The Shenzhen Shuffle

Although I've had a certain low-level exposure to the riches of China, it never managed to blossom into a serious electronics habit. But all of that has begun to change recently, starting with a gift I received of some ESP8266 modules, which are basically tiny WiFi SoCs that can even run Lua.

The chips are pretty fun on their own, but nothing compared to the stuff you can do if you have some sensors, lights, wires, breadboards, battery packs, voltage regulators, solar panels... Suffice to say the electronics binging that has probably been my destiny since the age of ten is finally being fulfilled. The process has this great multiplicity: each new thing you buy gives you more options when combined with all the things you already have. And that gives me an idea.

I've never really been into the whole buyer's club type thing, but it seems like this could be really great place for it. You pay some fairly small amount ($10-20/month) and in exchange you get random new electronics stuff delivered each week. China Post's notorious 20-40 day lead time isn't really an issue once you start pipelining the mail. And you could get some pretty cool stuff for the money, especially with collective buying power. Here's some I found in the $1-3 range in a few minutes of searching: mini Arduino knock-off, LED matrix, RFID module, motion sensor, ultrasonic distance sensor.

I think an appropriate name would be The Shenzhen Shuffle. Any takers?