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Step 14Getting Chips for Free
To keep costs to a minimum, you can obtain about half of the chips without paying anything (legally, I'm not talking about robbing your local Radio Shack :-).
How to get free samples: Most semiconductor companies have sample programs - meaning they will send you small quantities of their chips for free! (often you don't even pay for shipping). The exact conditions are different from one vendor to the next, but for a hobbyist it means that you can get most of your chips you need without having to pay for them. The LCS-1M design relies heavily on that to keep costs down. For Microchip, you need a non-generic email address (e.g. not Hotmail) - use your work address or similar, then you can order 4 different types chips (between 3 and 5 of each) twice in each 40-day period - quite generous I think. Maxim has no specific limit on the email address or the number of orders per time span (although they do restrict the number of chips of a single type).
How to get free samples: Most semiconductor companies have sample programs - meaning they will send you small quantities of their chips for free! (often you don't even pay for shipping). The exact conditions are different from one vendor to the next, but for a hobbyist it means that you can get most of your chips you need without having to pay for them. The LCS-1M design relies heavily on that to keep costs down. For Microchip, you need a non-generic email address (e.g. not Hotmail) - use your work address or similar, then you can order 4 different types chips (between 3 and 5 of each) twice in each 40-day period - quite generous I think. Maxim has no specific limit on the email address or the number of orders per time span (although they do restrict the number of chips of a single type).
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