Friday Product Post: Gator Aid
Three new gator:board ProtoSnaps for your micro:bit and a compact USB Logic Analyzer moves over from SparkX!
This week we are very excited to bring you three new ProtoSnap boards that will help bring even more functionality to the micro:bit. We call them gator:boards! On top of them, we have also brought over a USB Logic Analyzer from SparkX that won't break the bank, but will still provide you with an excellent new tool for your workbench!
As a reminder, one day only sales are back with our Time Saving Sale for the month of October, so we'll be having flash sales on a wide selection of breakout boards every weekday from now until October 26th. Just check the featured content at the top of the homepage each weekday for the new deal! In addition to our breakout board flash sales, we’ll also be taking 15 percent off most of our Qwiic boards through October 31st. Unfortunately, SparkX items aren’t included, but those are a great deal if you’re looking to be on the cutting edge of SparkFun’s product development.
Not just a green gator!
The SparkFun gator:color ProtoSnap is perfect if you want to add a low-profile glowing component to your project. It's equipped with six LED boards that can be kept as a whole while on the board, or broken apart for individual use! Included on each board are two white LED boards; a single red board, green board, blue board and yellow board; and a power rail.
Safer than your regular gator!
The SparkFun gator:starter ProtoSnap provides you with a starting point to go beyond the capabilities of the micro:bit with three different boards that can be kept as a whole while on the board, or broken apart for individual use! Included on each gator:starter is a temperature sensor board, a light sensor board and an RGB LED board.
You try and think of a better way to control a gator!
The SparkFun gator:control ProtoSnap provides you with a handful of different ways to interact with projects you create, using only gator-clip cables. Each little board on this ProtoSnap can be kept as a whole while on the board, or be broken apart for individual use! The gator:control ProtoSnap contains four boards in the main assembly including two buttons, an on/off slide switch and a reed switch, which is activated by a magnet.
With the growing ubiquity of UART, I2C and SPI sensors, logic analyzers are becoming a tool everyone needs in their toolbox or on their workbench. This 8-channel USB Logic Analyzer, with support for sampling rates of up to 24MHz, provides a good, economic option, making it a great tool for quickly diagnosing most communication issues we encounter. This analyzer will work with both 3.3V and 5V systems (up to 5.25V max and 2.0V minimum on a high logic level) and is powered via an included mini-B USB cable.
That's it for this week, folks! 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!
Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose... I wish these "gator:starter" boards had come out a couple of weeks sooner, as I'm giving a presentation next week to some Senior Citizens about micro:bit, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi. The "gator:starter" would have been a great example of "I/O", especially for the micro:bit. Oh well...
Off on another tangent: are these on "glass-free" boards? My experience is that "snappable" boards made out of fiberglass containing PCB material sometimes give off some tiny fibers when "snapped", and can even leave some sharp edges, both of which could be a problem with young kids. (The sharp edges issue can be dealt with by using a small file on the "snapped points', but if it contains fiberglass, this process needs to be done with some precautions.)