First off, a quick note. Due to the hurricane approaching the East Coast area of the US, some shipping may be delayed. Our thoughts are with all of those out there who may be affected by this storm.
In case you missed last week's post, Rob's in Thailand on his honeymoon which means that I'll be taking over the Friday Product Post for the next few weeks. I may not have a magnificent curly moustache like your usual host, but what I do have is a whole bunch of cool new products!
Hey, I could get used to this! I mean, talking about all of these sweet new products may not be easy but somebody has to do it, right? The big Simon game (nicknamed "EL Simón") was a fun build and I hope it gets you thinking about how you might be able to use EL Panels in your next project! The code for EL Simón is also available on the EL Panel product pages. Well, I guess it's about time to look at the product line-up for this week:
Electroluminescence might just be my favorite optical phenomenon. EL materials are used to make all sorts of things from computer displays and nightlights to internet celebrities! These new EL products can be used in the same way as the EL wire that we sell. The EL panel is 10 centimeters square, comes in four different colors and is great for backlighting displays and signage. The EL tape is a meter long, comes in five different colors and is ideal for illuminating steps, pathways or... your favorite hat!
Our game controller triggers make a really cool input for microcontroller projects but sometimes they aren't very easy to mount. We've solved that problem by creating a handy breakout board! Simply snap your trigger assembly onto the board, solder the potentiometer pins in place and you'll have three mounting holes and some nice solid headers that you can use to mount the trigger to your project.
The FEZ Panda II is an enhanced version of the original FEZ Panda with On-board microSD socket, Real Time Clock, and an easily accessible 40-pin female header that exposes the extra IOs. That's right, same .NET Micro Framework as the original but with more of the stuff you love. And if you aren't a .NETMF fan, the Panda II has JTAG access so you can use your own firmware.
Sparkle is Aniomagic's avant-garde way to make interactive textiles, paper, ceramics, and environments. They've made it so easy to implement that anyone can create interactive works of art. Our resident e-textiles specialist, Dia, has made a tutorial video about Sparkle that you should definitely check out if you're at all interested in what e-textiles with Aniomagic is all about. While we're on the subject, we apologize for her video being cut a few seconds short, our talented videographer is out of town but he'll no-doubt have this fixed within minutes of his return.
Along with our Sparkle kits, we also have 5-packs of Sparkle Lightboards. Use these to add more light to your Sparkle-based e-textile project. You can use up to 20 lightboards with a single Sparkle board so there's no reason not to go crazy with them. They come in five colors: Diamond (white), Emerald (green), Sapphire (blue), Amethyst (purple) and Rose Quartz (pink).
I'm also excited to announce five upcoming classes! On October 11th, we'll be hosting the Simon Sketch Class, where you can learn how to turn your Simon game into a drawing tool for your computer (and pick up some knowledge about writing Processing code along the way). Halloween is approaching and we here at SparkFun take costumes very seriously, so on October 15th we're offering a Halloween LilyPad Costume Class so you can add some extra attitude to your Halloween costume using the ProtoSnap LilyPad Dev Board. I'll be leading a repeat of our popular Introduction to Arduino class on November12th, this is a great class for anyone who's interested in learning embedded electronics but doesn't know where to start. The next day our new member of the education department, Jeff Branson, will be teaching ATMega In-Depth. Come and learn how to use the awesome power of the ATMega328 outside of the Arduino development board! Finally, on December 3rd, we're having an Exciting XBee Class where you can learn all about incorporating XBee radios into your wireless projects.
Well I think that just about covers it for this week, but I'll be back next Friday with even more new products so don't forget to come check 'em out!
I want to see more Rob (and Nick) vs Dave videos.
And good job Nick! You were a bit more thorough than Rob usually is, which is nice.
Rob should probably be afraid of losing his job now, Nick did awesome. :)
A more realistic risk would be Rob getting promoted to something else.
I heard that!
Nice job Nick. You didn't add as many puns as you were told but otherwise you did great.
Nice job! Maybe we can see a pair of "El' Pants"?
EL Panel very nice product but simon game hasn't exactly same arduino, you should be publish more video friends.
Great gob!
but next time try to make more close views of the products presented in th video.
Very nice Nick! I feel like if Robert was abducted, or had problems with the Thai Police that we would be in really good hands.
So bummed about shipping delays. Hope my package doesn't blow away.
Thanks for all the classes! I have taken a few and they have all been great, and the new ones look very good as well! By the way, the new tutorials page is much better, especially the listing of the newest ones at the top -- now I can find them!
nice work nick... the products don't fit my needs/interests but you did great work... the big simon game was a nice idea to show it working and stuff... just needed to show the tapes lighted up or something... also try to show closely all the products with the side camera while you talk and point something in it... from here just looks small tiny stuff...
the big stuff on new product post is making a nice project that cover the new products... I mean, we going to buy it to make something, if you show a cool project we can use it, we might want to buy it to make the same or adapt it to a similar project... that happened with me about the universal's gripper using vaccum pump, magnetic card use, xbee to avr wireless bootloader, etc
I know building these projects might take time but, it's a "must-have" thing on the vids
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. I know we were lacking close-ups of the Aniomagic stuff at the end, I wish we had thought to do that. Hopefully we'll have pictures soon of all of the EL things lit up on each of their respective product pages.
I agree that it's really important to show the products in action and inspire people to use tools and materials in different ways. Normally I have more time during the week to build demonstrations so building the Simon was even a bit of a stretch this week, but they're a lot of fun and I think you're right, it convinces people that they might actually have a use for it instead of just thinking it's cool but they can't use it.
I am surprised that you guys didn't spell out Sparkfun in the EL tape or something fun like it over the red boxes. Have fun with it!
Also, Why is there no Yellow EL pads?
How hard is it to get the EL tape to adhere to let say to a back pack (or any type of fabric)? Some plastics don’t sick to double sided carpet tape or comes off real easy with movement. I think this would be great to use with a construction safety vest, if you can get it to stick to the fabric.
Impossible, it's not adhesive ;)
awesome job on the vid!!! :] awesome products as well! :D
Does the EL tape have adhesive on the back?
I wondered if someone would ask this, because it is called "tape" but it's probably more accurately described as ribbon, there is no adhesive
Good job Nick, and a plus for introducing more glowey things!
Fyi, didn't show up on sparkfun's youtube channel this week:
"This video is unlisted. Only those with the link can see it."
Maybe you can find a moustache on ebay for next week...
Cool new products, especially the EL stuff. You need to cut to some closeups when you show stuff like the breakout boards, you can't see what it is from this distance. Was that link on the screen for like 400ms or something?
Nice! Luminescence is AWESOME! and good job with the new product post!
Nick - Great job! When Rob comes back maybe you can share the limelight - Rob can do the 'what it is' and you can do the 'how to use it'... But leave Dave alone, he deserves a break too!
seconded
he deserves a break too!
No he doesn't!
Well done! :)
Nice job on the video, Nick!