09-28-2022 07:44 PM
I posted about the NI Trading Post earlier, but it appears that it was taken down, I know it's a bit off topic, but the intention is to help create a trusted and verified community that can share and trade secondhand NI hardware.
The intention for creating the LinkedIn group and the forum was to try and help engineers who are suffering from the chip shortage and global factors. We were in the situation several months ago where another extended delay on a cRIO module was severely impacting our client, I reached out to my friend and former colleague Christopher Farmer and asked if he had one. Luckily Chris did and we were able to move forward.
So we created The Hardware Library as a place to share resources, it became apparent that the group was very NI centric, and many wanted to be able to sell their old NI stuff. So we changed the group to the NI Trading Post.
Limitations of LinkedIn groups (difficult to see old posts, not searchable from outside LinkedIn or the group) encouraged us to create the NI Trading Post forum.
There is a strict verification process for anyone to post items, which includes admins checking the members LinkedIn profile and asking them directly through a LinkedIn DM if they created the account. We wanted people to know who they are loaning to or buying from.
The LinkedIn group has over 500 members and the forum which was launched yesterday is starting to fill.
This isn't a business venture, we do this at our own expense and time. This isn't intended to compete with NI sales, in fact the ability to loan hardware to get you through the lead time can be the difference between putting that order in or finding an alternative. All the conditions that I place on loaning any NI hardware out is that the requester already has or will place an order for the same or similar item.
Thankyou
Kurt Friday
Chief Engineer
09-29-2022 08:30 AM
You need to add a section where people can list what they need. This way someone might be able to provide hardware based on what others are looking for.
09-29-2022 06:39 PM - edited 09-29-2022 06:45 PM
Hi Tim
There is a Hardware Needed section in the General section.