Brainlink on sale

I got an email earlier this week from Surplus Shed about the Brainlink being on sale for $20, in the aftermath of its discontinuation. It looks like a really cool device. It can hook up via Bluetooth to a computer or an Android phone on one end, and to many things on the other end: it has two PWM motor controllers, some DAC I/O, some analogue I/O (low resolution but the firmware is user-upgreadeable), a proximity sensor, accelerometers, and IR transmitter. The last of these is supposed to make it capable of controlling Roombas, TVs, DVD players and toy robots (I plan to try it with some of our IR helicopters, though the range of the IR on the Brainlink is supposed to be short, and maybe with our Pleo if we can make its battery pack work), and you can control it with Java code (there is an SDK). It's all beautifully open and well-documented. Very sad it's discontinued, but the original price was way more than a Raspberry Pi, so it's not surprising it didn't fly. For $20 it's a steal. The official website for the product is here. My eldest daughter and I are really looking forward to it! (Of course we may end up disappointed.) Techie readers may want to check it out.