Electronics Surplus Shop 'WeirdStuff Warehouse' Is Closing (fastcompany.com) 99
Fast Company's harrymcc writes: When technological goods are no longer of use to anyone in Silicon Valley, they end up in the WeirdStuff Warehouse -- where, it turns out, there often is someone willing to pay for them. Sadly, the 32-year-old Sunnyvale store is closing forever on Sunday. I paid a final visit and, as usual, felt like I could rummage through this vast storehouse of obsolete gadgets and software forever. WeirdStuff first made an appearance on Slashdot in 2003 when editor chrisd asked Slashdotters about their favorite surplus stores. Also mentioned was Skycraft.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:You fucked yourselves (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Halted moved a few blocks away [halted.com], but is still in business.
That said, the owners of HSC (Halted) "have made the difficult decision to offer the company for sale." [twitter.com], so if you want to experience HSC, you should probably make your pilgrimage pretty damn soon.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: You fucked yourselves (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
The black hole its closed closed down a few years ago. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/09/17/161271167/a-los-alamos-landmark-the-black-hole-is-about-to-disappear
Re:You fucked yourselves (Score:5, Interesting)
The big difference is not people shopping online, but the change in technology. Computers used to have hackable buses, parallel ports that were basically just pins on a TTL chip, and serial ports that were easy to bit-bang. You could go to Weirdstuff and buy some weird stuff that you could actually rig up to your Linux or DOS box and get working.
Today, I am afraid to even open the case on my Macbook. I need a microscope to see the traces on the PCB. Everything is BGA.
I still have my oscilloscope and a reflow oven, but haven't used them in a while. I am trying to get my kids interested in breadboarding some circuits for a Raspberry Pi, but it is hard to pry them away from their phones. It is a lot easier to get them interested in coding, because they can still see the point in that. But home hardware hacking is dying.
Modern bit-banging (Score:3, Insightful)
Computers used to have hackable buses, parallel ports that were basically just pins on a TTL chip, and serial ports that were easy to bit-bang.
This niche has since been reborn and taken back into our hands, thanks to Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and all the numerous other that came after and all feature GPIO.
Today, I am afraid to even open the case on my Macbook. I need a microscope to see the traces on the PCB. Everything is BGA.
But luckily, that iShiny still has USB ports and Ethernet/Wifi, so you can still communicate and control the modern devices that still allow the same level of fun.
(Now with even less risk to blow up your expensive laptop, and only blow up instead a cheap credit-card sized computer or micro-controller)
But home hardware hacking is dying.
Until they reach the point where they want to do
Re: (Score:3)
Last time I checked, I could not even get a full schematic for the Raspberry Pi. The product does not seem friendly to hardware hacking at all.
Pi Schematic (Score:3)
Last time I checked, I could not even get a full schematic for the Raspberry Pi.
Here you are
The product does not seem friendly to hardware hacking at all.
The most interesting thing with Pi and Arduino is not *hacking the devices themselves* (the boards are pretty much boring, its almost pin headers directly wired to the CPU / to the microcontroller, resp).
The most interesting thing with SBCs and microcontroller board is that you got the *pin headers exposing gpio* themselves.
Fully programmable in the case of microcontrollers.
re-assignable to tons of common protocols or crudely bit-bangable in the case of sbcs.
Meaning that you can hack tons of ha
Re: Modern bit-banging (Score:2)
One caveat re: using Arduino/Pi + low-cost digital servos to build a diy animated water fountain: low-cost servos just can't take the sustained abuse of being run for even a few hours per day... they'll work for a few days or weeks... maybe 6-18 months if you only run them occasionally for a few minutes at a time... then die. And there's basically no sane middle ground between cheap servos with plastic gears & bearings, and ungodly-expensive Bellagio/Disney-grade servos & electronic valves that can
Cheap electronics (Score:2)
One caveat re: using Arduino/Pi + low-cost digital servos to build a diy animated water fountain: low-cost servos just can't take the sustained abuse of being run for even a few hours per day... they'll work for a few days or weeks... maybe 6-18 months if you only run them occasionally for a few minutes at a time... then die.
Yup. The point of using cheap electronics isn't to make a professional-grade device, but to have a small fun project.
(And eventually if you like the design you might end up migrating and upgrading to better components over time. While at the same time perfecting the design)
At best, you can make your outdoor electronics cheap & easy to replace, then say 'fuck it' and LET the dew & corrosion ruin it every few months.
The whole concept behind component that cost in the single-digit range (think Rasberry Zero) :
you play with it and don't mind it it gets destroyed in the process.
Often you read a blog article by some Maker about a fun project. Half-way th
The equipment the company that bought them... (Score:1)
sells is actually fabrication/test equipment grade stuff.
Old yes, but depending on the packages you need, maybe still usable.
They carry everything from mask alignment equipment, to microscopes for part inspections to wire bond tools for bare dies and injection molding chip packages. Hell they even have sputtering plasma machines for generating tape or disk platters!
The biggest problem with most of these places is they can't actually refurbish most of the gear they get in. They have a niche market who might
Re: You fucked yourselves (Score:3)
A solid knowledge of analog should br a prereq for digital...
Re: You fucked yourselves (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Shenzhen IO
http://store.steampowered.com/... [steampowered.com]
All of Zachtronics' games are programming based but this sounds closest to what you want.
Re: You fucked yourselves (Score:2)
Re: You fucked yourselves (Score:2)
Re: You fucked yourselves (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I wish someone would come up with an addictive game that teaches the players how to design logical circuits (particularly electronic fluid logic).
A solid knowledge of analog should br a prereq for digital...
The closest I ever saw was Rocky's Boots [wikipedia.org]. The author's name might remind you of something.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry mate, I won't travel internationally to keep them floating.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Sunnyvale sucks, it's a Mexican barrio.
Sunnyvale is too expensive for many Latinos. It is mostly Asian (41%) and white (35%).
Sunnyvale demographics [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Online is part of it, but retail really needs to do better at providing a compelling reason to actually visit them.
Shops around here often don't have what I want. When I do find something it often feels like I bought what they had, not what I really wanted. I get ripped off on parking fees, there are never enough chargers and the spaces are too small. Most towns are just clones of each other too, with no character or anything to hold much interest.
Compare to online. Delivery is mostly offset by savings on p
Re: (Score:3)
You're comparing Europe to North America again. Around nearly every "surplus" store here, parking is free. If it's not, it's usually $1-2/2-5hr parking because they also own the lot. On top of that, surplus stores have shifted and cater to larger groups of people. One of the ones nearly me is called "London City Surplus" you can find pretty much everything there, from used military goods to stuff that's been dumped by 3M and EDM(Electro-Motive Diesel) which builds 'slugs' and train engines. Both with t
Re: You fucked yourselves (Score:2)
Have been there a few times. (Score:3)
Not as interesting as it once was (Score:5, Interesting)
In the 1990's they had a larger store across from the Sunnyvale Fry's of that time. The expected computer gear was mixed in seldom seen industrial devices. I remember walking in and finding an electron microscope for sale. I bought a logic analyser there that must have been a dozen years old when I bought it yet was still capable for contemporary designs. I shudder to think what it must have cost when new.
The more recent location is remote from everything. It isn't a place you can drop in and look around because you happened to be next door. Once there, it is just computer gear, very little of which is interesting.
Re:Not as interesting as it once was (Score:5, Interesting)
Surplus places come and go, and obviously eBay has taken a lot of business. I'll miss Weird Stuff, where I actually bought evidence for Google's defense in Oracle v. Google - copies of Sun software that cloned other companies APIs. HSC will probably close if nobody wants to buy it. And that is close to the end for Silicon Valley surplus.
I enjoyed a visit to Skycraft when I was in Florida for Hamcation and the Falcon 9 Heavy launch. Mendolson's in Dayton is also worth seeing, make time for that and the Air Force Museum if you go to Hamvention.
But the one I'll never forget was a little hole in the wall on Long Island called Community Electronics. Went there on the bus from Lido Beach before I had a driver's license. There was always a story that Tom, the proprietor, actually supported the company from some entirely different business activity that you weren't supposed to ask about. We also had Barry electronics and Edlie.
Silicon Valley is dying (Score:5, Informative)
One thing is missing here - why it is closing? The answer is - because Google has acquired large real estate area in Sunnyvale and asked WeirdStuff leave their premises in just one week. Essentially Google is killing the very nature of Silicon Valley - the environment where engineers and their kids created their unique creatures.Halted (HSC) is in similar position - they had to leave their building and they are looking for a buyer.
Say hello to the newSilicon Valley - full of advertising scum and social network companies.
Re: (Score:1)
and where is this fact from?
Re: (Score:1)
and where is this fact from?
Netcraft, of course.
Re:Silicon Valley is dying (Score:5, Informative)
The letter [twitter.com]
However, having to vacate their premises wouldn't mean the company closing down if it wasn't already in trouble. Leases don't get invalidated with change of ownership, so if they're vacating before the end of the lease, it's because Google offered them money to move out early. Otherwise they could stay until the end of the lease and look for new premises. Clearly they took the opportunity to shut down with some extra cash in pocket, and they don't think it's worth trying to keep the company going.
Re:Silicon Valley is dying (Score:4, Insightful)
One thing is missing here - why it is closing? The answer is - because Google has
Nope, wrong. The answer is because the world has changed. Shopping habits have changed. Desire to repair equipment has changed. People's life expectancy has changed.
This has nothing to do with Google, and even less to do with Seattle. These places are closing all over the western world.
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, wrong. The answer is because the world has changed.
No, the answer really is google. Here is the evidence:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Da... [twimg.com]
This has nothing to do with Google
Except for the bit where google bought the place they're renting and they have to leave.
Re: (Score:2)
That's why they have to move out of the building, not why they are closing. We also had a rich company buy our offices at once point. We just moved 2km down the road and made a lot of money for our efforts.
They are closing for the reason's I mentioned. Except the life expectancy bit, that was a typo that was supposed to say people's expectations on equipment life expectancy.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Here's a map from a few months ago:
https://www.mercurynews.com/20... [mercurynews.com]
Crazy Prices (Score:2)
I looked at the company Outback that bought all of the inventory, their prices are crazy high for old, end of life equipment. Thanks, but I will stick with my local government auctions. I've been able to buy medical xray machines and metal detectors for 20 dollars. Radio trunking system from the police department, 300 dollars.
Surplus Shed (Score:2, Informative)
If you are a photography/optics/astronomy nerd, the Surplus Shed in Fleetwood PA is an excellent resource, consisting of all kinds of interesting and bizarre consumer, educational, industrial, and military gear and parts, including the remaindered stock of Jaegers and Wollensak. Most of their business is online, but if you can get in the half day a week they are open, their warehouse (a converted 4 room schoolhouse) is a paradise of optical treasures mixed with a fever nightmare of hoarding and cat fancy.
Re: (Score:2)
This.
Boeing surplus (when it had a retail store) sequestered most of the 'good stuff' in the back for 'institutional' auctions. Same thing with the University of Washington surplus. I think eBay killed the retail surplus shops. Not with lower prices and a wider selection so much as the people reselling surplus as a business whined about retail customers undercutting them by buying stuff for their own use.
I go to a couple of live estate auctions when there's something good. They are loaded with eBay resell
Somewhat Similar Store in Wisconsin (Score:2, Interesting)
American Science & Surplus in Milwaukee, WI (www.sciplus.com [sciplus.com]) has a ton of oddball stuff I've never seen anywhere else. Some electronics, but chemistry supplies and educational stuff too.
Re: (Score:2)
--They also have an outlet in Chicago:
https://www.sciplus.com/oursto... [sciplus.com]
Ahhh Skycraft! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Ahhh Skycraft! (Score:4, Interesting)
Its amazing that I am seeing Skycraft mentioned here. That little store in Winter Park, Fl has been my go-to place for all sorts of projects since I was a little kid.
Same here, Dad loved to go out there not long after they opened, he always took me along.
One thing I've learned after all the years I've shopped there: if you see it and you have any interest in it, put it in your hands and buy it. If you hesitate, someone else will get it and it won't be there next time. Making you regret to the end of your days about your lost opportunity to have it.
Bought an old ISA NIC with connectors for RJ-45, thinnet, *and* thicknet. Makes a great conversation piece mounted on the office wall.
Re: (Score:1)
I have been a customer of Skycraft, Surplus Shed, Ax Man (Minneapolis/St. Paul), and Fry's Electronics. All are experiencing challenging times. The costs of keeping a brick and mortar shop stocked with odds and ends are difficult to justify with dwindling interest in the use of these items. This is the real problem in my mind, too few people have any interest in actually building anything. Online only retailers present their wares to a much wider audience than those who can afford to travel to these sma
Re: (Score:2)
but when you needed that DPDT locking rocker switch at 4PM on a Saturday, you had a place to get it.
I honestly don't know where I'd even go (locally) to do this today.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm going to an aviation event [flysnf.org] in Lakeland later this week and have set aside a day for shopping/exploring/chilling. Skycraft is on my list. I've been there before, but it's been a while...
...laura
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Ahhh Skycraft! (Score:2)
It absolutely BLOWS MY MIND that Skycraft doesn't have special hours on "Orlando Hamfest Saturday" (say, 6pm-midnight). I guarantee that 60-70% of visitors who went to the Hamfest on Saturday would go to Skycraft that same evening after dinner & spend a shit-ton of money there.
Can they still get inventory? (Score:2)
Surplus shops have been on the decline for DECADES (Score:2)
Ever since NYC's "Radio Row" on Cortland and Canal streets was cleared out to put up the World Trade Center. And smaller shops used to be found in most areas, but nearly all have closed down due to declining sales and increasing rent.
Ham Radio became more of an "appliance operator" hobby than an exercise in building your own gear or modifying military surplus. Hobbyist electronics in general has become more about downloading "sketches" and plugging pre-made "shields" into an Arduino than actually hacking ha
Re: (Score:2)
Hobbyist electronics in general has become more about downloading "sketches" and plugging pre-made "shields" into an Arduino than actually hacking hardware.
Arduinos are bloody awesome for hacking, with or without shields. I own a license for IAR embedded (costs about $2000) and yet I still reach for the Arduino with it's little sketches for all the odd jobs. Yes, I know how to load C++ on directly. Yes I have done that, but I still use tha arduino as intended most often.
Re: (Score:2)
I love P+T surplus
They had a recent near-death experience but are back in business.
Paid my final respects (Score:3)
Went Saturday to pay my final respects. Picked up 3 old fluke DMM's last calibrated in the 1990's and 2 1ft USB cables for just under $23. My buddy picked up a HP 35 in perfect cosmetic condition, with the case. Waiting on a battery to test it.
I remember my first walk about in the late 80's. They seemed to concentrate on old office cubicle furniture back then. One of the owners, made his own wine. Got to taste it. It was really bad.
It was always the place to go to either buy some older hardware you needed, or to walk around with a buddy a reminisce as you saw hardware you used at some point in a previous life.
So, computer literacy gone for years. We lost the local HRO and Digital GURU in the last year. Both due do soaring rents. HRO, it was going to be a 60% hike. Just over a year later, the HRO sign is still there over the door to the empty store.
So you guys know, Bob is looking to retire. So unless someone makes an offer to buy it, HSC is next.
Part of the issue is the number of hardware manufacturing and R&D companies has dropped to nothing. So possible new inventory is disappearing. Some of the inventory at weird stuff and HSC has been on the shelf for over 10 years. Techshop, a short 10 year existence, great concept, wrong execution. Action electronics also gone.
Anchor Electronics on walsh is still around.
Much of today's electronics won't last long enough to be resold. Bang Good, either goes bang or might be good.
Talking about old electronics and junk, Electronic Flea Market will be at Fry's Sunnyvale Saturday April 14, not at De Anza.
Re: (Score:2)
Anchor is my go-to for new gear. They're worth their weight in....well, useful parts, anyhow.
Re: (Score:2)
Hi! kk6vqk here!
yeah, I dropped by HRO recently. They're still trying to sell/retire. I think it's time to stock up on discrete parts before it's all ebay.
Re: (Score:2)
HSC Electronics, Mike Quinn Electronics, etc (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
missile Away and other favorite purchases (Score:2)
Some have forgotten Sikicon Valley's major role as a design and manufacturing center for the military industrial complex. radar guided missiles and many classified projects still too secret to be mentioned and some like the Glomr explorer and stealth war ships like Spirit come to mind. From the surplus missile equipment I scored gems like complex 4-way bulb lit buttons labeled Target gated that someday I will repurpose into a desk gadget. the old ejection seat bailout bottle will always be my go-to por
So let's update the list of surplus places (Score:2)
https://www.smithandedwards.co... [smithandedwards.com]
http://surplussales.com/ [surplussales.com]
https://www.allelectronics.com... [allelectronics.com]
I'm sad (Score:2)
My visits to Weird Stuff Warehouse & HSC were among the most fun parts of my trips to Silicon Valley. South Florida has been a diy electronics outback forever, and I totally envied people who lived in "the valley" & could LITERALLY go out & casually buy a logic analyzer or oscilloscope on a random Sunday afternoon.
I remember *almost* buying a Silicon Graphics workstation there, just because it was cheap & was the one computer even AMIGA owners reverently mentioned in hushed tones back in the