It’s and ARDUINO - NOT!!

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MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: Thailand Posts: 2209	Posted: 02:35am 30 May 2018         Volhout said   But in hindsight, it is not a bad idea. The UNO costs something like 6 dollar shipped, the PIC costs 4-5 dollar, so for 11-12 dollar you have a more powerfull platform including USB UART, voltage regulators, reset circuit, headers. Cheaper than the (more powerfull) CircuitGizmo's Arduino outline micromite platform (29.99 dollar ex shipping...and TAX**).. ** I ordered a CGCOLORMAX2 from them, and got a bill from our dutch government that I should pay additional 26 euro's (some 35 dollar) TAX on it. They even taxed the shipping cost. And no way to get past that, they would simply not give you the colormax. That was a bummer... You taxes should only consist of VAT (BTW in Nederland) There is no import duty for goods costing lower then 150 euro. The Dutch government thus charges you about 6-7 euro. The rest you paid are handling costs (inklarings kosten) by the transport company. These vary a lot and should for small packages be free. I got some conflicts before about those costs, and I just told them I did not accept the cost and refused the package. They would then have to return it to sender which is a large cost to them. If it is the likes of DHL or Fedex then they really do not like it and in my case they waved their handling costs. This obviously will not work all the time, but sometimes you have to set a limit. Now i live in Thailand and again DHL and Fedex charge redicoulous amounts of costs. These are mostly made up costs as there is no special handling at all. From the USA USPS is best as they are part of the worldwide postal system. When the package arrives local postal services do the delivery. Microblocks. Build with logic.