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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.
In the ongoing attempt to carry every product you need, we have yet another chapter added to the saga. And I also had my first opportunity to be a hand (wrist?) model. Oh, how I love this job.
Is SparkFun selling jewelry? Not really. But we are selling some really cool bracelet kits from Aniomagic. Essentially, it's a microcontroller bracelet with LEDs. But it has a little secret - it can be programmed by simply holding it in front of your computer screen! Look ma, no wires! It's not magic, but cleverly uses a light sensor to accept code. We have three different colors, red, white, and blue. I know, it's strangely patriotic. Check out this video for more!
Yes, you can haz LCD display! Sometimes you just want a visual feedback for your project. Maybe you want to display heading, altitude, speed, status, or just display internet meme phrases. Either way, the LCD Add-on kit for the SIK allows you to do this. Of course you can use this with any Arduino and it is not specific to the inventor's kit.
In addition to our MedTex180 and Ripstop conductive fabrics, we now have a lighter weave MedTex130 fabric. The MedTex180 is a bit heavier and stretchy in both directions.
There is also a new version of the MintyBoost. The new version works with almost everything out there, even the iPhone 4! It doesn't help the reception issue, but it does charge your phone, or other USB devices with just AA batteries!
We have a different version and update of the WiFly shield. This new version breaks out more pins on the WiFly module and has a different crystal. Now you can connect your Arduino to an 802.11b/g wireless network.
We now carry another version of the ScrewShield. The new version still has the screw terminals, but also has a prototyping area and a couple of buttons and an LED. It comes as a kit, so you will need to put it together. We are carrying both versions, so you can decide which is right for you.
The weatherboard isn't exactly new, but this is a new version. It now includes an ATmega328 instead of the ATmega168. So it has twice the memory for programs. If you want to add your own firmware, now you have a little bit more room to do so.
We have also revised our old USB MiniB breakout board. The new version breaks out all 5 pins from the USB connector.
Every so often we make mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes work out in your favor. We were building up some UAV V3 boards and accidentally started building them as V2s! We normally sell these without headers, but because of the mistake we now have some with either right-angle or straight headers installed. These are ready for a breadboard or however else you plan to use them. So get some with headers installed for the same price as the ones without. But when they're gone, they're gone.
We've been carrying SD/MMC sockets for quite some time. However, this new version is 2mm taller. I know, try and hold back your excitement, it IS pretty awesome. In any event, we wanted to let everyone know we have some taller ones just in case you don't like them getting all close and personal with your board.
That's all for this week. See you again next week!
Just a quick question. Why is there a focus on Arduino? I've been using PICs in various flavors and they seem pretty good. Sure there is a learning curve but isn't there one associated with any u-controller? How about some stuff that uses PICs?
Anyway......oooOOOooo more goodies!
I started out with PIC and went through a couple of weeks of agony and confusion trying to get an LED to blink. I bought an ARduino with a 328 chip, plugged it in, downloaded the software, and in TEN minutes, i was reading analog inputs and printing them in a console window. I would say the arduino system is about 1,000 times easier for somebody not fluent in uP programming. I guess the down side is that since you are not having to bit bang registers, you will be cast to the pits of hell by your friends.
Crim,
That might be because Arduino is a much easier platform for someone who has never done uC programming before. I know that when I started to try to learn it even with a very strong background in coding, PIC just hurt my head alot. Jumped to arduino, then to AVR C and AVR asm and it is just nicer then the PIC environment was to me.
JM2C
Yep. Give Arduino a try and see what you think.
chansuke: No dude. I agree. I totally love reinventing the wheel. :p
In all seriousness, the arduino is very efficient. Some people like to get down and dirty when playing with microcontrollers, and some people just want to play.
lol its got nothing to do with re-inventing the wheel. You get situations when you have people training to become an engineer and they are learning on arduino's... Using libraries for everything, its like whats the point? You think when you get a job that everything is going to be a library? Heck no!
Like i said, i dont disagree that the arduino is great, its perfect for begineers, and those quick jobs. But it frustrates me when it goes outside those bounds.
Randy: I totally second the comments on trying out the Arduino. I held off for a long time, because I mistakenly thought that Arduino was some weird new language and would somehow make me less of a real programmer if I used it - but not so! It's C++ and all the low-level stuff is still there if you want to do it but also a lot of libraries are there in case you don't.
It's not perfect but once you try I suspect you'll like it and it's just a much more efficient way to get things done.
Arduino's frustrate me. Dont get me wrong, your right they are great for beginners. But, i think ultimately, they lead to people being lazy as far as getting down into the dirt and writing there own drivers for some of the most basic functions, like spi and i2c controllers.
You end up with these people that try to write software for stuff they dont understand and start complaining when it doesnt work correctly, or one of Sparkfun's sheilds doesnt match perfectly for there application, therefore making it useless to them!
Just my 2 cents :P
No dude. I agree. I totally love reinventing the wheel. :p
In all seriousness, the arduino is very efficient. Some people like to get down and dirty when playing with microcontrollers, and some people just want to play.
Yep, you guys are right. But they can do a lot, and can do a lot of general things easily. It's just hard starting out designing all your own firmware and hardware.
Typical. This Tuesday I received my little red box containing my white on black LCD, headers, and some other goodies for my arduino....forgot to pick up a trim pot though! Luckily I had one id scavenged years ago as one of those kids that takes everything apart. Im planning on buying some new ones at work with a larger range. I would buy them on here, but I dont feel like paying the shipping for such a small item.
I would and eventually will. I'm trying to master the Pic32-Mips core and the Amtel SAM9 ARM core first though.
I totally second the comments on trying out the Arduino. I held off for a long time, because I mistakenly thought that Arduino was some weird new language and would somehow make me less of a real programmer if I used it - but not so! It's C++ and all the low-level stuff is still there if you want to do it but also a lot of libraries are there in case you don't.
It's not perfect but once you try I suspect you'll like it and it's just a much more efficient way to get things done.
LCD Add-on kit for the SIK - link is displaying:
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Item DEV-10054 has been retired from our product catalog.
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Hasn't been added yet?
Thanks! Fixed.