

You watch makers on YouTube to vicariously see projects finished. Then you get inspired and buy. Then you put it in a drawer. Then you go back to watching makers on YouTube. It’s the cycle of maker life.

This is the content I come here for.

That's exactly how it works.

Oof. Harsh but fair.

This just saved many people years of therapy and self-doubt.

Depressing but completely accurate. As Warren Zevon said, "We love to buy books because we believe we're buying the time to read them."

Haha, I call it Gadget Tsundoku but I am sure there is separate word for it in Japanese.

This entire thread was very educational -- I learned a lot about myself :)

> only a 50/50 chance if you bought it from Aliexpress

I've been buying electronic modules from AliExpress for years and have never not received my order.

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