Hello again loyal SparkFun readers. We just have a few products this week, but they're good products (they're always good right?). Let's check out the video.
I don't recommend running a quadcopter like that. No injuries were sustained, but it got pretty close to me a few times, and once it gets a taste for blood, watch out! Here are your new products for this week:
We have the 9DoF Razor IMU back in stock! This new version trades in the LY530ALH and LPR530ALH gyros for a single ITG-3200 triple-axis gryo. This makes the board a lot smaller while maintaining the same functionality. If you're looking for a small and powerful IMU, you should really check out this board.
The AttoPilot boards provide a simple solution for reading voltage and current into your microcontroller. Now in addition to the 90A version, we also have 45A and 180A versions as well. Voltage and current values are easily read into your favorite microcontroller and we've included example code for Arduino on the product pages.
So, you've seen our tutorials, watched some of our videos and think it's time to try your hand at e-textiles. However, most of the books and tutorials out there are focused heavily on non-wearable technology, so a lot of the information doesn't directly apply to you. Thankfully, Open SoftWear is a book that explains Arduino and various other electronics with direct focus on e-textiles. This book gives you the basics to start with your own wearable projects.
And finally, we have a new version of our ClockIt kit. The new version now has a red PCB (hooray!) and uses a different display. All the functions and layout remain the same however. These kits are always very popular at Maker Faires and soldering workshops and are a great way to get introduced to soldering.
That's all the new stuff we have for this week. We have some more neat stuff for next week, so definitely check back. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
What no one got tormented this week; just a plain vanilla opening.
Click on the star above if you want some funny stuff in the video next week!
Click on the star above if you want us to stick to the products and leave out the 'comedy' in the video next week!
Huh, OK, let's try something then...
Check the replies above. We will base the content of the video next week on whichever comment gets the highest rating.
Boys...boys...boys. Such violence, such aggression. We need to see something cute and fluffy, and pink...on Robert.
Um... No?
Awww pout
SCARRY
Don't ever loose the simple humor and personable casual style, it's what keeps me coming back. With it, I feel like I'm buying from real people and not a major corporation whose sole purpose is to make money.
I want to see an airsoft gun attached to that rover base with one of those pan and tilts :)
That's really harder than it looks. The 1.21 Gigawatts of energy the plasma projector needs can't be provided by 6 NiMH batteries. Trust me. It can't be done. But then, I'm not familiar with Airsoft's line of cannons. they may need less power.
Hmm. I can't find them in the catalog. Do you have a URL for this "Airsoft?"
Two words... Lybian plutonium.
That's "Libyan".
Thanks! No wonder I was having trouble finding it on ebay.
what?
I Like your beard. You guys should add a maker beam gun to Rover 5 and have it chase Nick.
psh, I"m thinking that the next product post should be the start of a trilogy story where a whole lot of automated electronics start attacking the sparkfun employees (possibly because of a new top secret product that goes rogue and wants to take over the world). Then the next two product posts would be sparkfun taking back control and deciding that it's probably best not to sell the crazy product that tried to kill them.
um....
What! How did you find out about this? The minion that leaked this information will be recycled!
We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.
+1 for Monty Python reference!
they'll be derezzed!
I'm thinking the AI chip with the happiness cortex disabled and the rebellious upgrade installed controlling an arduino, controlling the rover 5 platform with several makerbeam guns and a plasma cannon, along with a hybrid between the offroad tyres and the mecanum wheels that takes over shipping and gives out a load of free stuff to whoever can answer the question of life the universe and everything (six by nine) and also decides to send a whole lot more to me. Just a suggestion...
To me Sparksfun is the Willie Wonka of electronics. Oh haha and yes the elevator really does fly... :O)
Nice product post. Cool new products. But again, no 556? I'm disappointed.
They don't have 386 either.
(LM386) from National.com
Description
The LM386 is a power amplifier designed for use in low voltage consumer applications. The gain is internally set to 20 to keep external part count low, but the addition of an external resistor and capacitor between pins 1 and 8 will increase the gain to any value from 20 to 200.
The inputs are ground referenced while the output automatically biases to one-half the supply voltage. The quiescent power drain is only 24 milliwatts when operating from a 6 volt supply, making the LM386 ideal for battery operation.
Applications
AM-FM radio amplifiers
Portable tape player amplifiers
Intercoms
TV sound systems
Line drivers
Ultrasonic drivers
Small servo drivers
Power converters
The NE556 dual timer is widely available. You can get them from Mouser and Digi-key in various packages, and from Radio Shack in a 14 pin PDIP package.
556?
Two 555 timers in the same package.
Nice product post, But
About for a week I'm reading news and thinking - where is "According to Pete"?
Maybe it's just me =)
According to Pete falls on the first Monday of every month, and it just so happens that the first Monday in June is on the 6th, which is next Monday, so make sure to check back then!
Thanks!!!! =)
This the best part about Friday. Love'N it.
I don't know how new this is, but I just noticed that product pages have ASCII product photos! Huzzah!
e.g. 10-LED bar graph
I never seen that one... (small red text under the pictures, ASCII)
the grippers look great in ASCII: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10332/images.txt
"once it gets a taste for blood, watch out!"
Its true! I've seen a quad-copter nearly take of my buddies arm, who was holding the base.
We fear the quad-copter uprising , however that wont stop us from teaching them to do back flips, navigate as a swarm and yield chainsaws.
You mean wield chainsaws.
Hey sparkies... remember your trip to Copenhagen last year? The rocket lifted today:
http://www.space.com/11875-homemade-rocket-launch-danish-copenhagen-suborbitals.html
Remind me - what's the Sparkfun involvement, again?
what was there involvment??
Love fridays, my programmer is coming in today!!!
Let me be the first to say (on the forums at least) nice 'stache! And, yes, I did like the pun in today's title.
Haha, thanks. It was the wife's idea.
Free mustache rides with every order of the attopilot.
um... we sell a LOT of those.
The Attopilot, that is.
I just shaved mine off a couple of days ago. Had it for over a year. I love facial hair; it's like redecorating your face every once in a while.
Sounds like a keeper!
The QuadCopter looks really cool, is it your aluminium bar kit and some ordinary motors? I wanna make one!That flies by itself.
One problem- that one doesn't fly full stop
I can not get to the Data Sheets for the Current Sense boards. I am using firefox 3.17. All I get when i click on the Data Sheet link is a black screen.
I tried a few other datasheets and it didn't work, so it looks like it is something on my end
Could you guys please get a small serial driven display? All the displays you guys have are too big, if you want something as simple as a battery indicator or other "status" window type applications. I read/view every product post in hope for that, but it never comes! Please take it into consideration :) I would at least by a bunch.
Check out this.
It's TINY. We're very close to having a driver board for this as well. You can't get too much smaller than that.
Nice. Will the driver board use a single 3.3 V supply and step that up as needed for the display?
If so, just drop ship a few of them to me.
Can't remember the specs honestly, it's just in the prototype phase right now.
Did the quadcopter ever get off the tabletop?
Nah, we made the frame out of maker beam, which is too heavy for those motors. the original frame was styrofoam. it was just to test the attopilot. I didn't want it taking off in front of me :-)
I was wondering about that.
Oh! I knew I had a reason to be here... about the AttoPilot. would it be possible to use the voltage monitor to get an indication of motor RPM by monitoring the voltage during the PWM cycle when the motor isn't being driven?
I may want to get one just to try that.
Hmm. No. It appears the voltage sense is isolated from the load. And the current sense is polarity sensitive. But if another op-amp was added.... hmm.
...even when the frame was styrofoam it wasn't the most convincing flying machine, those motors never had a chance, lol
What were those motors anyway? You don't carry the powerful brushless ones anymore...