Thermal Drones, Jet Engine, Low-Hour Kuka, and new Shipping Service!

Here’s another fresh batch of government tech auctions with some pretty incredible deals, including the best robot arm I’ve sent out yet. Check out the end of this post for details on a new pickup & shipping service that I’m starting up through Waste Watchers, and please feel free to send in anything you come across that you think should be featured! — Mac

Rolls Royce Jet Engine — Florida — $5,000 — Ends in < 1hr

This one ends in under an hour, but with no bids at $5k we are going to see a relist probably down to half this number. Looks like it was a teaching engine for techs, so I don’t have high confidence in any functionality. Would be an awesome lawn ornament or water feature, though.

Kuka KR500 — Helena, AL — $7,500 — Ends in 20 days

Need a beast of a robot arm that can handle 500 kgs (!) with 0.08 mm accuracy and a 2.5m reach? This is a pretty incredible deal on a more modern arm than we’ve seen in the last few months, and it seems to be in pretty great shape. There’s not much info I can pull out as to what this thing was used for (other than the listing noting it was for “R&D”), but we do get a video of it in operation which is very very rare for govdeals.

This is a big guy though, so if you’re looking to pick up a robot arm and have never dealt with professional riggers or freight transport, shoot me an email. If there’s enough interest, I’ll probably write up a post dedicated to how you can cheaply and safely ship these things across the country.

Telepresence iPad Robot — $1,500 — Salisbury, MD — Ends in 4 days

Not the biggest fan of these, especially at this price, and without any high-level compute (requires your own iPad to function). I suspect these will also be relisted at a lower price, and might get down to a level where the control base (motors, drivers, wheels) becomes attractive.

Tape Library — $250.00 — Berryville, VA (C2) — Ends in 11 days

Any data hoarders out there can snag this Tape Library for an extraordinarily great deal. This thing can support up to 2.7 EXABYTES of data storage — just be ready to shell out for those IBM drives since this one comes empty. Here’s the operating manual for those interested.

DJI Matrices w/Thermal Cameras — $675.00 — Florida — 6 Days Left

The Matrice line has always been an exception to DJI’s historically locked-down ecosystem. Back when I was building path planning systems for drones, this was pretty much the only platform from them that we considered using (though we still went with 3DR — RIP). This auction is for 2 drones, which is important since this model is no longer supported and you’ll be on your own for maintaining them. To be honest, this price is probably worth it just for the cameras. I can’t quite tell with the photos, but it looks like a FLIR Vue might be the gimbaled thermal sensor.

Unfortunately, this seller (Pasco County) will not ship these drones, so you have to pick up locally in Florida. I’ve had a few international readers reach out in the past about options, and I’ve decided to start trialing pickup and ship services for certain auctions, including this one. Contact me on twitter / x if you’re interested!