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As part of our new presence in retail, the SparkFun engineers have been hard at work on a number of tutorials centered around our retail line. Today, we want to point out a couple of the new tutorials and remind you to keep an eye on our tutorials page as we are updating it fairly regularly.
The first tutorial we want to mention is all about the 2.2" Flex Sensor. This tutorial will explain how the flex sensor works, what it measures (flex?) and how to integrate it into your next project. We're expecting a huge influx of Nintendo Power Glove knock-offs in the coming months!
The second tutorial is centered around the 3.3V Arduino Pro Mini. This quickstart guide tells you what the Pro Mini is (and isn't), how it compares to a regular Arduino Uno, and explains how to assemble and use it. Once you've read this tutorial, you'll be ready to use the Arduino Pro Mini in your next project! We hope these tutorials help you out - keep a lookout for new tutorials and quickstart guides in the near future!
Nice! I love tutorials!
I'm about to try the "Hot Plate Reflow" tutorial on the BatchPCB boards I got, we'll see how it goes. Of course, I have to wait for all my resistors and capacitors to be shipped for the second time... I ordered all the wrong sizes. Apparently, I didn't know that there are both metric AND US sizes labeled "0402".
So now I have a bunch of 1005 sized SMD resistors. They're SO SMALL they're subject to the laws of quantum physics, which explains their ability to just disappear.
Good thing I don't work for NASA or build critical medical equipment, huh?
Er... Edited to fix... I meant 01005, not 1005. They're only .016 by .008 inch. They will fit into a via hole. Trying to pick them up with tweezers is like picking up an egg with a pair of 2x4s. The difference between these and the 'normal' 0603s like you'll find on an Arduino Pro is like the difference between a Golf ball and a Basketball.
You just build tesla coils?
Not for NASA or for use in critical medical equipment, no.
My threshold is 0603s. I would recommend defaulting to 0805s unless you are really concerned about size. Using anything less than 0603 by hand is probably not worth the headaches. If you're doing something that dense and that small, you might want to look at outsourcing. Like TeslaFan says, at that scale you have to worry about new things like tombstoning and losing parts.
0402's are super tiny! I struggled with 0805's and they are twice the size! Good luck with your second set!
Sounds informative. I hope you plan on updating some of the older tutorials as well. Many of them appear to be missing images and many of the links were broken last time I checked.