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I don't want to start another "SF vs Miami/Austin rest of the US" but! An awesome thing in the Bay-Area is all the insane stuff you get on eBay and Craigslist.

I don't want to start another "SF vs Miami/Austin rest of the US" but! An awesome thing in the Bay-Area is all the insane stuff you get on eBay and Craigslist. I bought a Velodyne VLP-16 LIDAR for my mobile robot side project and met up with a guy in SF. He had a startup that ended up using vision only so they sold off their LIDARs.

WanderPanda 6y ago
Was that guy also building self landing rockets by any chance?
dave_4_bagels 6y ago
I've gotta' be honest, this post makes me miss my time living in the Bay Area, Los Altos specifically. I don't think I'll ever live anywhere else again where one neighbor couldn't fit his new McLaren 720s in his 70's ranchburger garage after a brief drizzle or my other neighbor who no joke - had a red VW bug with a bumper sticker that read "Ham Radio Saves Lives".
the_only_law 6y ago
> An awesome thing in the Bay-Area is all the insane stuff you get on eBay and Craigslist. I don't browse craiglist much, but I buy a bunch of retro computing / telecom / lab equipment stuff on ebay and the coolest stuff is always local pickup only on the west coast I swear.
- tesseract 6y ago
  This varies by industry of course... the Bay Area is definitely the best place to score computing and electronics related stuff. But southern CA has way more aerospace stuff, New England (especially CT and MA) have a lot of precision instrumentation and manufacturing equipment, and for stuff like robots and heavy duty metalworking machinery you really want to be in the Rust Belt.
  - VectorLock 6y ago
    I haven't found much precision instrumentation or manufacturing stuff on MA craigslist. The MIT Swap Meet used to be THE place for that thing but the past couple years I've gone its all junk. I wonder if there is a new venue to find those things?
alangibson 6y ago
When I read the headline, the first thing I thought was "definitely in California." Not even a question.
- blhack 6y ago
  It's funny that you say this because kindof "the" people who make jet powered cars are in Florida, not San Francisco: https://www.elainelarsen.com/ https://www.elainelarsen.com/
  - mrkstu 6y ago
    Yeah, but they're not going to use a Beetle are they? :)
  - dmix 6y ago
    For ex: Jet Dragster Competition https://youtu.be/8voAgRcKfaU?t=562 https://youtu.be/8voAgRcKfaU?t=562 The sort of thing that makes me love America (yes I know EU people they feature them in other countries).
comboy 6y ago
Now I have to ask, what kind of side project requires such a high quality sensor?
- seltzered_ 6y ago
  I think particular robot side projects, if you can afford it, make use of LIDAR partly because it makes dealing with things much easier than the amount of time invested attempting a vision-based system. It's been a long time but I remember lidar being common (or at least a divide between rich/poor college clubs) a decade ago in competitions like http://www.igvc.org/ http://www.igvc.org/
  - bfrog 6y ago
    Oh definitely. I brought one of the first stereoscopic camera robots there. It was very clear we werent in the same financial support league but we did well I think our second year on there.
mattegan 6y ago
One of my favorite pastimes during COVID has been browsing the "free" section of the sfbay CL. Some truly weird and confusing things on there.
tonywastaken 6y ago
Miami people don’t have the same hobbies as the rest of the country does. Shipping cross-country is the only way I’ve found to sustain the hobbies I picked up in other parts of the country.

WanderPanda 6y ago

Was that guy also building self landing rockets by any chance?

dave_4_bagels 6y ago

I've gotta' be honest, this post makes me miss my time living in the Bay Area, Los Altos specifically. I don't think I'll ever live anywhere else again where one neighbor couldn't fit his new McLaren 720s in his 70's ranchburger garage after a brief drizzle or my other neighbor who no joke - had a red VW bug with a bumper sticker that read "Ham Radio Saves Lives".

the_only_law 6y ago

> An awesome thing in the Bay-Area is all the insane stuff you get on eBay and Craigslist. I don't browse craiglist much, but I buy a bunch of retro computing / telecom / lab equipment stuff on ebay and the coolest stuff is always local pickup only on the west coast I swear.

tesseract 6y ago
This varies by industry of course... the Bay Area is definitely the best place to score computing and electronics related stuff. But southern CA has way more aerospace stuff, New England (especially CT and MA) have a lot of precision instrumentation and manufacturing equipment, and for stuff like robots and heavy duty metalworking machinery you really want to be in the Rust Belt.
- VectorLock 6y ago
  I haven't found much precision instrumentation or manufacturing stuff on MA craigslist. The MIT Swap Meet used to be THE place for that thing but the past couple years I've gone its all junk. I wonder if there is a new venue to find those things?

alangibson 6y ago

When I read the headline, the first thing I thought was "definitely in California." Not even a question.

blhack 6y ago
It's funny that you say this because kindof "the" people who make jet powered cars are in Florida, not San Francisco: https://www.elainelarsen.com/ https://www.elainelarsen.com/
- mrkstu 6y ago
  Yeah, but they're not going to use a Beetle are they? :)
- dmix 6y ago
  For ex: Jet Dragster Competition https://youtu.be/8voAgRcKfaU?t=562 https://youtu.be/8voAgRcKfaU?t=562 The sort of thing that makes me love America (yes I know EU people they feature them in other countries).

comboy 6y ago

Now I have to ask, what kind of side project requires such a high quality sensor?

seltzered_ 6y ago
I think particular robot side projects, if you can afford it, make use of LIDAR partly because it makes dealing with things much easier than the amount of time invested attempting a vision-based system. It's been a long time but I remember lidar being common (or at least a divide between rich/poor college clubs) a decade ago in competitions like http://www.igvc.org/ http://www.igvc.org/
- bfrog 6y ago
  Oh definitely. I brought one of the first stereoscopic camera robots there. It was very clear we werent in the same financial support league but we did well I think our second year on there.

mattegan 6y ago

One of my favorite pastimes during COVID has been browsing the "free" section of the sfbay CL. Some truly weird and confusing things on there.

tonywastaken 6y ago

Miami people don’t have the same hobbies as the rest of the country does. Shipping cross-country is the only way I’ve found to sustain the hobbies I picked up in other parts of the country.