SparkFun Gets a Sign!
It's the little things in life that get us excited! We get a new sign! Also, new flat 6DOF Razor, BeagleBoard, new EasyDriver version, custom serial LCDs, 1Watt high power modem (40 mile range!), Bluetooth dongle, microSD reader, air sensors, and microSD sniffer. !.
If you've ever driven out to SparkFun to pick up an order, take a class, or get a tour, you know that we're a little hard to find. The office park we are in has a dozen buildings that all look similar. To complicate matters, we are currently subleasing ~30,000 sq ft from a company called Polycom. They've completely moved out but won't let us take down their gigantic sign out in front of our building. So people think we're Polycom.
To try to combat this, we installed a big SparkFun flame. A boom truck and a sizable drill bit later, we've got a flame up!
It's kinda cool. Makes us feel a bit more at home. We hope you (yes you) stop by some day and check us out. Look for the building on fire with the flame on top.
New stuff!
Here's an interesting SparkFun exclusive. We worked with an LCD manufacturer to boil our SerLCD product and a 16x2 LCD down into one unit. What this means is the price is falling, the features and getting better, and the module itself is getting smaller! Now you can have a great display with a simple to use serial interface for under $25. Comes in four flavors: White on Black, Red on Black, Yellow on Blue, and the classic Black on Green.
And to add to the microSD line, we now offer the microSD Sniffer. This small breakout board allows a user to inspect the signals that are transmitted between an microSD card and a device that writes to that card.
It's kinda cool. Makes us feel a bit more at home. We hope you (yes you) stop by some day and check us out. Look for the building on fire with the flame on top.
New stuff!
You knew it was coming! The 6DOF Razor is a combination 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope sensor board. Why is this important? Because up to this point in the history of man, you always needed to hang ugly, tall, gyro boards vertically off the board to capture the axis in those directions. Not any more! This opens the doors to some interesting motion capture projects. Of course someday all 6 axis will be buried in a small IC, but today, this is a big step in the right direction.
Shhh! Don't tell DigiKey. Oh shoot, Mouser carries BeagleBoards as well. OK, they're still really cool! These extremely powerful, small boards utilize the OMAP3530 processor at 600MHz. The BeagleBoard can even output HD video! 3x3". Wow.
Here's an interesting SparkFun exclusive. We worked with an LCD manufacturer to boil our SerLCD product and a 16x2 LCD down into one unit. What this means is the price is falling, the features and getting better, and the module itself is getting smaller! Now you can have a great display with a simple to use serial interface for under $25. Comes in four flavors: White on Black, Red on Black, Yellow on Blue, and the classic Black on Green.
The XTend modem from Digi is a 900MHz 1Watt output radio modem. What does 1W get you? 40 mile range line of sight! You'll need a good antenna and a good height off the ground, but this is easily the most powerful radio we've played with to date.
I deal only with microSD (as opposed to full sized SD) these days and often find myself inserting the random microSD card into my BlackBerry, then attaching my BlackBerry to the computer just to read the contents. No more! I really like this microSD reader. Keep it simple. Insert the microSD card into the USB connector, flip it around and any computer will be able to read the FAT16/FAT32 contents of the card.
New version of the EasyDriver is now posted! This very popular stepper motor driver board is now 3.3V and 5V compatible. Capable of driving loads up to 30V and 750mA per phase, this board can handle quite a powerful stepper motor.
I deal only with microSD (as opposed to full sized SD) these days and often find myself inserting the random microSD card into my BlackBerry, then attaching my BlackBerry to the computer just to read the contents. No more! I really like this microSD reader. Keep it simple. Insert the microSD card into the USB connector, flip it around and any computer will be able to read the FAT16/FAT32 contents of the card.
And to add to the microSD line, we now offer the microSD Sniffer. This small breakout board allows a user to inspect the signals that are transmitted between an microSD card and a device that writes to that card.
Speaking of small, the new mini Bluetooth module prevents damage to USB ports on laptops. Small enough you can forget it and leave it in the port while traveling.
The Smart Card breakout board will allow you to easily tinker with smart cards. This opens up all sorts of good identification projects.
