All sorts of great new stuff came in at the same time! Go grab yourself a drink and stay a while...
This is the Trackballer, the breakout board for the Blackberry Trackball. Board comes equipped with four hall-effect sensors, LEDs (RGBW), and the Blackberry Trackball. Check out the video!
The trackball is surprisingly sensitive! And a little RGB blinky doesn't hurt either.
The trackball is surprisingly sensitive! And a little RGB blinky doesn't hurt either.
uLog - The Lil-est Logger - The board that was launched in a rocket out behind SparkFun the other day. 3 Channels of 10 bit ACD logging to a 16Mb flash with a simple UART interface.
A customer asked why we didn't carry to impressively packed, small ATtiny85. We didn't have a good answer, so we got it!
The O-Clock, i.e. the AVR Oscilloscope Clock is back in a new all SMD version. Turn your X-Y analog oscilloscope into 1 of 30 display combinations.
A customer asked why we didn't carry to impressively packed, small ATtiny85. We didn't have a good answer, so we got it!
On the left: GE864 evaluation board. This is a great board to get you up and running with this small cellular access point. The eval board is nice and light weight so you can easily embed the board in your project. On the right: GE865 breakout. Check out the other GE86x family of tiny GSM/GPRS modems.
The WiFly Breakout is a really easy way to connect your embedded project to a WiFi 802.11b/g network. WiFi with serial commands!
Our largest solar cell yet! Rated for 8V open voltage and 650mA short circuit.
The TFT-LCD ScreenKey is a tactile switch combined with a 128x128 TFT-LCD display that can generate any text or graphics with up to 65,536 color support. Why use just a button when you can display full color images on one?
Really simple, but vital in the wearable e-textile industry, a slide switch for the LilyPad.
Really simple, but vital in the wearable e-textile industry, a slide switch for the LilyPad.
Many of our IMU boards are being revised with new sensors. The IMU 5DOF has been completely redesigned using the new IDG500 dual axis gyro and the new ADXL335 triple axis accelerometer all in a much tighter footprint with more flexibility and greater stability in the outputs.
The bread board power supply stick is a must have for any breadboard. Give it 6-12V input and select either 3.3V or 5V regulated output. Simple to use, and doesn't take up a lot of breadboard space.
Another customer request: We were selling the Nordic FOB, but what if they only wanted the enclosure? Now is your chance. The Key Fob Enclosure with Button Pad is offered without any internal electronics. And because the PCB layout inside one of these enclosures can be a bit tricky, we offer our Nordic FOB eagle files to help you get started!
The IMU 3DOF is using the new ADXRS61x single axis gyros. Three different flavors, all with the ADXL320 dual axis accelerometer: ADXRS614 (50 degrees per second), ADXRS610 (300 degree per second), and the ADXRS613 (150 degree per second).
Another customer request: We were selling the Nordic FOB, but what if they only wanted the enclosure? Now is your chance. The Key Fob Enclosure with Button Pad is offered without any internal electronics. And because the PCB layout inside one of these enclosures can be a bit tricky, we offer our Nordic FOB eagle files to help you get started!
This is the Serial Graphic LCD on the left and the Graphic LCD Serial Backpack. The Graphic LCD Serial Backpack interfaces to either our 160x128 pixel ?Huge? Graphic LCD, or the smaller 128x64 pixel display, and provides a simple serial interface to a full range of controls. Now you can have a great graphical display with a simple to use serial interface!
The WiiChuck Adapter is a small PCB that is designed to be inserted into the connector of a Nintendo Wii Nunchuck to provide access to all 4 wires of the remote. Check out the WiiChuck homepage for tutorials and Arduino libraries.
If you ever wanted to talk into your watch, this is the part to get. The MEMS Microphone consists of 2 ground pins, power, and an analog output.
The WiiChuck Adapter is a small PCB that is designed to be inserted into the connector of a Nintendo Wii Nunchuck to provide access to all 4 wires of the remote. Check out the WiiChuck homepage for tutorials and Arduino libraries.
Breaking into a new spectrum: IR LEDs. Great for turning your TV on and off, remote control, even multi-touch surfaces!
These are force sensing resistors. The resistance changes depending on how much pressure is being applied to the sensing area. These are not scale accuracy, but are great for detecting a presence (someone is standing on me) or a rough amount of pressure on a surface.
Here are some new Arduino shields:
Here are some new Arduino shields:
The WingShield ScrewShield extends all pins of the Arduino out to 3.5mmrnpitch screw terminals. Both sides of the shield are broken out to the side of the Arduino, to allow access to everything on the main Arduino board.
This is an 8-pin female header, with extra long legs that are slightly offset. The offset helps correct for the weird 0.16" spacing between the two 8-pin headers on the digital side of an Arduino. Stick this and an 8-pin Stackable Header on an Arduino and D7 and D8 pins will be spaced by a more standard 0.2". This allows you to then use a standard perf board stacked on top of the Arduino.
Whew!
Whew!
Nice to see the 5DOF board updated! I was hoping to see a flat 6 DOF IMU using the new ISZ gyros though. Oh well.
I agree with Fred. I've been waiting for new 6 DoF IMUs to show up as well.
Speaking of flat 6DOF, SFE could have already done such a thing with a 3-axis accel, IDG500, and an AXRS610. Just sayin'.
Not to mention that even in quantities of 1000 the AXRS610 costs twice what I can get the ISZ-500 for in single quantities. I can imagine that the disparity only grows as you buy fewer AXRS610s.
5V ADXRS and 3.3V IDG. Not pretty.
I hear you. The world of gyros is changing quickly. New and exciting stuff on the horizon! But I hate vaporware so we try not to announce anything until we have stock ready for sale. Should we be doing it a different way? Should SparkFun offer pre-order capability on some of the new and upcoming items? Would help prevent us from being out of stock of the newer items as they hit the homepage.
The positive sides of pre-announcing are pretty obvious. One negative for the company doing the pre-announce is that it tends to kill sales of the product(s) being replaced. Any delays in the new product not only make customers unhappy but your CFO as well. Personally, I'd love to see a road map of what's coming up but wouldn't blame you in the least if you held it close to the vest until you were certain of delivery dates. Maybe it doesn't matter for the small stuff but the cash cows need to be tended to...
Yup! It is pretty amazing how quickly MEMS gyros are changing!
As for pre-announcing, that is a good question.
On one hand, being open about upcoming products can make customers unhappy if there are any delays. This is something that I have definitely noticed with companies like Castle Creations, that like to be more open about what they are working on. With their Monster Max ESC especially they got a lot of flack because it was delayed several times.
But on the other, if you are open about upcoming products, you might be able to get some good feed back from customers before it goes into production, leading to a product that better fits their needs, and get a better bead on how much demand there will be for the product. And I think that you could escape some of the product backlash if you refuse to pronounce release dates, instead just saying that it is something that is being worked on, and might be released.
Maybe it is something to experiment with? Then decide if it is worth it or not?
electricity is lazy, connecting power to ground shorts it whenever that button is pressed. the one you want it connected to normally should be connected through a resistor, when both are connected the input pin will read the one without a resistor as there is no resistance
also, higher value resistors are better
couple questions about the trackball, I just got it. do you wire the up/down/left/right into digital pins or analog-in pins? (sorry i'm new at this) and to read the HIGH/LOW state of a certain hall effect sensor you have to have 5v running to the hall effect sensor just like you would a regular push button? if so im having trouble with buttons, I have a arduino mega and whenever i use a button wired to a pin, gnd, and 5v and I pressed the button my arduino shuts off and when I release it comes back on. I don't have a resistor but would that make a difference? thanks Buggy
Nate: _ And Jassper - when do you sleep? _
I try not to ;)
At first the holes on the Arduino Pro Mini didn't look like they were plated - I guess I didn't look close enough!!
Just didn't look like the plated holes I am use to on the boards I have custom made from an outside source.
Still trying to find a use for the trackballer, it's just too cool not to use it. >8)
Can you name the song/artist that plays when the trackballer lights up? It was also at the end of the pogo bed video:) Very groovy.
Ahh - it might look like that because the vias are 'tented': we cover up vias with solder mask to help with silkscreen coverage. It may look like there's just a hole there, but it's plated through.
Not really in relation to anything new here, but just curious why you don't use Plated through holes?
As far as I know, all of our boards' holes are plated through unless they are very large, in which case they are routed out when the board is routed out of the panel. If you are asking why we use a lot of surface mount parts, it is because they are much smaller, not that much harder to solder and a lot of parts only comes in surface mount packages. Does this answer your question?
After closer examination, you are correct. The holes are plated through but it is very thin as I can see the roughness of the board material. I guess I am use to the way my boards are made.
I have also noticed that your SMT pads will lift off the board very easily during re-solder. Maybe these are both a reflection of the quality of the boards.
Not to fear however, I think Sparkfun is great and a good source for unique Items. Customer service is excellent. Keep up the good work!
This thread came out of left field... And Jassper - when do you sleep? 4AM comment time?!
All holes are plated through because non-plated holes costs extra.
All pads lift off all PCBs with heat and stress. Check your iron temp and use extra flux where possible. Any mechanical addition (like a big wire on an SMD pad) can cause extra stress and rip pads off. I try to solder to the legs on ICs to avoid this problem.