Tweeting Kegerator
A new tutorial on getting a kegerator to tweet, and new products! A full rotation servo, HMC5843 magneto breakout, dual axis gyro, DC and Car power adapters, 16MHz resonator, and an RGB LED light cube kit.
A tweeting kegerator! Why? So we can tell when the keg needs replacing, of course. We combine an Arduino with a magnetic reed switch and weight sensor to get our keg's status available to our beer guru. Follow the SparkFunKeg on twitter.
Enough about Twitter. Let's talk hardware.
The LilyPad accelerometer is now offered with the new ADXL335 triple axis sensor.
Enough about Twitter. Let's talk hardware.
Books are good. Programming Interactivity is especially good if you're looking to learn about the interactivity between computer development environments (like Processing and Java) and hardware (like embedded electronics, microcontrollers, and Arduino). A well written book with good descriptions of some very advanced topics. Mmm. 700 pages of goodness.
The HMC5843 breakout is a highly integrated triple axis magnetometer from Honeywell. It's not as precise as other solutions, and it's not a full compass, but if you're looking for basic navigation readings, this itty-bitty breakout makes for a great sensor.
Speaking of sensors, the new dual-axis gyros from ST have arrived! The LPR530AL is the first of a large array of very cool, small, and low cost gyro sensors. We've got lots of breakout and combo boards in the pipeline, coming soon. But in the mean time, the bare ICs are posted.
A retractable miniUSB cable is a handy thing when traveling. We got these stuck with the SparkFun logo just for grins.
A new kit offered by a SparkFun customer! The LED Cube Kit is a 3 x 3 x 3 matrix of tri-color RGB LEDs. It's no Cubatron, but it'll make your desk light up nifty.
A new kit offered by a SparkFun customer! The LED Cube Kit is a 3 x 3 x 3 matrix of tri-color RGB LEDs. It's no Cubatron, but it'll make your desk light up nifty.
The LilyPad accelerometer is now offered with the new ADXL335 triple axis sensor.
We now offer a DC to DC converter breakout. This little guy can handle up to 6 amps!
A lot of the car adapters we found only produced ~500mA. Some of our projects need more power. This 7.5V DC adapter can source up to 3A.
If you've ever looked closely at the Arduino setup, they love 16MHz. The ATmega328 can actually run up to 20MHz, but back when Arduino got started with the ATmega8, 16MHz was the fastest it could run. So most of the Arduino bootloaders, boards, and IDE only support 16MHz. So here we have a 16MHz resonator for all your Arudino and ATmega hacking pleasure.
If you've ever looked closely at the Arduino setup, they love 16MHz. The ATmega328 can actually run up to 20MHz, but back when Arduino got started with the ATmega8, 16MHz was the fastest it could run. So most of the Arduino bootloaders, boards, and IDE only support 16MHz. So here we have a 16MHz resonator for all your Arudino and ATmega hacking pleasure.
Still think U need to sell the funky resistors for the DC/DC Converter. 2.182k? Who sells such a crazy resistor?
All good questions, but I'm still stuck on a keg at WORK.
KEG at work = best job EVER
Talk about confused... I thought I was looking at a parts list for the kegerator. "How exactly do they need a gyro for that again?"
I like the negative estimates of the amount remaining ;-)