A Pair of Awesome Projects and New Products!
It's not about how complex your project is - it's about how clever! Also check out a hacked Kindle and a bunch of new product offerings!
By all accounts, the Amazon Kindle is a pretty nifty gadget. But how could it be even better? Well, by being able to connect to your computer wirelessly of course! Check out this hack! Using the SparkFun BlueTooth mate and some clever hardware hacking, he got his Kindle DX to mate via BlueTooth protocol with his computer. Awesome work!
It's not always about the complexity of the project you create - sometimes, it's just how clever it is. Check out "The Fun Theory" - an initiative started by Volkswagen. Basically, they believe you can change people's behavior by making things more fun (for example, more people will recycle if it's enjoyable). Their projects aren't ground-breaking in terms of the hardware they use or the coding they have to do, but they are most certainly clever - and definitely fun!
And now for new products! We'll start with the LectroCandle Kit - the newest offering in our ever-increasing line of kits. The LectroCandle kit is designed with the beginner in mind (it only requires through-hole soldering). This is essentially just what it sounds like - an electronic candle. It's comprised of 3 RGB LEDs that cycle through all the colors of the rainbow. Perfect to add a little brightness to your next project, or a great place to start for beginners!
Next, we have the MintyBoost kit from Adafruit Industries. This is a very cool kit that allows you to use a couple AA batteries to charge many devices over USB. Perfect for the electronics enthusiast on-the-go!
This is a breakout board for the ISD1932, a multiple-message record/playback device. This single chip can record up to 64 seconds worth of voice messages. Microphone inputs and speaker outputs are all handled by the ISD1932.
The Serial Controlled Motor Driver allows you to control up to two DC motors using a serial command interface. The serial interface is easy to use and it lets the user select an individual motor, the direction, and the desired speed constant (up to 10 different speed from stop to full speed). The board is based on the L298 Dual Full-Bridge Motor Driver from ST Micro. The motor driver can provide up to 4 Amps of current to the motors (2 Amps per motor). Great for precise control of your next robotics project!
Help your next project find its way with the D2523T GPS Module. The D2523T is a compact GPS smart-antenna engine board, which comes equipped with a Sarantel GeoHelix high-gain active antenna and GPS receiver circuits. The module is based around the high performance 50-channel u-blox 5 platform.
Here we have a 20mm rippled wide optic lens. This is specifically designed for use with high intensity LEDs (like our Rebel Luxeon LEDs). This lens will produce a rippled beam with a 24? beam angle.
So you want to use ultra-bright LEDs but don't want your project to melt? Good thinking. Check out this heatsink designed for use with our Rebel Luxeon LEDs. Keep your project cool!
More stuff to go along with the Rebel Luxeon LEDs. This is a Solderless LED Holder that snaps easily into the heatsink above.
Now for the LEDs themselves! Available in Royal Blue, Red, Cool White, Green, and Warm White. These are super-high intensity LEDs that are blindingly bright (seriously, please don't look right at them) and also are tiny (just about 3 x 4.5mm). Use them with the heatsink and holder above for a complete solderless LED casing.
The 7027 "BuckToot" LED Power Module is a true constant current regulated driver for LEDs. Unlike standard power supplies, which deliver a fixed voltage to the output, the BuckToot LED driver is designed to reliably vary the output voltage as required to deliver a stable constant current to your LEDs.
This is a nice, simple toy DC motor for your next robotics project. This is a small toy DC motor with about 29.5mm long leads. It has a small circular shaft which measures about 2.8mm long.
The USB3318 is a high-speed USB 2.0 transceiver that supports system architectures based on a 13MHz reference clock. The USB3318 is an extremely flexible chip which allows the USB connector to act as a single port of connection for high speed data transfer, battery charging and stereo/mono audio accessories.
The MMA7361LR1 is a low power, three-axis analog accelerometer. The sensor has a g-Select input which allows for the selection between two measuring ranges - ?1.5g or ?6g. There will be a breakout board coming soon!
This little guy (the BMP085) is a ultra-low power barometric pressure sensor. It offers a measuring range of 300 to 1100 hPa with an absolute accuracy of down to 0.03 hPa. Perfect for your next weather-based project!
This 2xAAA battery holder puts a nice finishing touch on your battery powered project.
This holder features a sliding, removable cover as well as an ON/OFF switch which can be used to control power to your project.
The MAX7219CNG is a compact, serial input/output common-cathode display driver that can interface microprocessors to 7-segment numeric LED displays of up to 8 digits, bar-graph displays, or 64 individual LEDs.
Next, we have the MintyBoost kit from Adafruit Industries. This is a very cool kit that allows you to use a couple AA batteries to charge many devices over USB. Perfect for the electronics enthusiast on-the-go!
This is a breakout board for the ISD1932, a multiple-message record/playback device. This single chip can record up to 64 seconds worth of voice messages. Microphone inputs and speaker outputs are all handled by the ISD1932.
The Serial Controlled Motor Driver allows you to control up to two DC motors using a serial command interface. The serial interface is easy to use and it lets the user select an individual motor, the direction, and the desired speed constant (up to 10 different speed from stop to full speed). The board is based on the L298 Dual Full-Bridge Motor Driver from ST Micro. The motor driver can provide up to 4 Amps of current to the motors (2 Amps per motor). Great for precise control of your next robotics project!
Help your next project find its way with the D2523T GPS Module. The D2523T is a compact GPS smart-antenna engine board, which comes equipped with a Sarantel GeoHelix high-gain active antenna and GPS receiver circuits. The module is based around the high performance 50-channel u-blox 5 platform.
So you want to use ultra-bright LEDs but don't want your project to melt? Good thinking. Check out this heatsink designed for use with our Rebel Luxeon LEDs. Keep your project cool!
More stuff to go along with the Rebel Luxeon LEDs. This is a Solderless LED Holder that snaps easily into the heatsink above.
This is a nice, simple toy DC motor for your next robotics project. This is a small toy DC motor with about 29.5mm long leads. It has a small circular shaft which measures about 2.8mm long.
The MMA7361LR1 is a low power, three-axis analog accelerometer. The sensor has a g-Select input which allows for the selection between two measuring ranges - ?1.5g or ?6g. There will be a breakout board coming soon!
This little guy (the BMP085) is a ultra-low power barometric pressure sensor. It offers a measuring range of 300 to 1100 hPa with an absolute accuracy of down to 0.03 hPa. Perfect for your next weather-based project!
This holder features a sliding, removable cover as well as an ON/OFF switch which can be used to control power to your project.
The MAX7219CNG is a compact, serial input/output common-cathode display driver that can interface microprocessors to 7-segment numeric LED displays of up to 8 digits, bar-graph displays, or 64 individual LEDs.
