First off, a reminder that this weekend is Maker Faire New York. SparkFun is already en route! We'll be holding soldering classes at our booth and would love for anyone to come by to chat, talk about your project, or just say hi! Here is a map of the event grounds with a little SparkFun flame marking where our booth will be. Hope to see you out there!
All puns aside, this is a very enlightening week for new stuff. This is by far my favorite week for new products. But before we get started on the new products, I wanted to mention that we went through and adjusted the prices in the sale category. There are some seriously discounted products in there and some new additions as well. So check it out! When it's gone, it's gone. Now for the new products...
Many of you might be excited to see the release of our driver boards for the Luxeon Rebel breakout boards. We have two flavors - a triple driver and a single driver. We also have a fancy assembly tutorial that shows you how to assemble the boards together with a lens and a heatsink.
After spending a long time on a project, wouldn't it be nice if it didn't look like a mess of wires and boards precariously perched on the precipice where you prototype projects (oops, I think my alliteration is showing)? We now have an inexpensive enclosure that houses an Arduino and a shield and even has a cutout if you're using the ethernet shield. It simply presses together and doesn't need screws, so you can open it up quickly (and often) without a screwdriver. It also works with the Arduino Mega, and any board with the same footprint and mounting holes as the Arduino.
What happens when you let Nate tinker? He comes up with the High Altitude Sensing board, which is essentially every sensor we know crammed onto one board. It has an accelerometer, magneto sensor, light sensor, and humidity, temperature, and pressure sensors. It even has a spot for an external temperature sensor and a GPS input for additional altitude information. This was the 'brains' to the High Altitude Balloon project (HAB). Check out the write-up here.
If you've been thinking about the FEZ Domino, but think it's more hardware than you can handle, you might want to look at the Netduino. The .NET platform is growing and the Netduino is a great way to get started.
We have a couple more products to add to our large LilyPad lineup. We have two very simple, but useful boards. The LilyPad Simple Power gives you a switch and a JST connector. You can also use a resistor (SMD or PTH) in line with the output. The LilyPad Battery Connect is just a board with a JST connector. It allows you to connect to a battery and sew it into your design.
If you're itching to void the warranty on your new car for the sake of a cool project, check out the OBD-II to DB9 cable. Check out this project of someone who tapped into the OBD-II for a driving simulator!
A 5-way tactile switch can be a great way to add an easy user interface without adding a lot of real estate. It works just like a joystick and mounts directly to your board.
That's all for this week. As always, thanks for reading!
Any chance of a breakout board for that 5-way tactile switch? (or do you have something that could work for it?)
I have a (very small) project that has needed a very small joystick, and this is perfect, but i'd like a breakout board to attach the wires to, and to use it for mounting, etc.
I'll see you guys on Sunday. :) Hope to get a kit made.
Ok, all the stuff should be fixed. Sorry about that!
Yes, the 'netduino' name is confusing. but, it's a .NET arduino (kinda, but not really). I get why they called it that, but yeah, at least one person will get confused.
Mark my words. Netduino is going to confuse some people. I understand the name... but it is going to be confusing.
Everything up to this point that was Xduino was an arduino - And people will assume it is still true.
Ironic that the arduino.cc faq say
"Note that while we don't attempt to restrict uses of the "duino" suffix, its use causes the Italians on the team to cringe (apparently it sounds terrible); you might want to avoid it"
And it one thing that everyone seems to have latched on to :)
GHI took a better approach with the FEZ Domino, don't use the *duino name, avoid all the hate while still being Arduino-Compatible.
"It has an accelerometer, magneto sensor, light sensor, and humidity, temperature, and pressure sensors. It even has a spot for an external temperature sensor and a GPS input for additional altitude information."
Interface it to an Android phone and voila, instant tricorder!
How come luxeon rebels? Why not Cree XP-G? Latest and greatest. I seriously think if sparkfun had a CNC machine\mill\lathe, ya'll could churn out some serious custom lights. Then again, I'm a candlepowerforums.com addict with too many flashlights so pay no attention to the swamp doc behind the curtain!
-CB
Link to LED assembly tutorial?
-Taylor
oh, found it.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=199
You linked to the OBD-II connector, instead of the cable. The cable is here: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=10087