Product Post Thursday!

Another new product post, now with extra shenanigans.

Hello loyal SparkFun followers! Another week has gone by and it's Thursday yet again. We have a few new products to talk about and a video that was probably a good idea at the time. So, let's see the video for this week.

Sometimes, I can't believe I get paid for this. If you've come to terms with the fact that we actually carry branded pocket protectors, you can read on for the entire list of new products for this week.

What happens when you combine a LiPo charger AND a boost converter? You get our next product, the PowerCell. The PowerCell combines a MCP73831T-based charger and a TPS61200-based boost converter in one board. You can select from either 3.3 or 5 VDC output, and charge from a MicroB USB cable or the 5V header. This board has infinite uses and is going to be quite popular, I think.

The PoGa from 4D Systems is a kit that gives you a nifty platform to play with their screens. With directional buttons and two 'fire' buttons, the Portable Game Development Console is a great way to prototype all sorts of projects. They also have great documentation and a lot of demos. Check out the product page (and the video above) for more information.

When we say 'let your geek shine' we really mean it. Sticking true to our motto, we are now carrying SparkFun-branded pocket protectors. Not only are they intensely stylish, but they are also severely functional, as you can see from the video above. Keep your lab coat safe, get a pocket protector.

We have a few retail products to talk about. And while these may be more interesting for our distributors, some may make great gifts since they have fancier packaging. We've combined the USB LiPo Charger with a 900mAh LiPo battery and wrapped it all in luxurious plastic. Batteries and chargers are basics that everyone needs to have, so this kit might make a great gift for someone just getting started in embedded electronics.

We also have the LCD add-on kit packaged for retail customers. The LCD add-on kit shows you how to connect an character LCD screen to an Arduino with basic step-by-step instructions. If you want to learn how to control LCDs without a serial backpack, this is a cool kit.

We've also packaged up our Simon PTH kit in retail packaging. This kit has been very popular for us and has been the basis for almost all of our beginner soldering courses. It's a fantastic gift for anyone just learning how to solder. Unlike most soldering tutorials, when you're finished with the Simon Kit, you actually get a fully working game in the end!

For those of you wanting to play around with the LSM303DLH tilt-compensated compass sensor, we sell it as a bare IC. We also have it in breakout board form if you don't feel like messing with the tricky package.

We have a couple of product revisions this week. Our last version of the Easy Driver had a problem with the silkscreen labeling on the trimpot. We've since fixed that and also increased the isolation on the ground pour. If you're looking to easily drive a stepper motor, the strikingly obviously named Easy Driver is just what you need.

We also have a new revision of our ADXL345 breakout board. We listened to the customer feedback and added an extra decoupling capacitor as well as some mounting holes. We are trying our best to integrate mounting holes into our designs, and it makes a lot of sense for the ADXL345 breakout.

Well, that concludes another week of new products. As always, we'll see you next week for even more goodies.