Friday Product Post: Go Play in the YARD
The YARD Stick One from Great Scott Gadgets is here, along with the RPLIDAR and two fun, SparkFun Original Paper Circuit kits!
Hello and welcome, one and all, to another exciting Friday Product Post! This week we have four excellent new products for you to enjoy: the YARD Stick One to help meet your wireless needs, the RPLIDAR A2M8 to fill the hole in your heart that was left when the Scanse Sweep left us, and two versions of the new SparkFun Paper Circuits Kit!
Just as a reminder: you have until the 8th of July to get a free 5V Arduino Pro Mini if you already have $30 worth of product in your cart! After the 8th we will be moving onto the next free product, so make sure to get these deals while you can, because after that (or after the reserved 500 units are gone) they will be over! Find out more information at our Four Weeks of Free post from earlier this week.
It's a pretty big week so let's jump in and take a closer look at all the new products!
The grass is always greener...
The YARD Stick One (Yet Another Radio Dongle) is a palm-sized, low-speed USB wireless transceiver (similar to a Software-Defined Radio (SDR)) from Great Scott Gadgets that can transmit or receive digital wireless signals at frequencies below 1GHz. With official operating frequencies of 300-348MHz, 391-464MHz, and 782-928MHz, the YARD Stick One is a half-duplex SDR that can transmit and receive under ASK, OOK, GFSK, 2-FSK, 4-FSK, MSK at data rates up to 500kb per second.
360° right at your fingertips!
Released Monday, the RPLIDAR A2 is the next generation of 360-degree, 2D LIDARs. Each RPLIDAR A2 can take up to 8000 samples of laser ranging per second, thanks to its high rotation speed. The on-board system can perform 2D 360° scans within a range of 12 meters (18m with a bit of firmware adjustment). Additionally, the generated 2D point cloud data can be used in mapping, localization and object/environment modeling!
No soldering or coding required!
Welcome to the world of paper circuits! The SparkFun Paper Circuits Kit teaches the basics and fundamentals of creating an electric circuit without the need to solder or code a single thing! Using the provided templates, strips of copper tape and LEDs, the SparkFun Paper Circuits Kit provides you with 10 fun and informative light-up robot cards that should only take between five and 10 minutes to assemble! No previous electronics experience is required.
The only things you will need to get each simple circuit card built that aren't included in SparkFun Paper Circuits Kit, are CR2032 coin cell batteries, scissors, a hole punch, tape and any coloring supplies to make your little robot pop.
If you need more individual kits than the 10 you get in the kit above, how about the SparkFun Paper Circuits Classroom Pack? This pack is almost exactly what is in the kit above, except you get 30 individual kits inside, more LED color options, and CR2032 batteries!
That's it for this week, everyone! We really hope you enjoy all the fun new products we have available today. As always, we can't wait to see what you make! Shoot us a tweet @sparkfun, or let us know on Instagram or Facebook. We’d love to see what projects you’ve made!
We'll be back next week with even more fantastic new products!
