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A mysterious package showed up on my doorstep today - box "INTJ-28", an instance of the The Great Internet Migratory Box of Electronics Junk, also known as TGIMBOEJ, which is the invention of a group called Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories (note: I am not making this up). The concept is someone sends a box of electronics junk to a recipient (e.g. me), the recipient takes some parts, adds some new parts, and sends it to a new recipient. Each recipient documents the box. There are currently about 120 of these boxes roaming the world.
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How did I end up with this box? I signed up on the request list a bit over a year ago, and was recently chosen by Mr. INTJ to receive a box. In other words, some total stranger on the internet sends me a box of junk. In turn, I've picked another total stranger from the list to receive the updated box of junk.
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The contents of the box were pretty interesting. At the top is speaker wire, a USB/PS2 adapter, network cable, and a firewire cable. The blue box is the puzzling "JBM Electronics Gateway Cellular Router C120+F". To the right of it is a box of 9 small speakers, which seems like more speakers than anyone would need (which may be why they are in this box). In the next row is a wall-wart, USB extension, firewire cable, gender changer, RCA cable, a very bright 9-LED module, a Intel PRO/1000 MT Gigabit adapter, binding posts, a little mystery board, a short Ethernet cable, and a USB cable. At the bottom is a blinking USB ecobutton, two small stepper motors, a large stepper motor, and a HP combination calculator / numeric pad (which seems to be broken). Under the stepper motor is a PIC 18f4431 microcontroller, designed for motor control, and a Basic Stamp 2p microcontroller module. I think the Basic Stamp is the prize of the box, but I'm leaving it for the next recipient since I'm unlikely to switch from Arduino to a new platform. (Click the above image for a larger version.) I ended up taking the big stepper motor, the LED, a few cables, the binding posts, one of the speakers, and the ecobutton. What I added to the box will be a surprise to the next recipient, whom I hope will post soon.