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SparkFun will be closed on Tuesday, November 5th to support our team in being able to go out and vote! Orders placed after 2 pm MT Monday, November 4th will ship on Wednesday, November 6th. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
We're back with more new products! We have a little bit of something for everyone this week. Be sure to check out the bubble displays in action in the video.
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I'm already trying to find a use for those displays. They aren't the brightest in the world, but they're really cool looking and the size is perfect. Just think of a huge array of them displaying an assortment of sensor values.
The T5403 is a ultra-low current barometric pressure sensor. It has an I2C interface and accepts 1.7 - 3.6V input. This could be great for a high altitude balloon project, or any application where you need to conserve power.
This is the HP QDSP-6064 bubble display, a tiny, 4-digit, 7-segment numerical indicator. The bubble lens on each digit gives them a really distinctive look. They make for great small numeric readouts. They also don't draw much current and work just like any other 7-segment display.
A couple of weeks ago we released the new pcDuino V2. It's a cool board, but it only works with 3.3V logic shields. Thankfully, the pcDuino Voltage Translator Shield let's you use your 5V shields with the pcDuino V2.
There's a new version of the popular EM-406A GPS module, the EM-506. The form factor has changed a tiny bit and it has an updated chipset, the SiRF IV. It;s a great simple and reliable GPS receiver for all your positioning needs.
Lastly, we finally found a good 9V li-ion battery charger! It's made by Tenergy and can charge 2 9V batteries at once and has a status LED to let you know when your battery is ready to use.
That's it for this week. Hopefully there's something here you've been waiting for. As always, thanks for watching and reading and we'll see you again next week with more new products!
Wow, I really don't like getting the mobile version of this site now. Any way to bypass this?
Just curious - what device are you using, and why is the mobile site worse than the regular on it? One of the main reasons we made it available is because we had a lot of people wanting a more mobile-friendly version. We always want to make the user experience better, so please let us know!
The site is now responsive to screen size, and will rearrange itself for big, small, and in-between. If you zoom out, does it help?
iPhone 5s. Safari. Zooming out doesn't help. It's the abridged nature of what is served up. It would be nice if there was a choice. I can send a screen shot if you wish
Where do you get the music for the end of your videos? I love it.
Glad you like it! I produced all of the bump music that we use at the end of our videos. They really only exist as the loops that you hear, there aren't any full song versions of most of them.
You should publish your loops!
You say the charger "has status LEDs", but it appears to only have one LED and an empty depression where the other might be expected to be.
yeah, sorry, it's just the one, with multiple colors to indicate charging state.
My Tenergy AA-AAA charger blinks to show power on. Off when empty. Steady red when not charged. Flashing red when something is wrong. Then green when that one position is fully charged.
I wonder if those HP retro bubble displays are bright enough to project on the ceiling in a darkened room using a suitable lens (C-mount?). I'm thinking of a clock display I can see in the middle of the night without my glasses.
Highly doubtful. Inverse square law and all that. The characters on these displays are really tiny; to have them scale up to being visible at, say 8-10 feet (depending on how bad your eyes are) you'd be spreading the teeny amount of light across a pretty large area.
It would be interesting to see how large one could spread it in a completely dark room and still see it with adapted eyes...science project!
Hmmm... not sure that the T5403 is well suited for high-altitude balloon work; the datasheet indicates that the low end of its sensitivity is at 300hPa, or approx. 9.1km / 30,000 ft. For reference, StillDavid's flight that reached 130,000 feet would have seen something like 3.5hPa.