New Product Friday: A Basic Product Post
We have a good balance of products for this week. Check them out and see if one can be a solution for a problem with your project.
It's Friday, so that means we have more new products to talk about. Last week's instructional video was a success so I will be doing more like that in the future for sure. I can't do one every week, but when something comes along that I feel needs a little extra explaining, I'll do my best to put something together.
The smallness of the new GPS unit can really only be realized when you see someone picking it up. It really is amazingly tiny. It was a little hard to see in the video (check the pictures), but the pH kit is a really well put-together kit that certainly IS a true scientific instrument. I love hobby-grade stuff, but the pH kit is not hobby grade.
So, as you saw in the video, this GPS module is tiny! The GP-2106 GPS module features an antenna and the new SiRF IV architecture in a package that's only about 6x6x21mm! It also has a hibernate mode to bring power consumption down to around 30uA. I know I'm going to using this in something pretty soon. We are making a breakout board and have the ribbon cables on order.
Remember a few weeks back when we got a rotary encoder and thought it was a quadrature encoder? We remember it well. You commented heavily how wrong we were and how it only had a single output, which does not make it a quadrature encoder. Well, this IS a quadrature encoder. This model features and A and a B output so you can not only tell how fast something is rotating, but in what direction. These seem very nicely made and would make a great addition to a stepper motor or a DC motor for feedback.
We carry a lot of sensors. You can sense direction, acceleration, rotation, flex, force, light, current, etc. Remember back in school when you had science class and they gave you those little strips of paper that changed color based on pH and you ran around like you finally understood the inner working of the universe and decided to test every possible liquid for it's pH level? I do. This kit is sorta like that, but more scientific. The pH Sensor Kit includes a pH probe, BNC connector, a board for reading values into a microcontroller, and all the calibration solution you can shake a stick at. It's a great kit for all your pH sensing needs.
I'm not sure why, but whenever I get to write A instead of mA, I feel like the product is slightly cooler. I mean, mA is cool, but when you get to measure something in full amps, you know the project is just that much more dangerous and awesome. Really, you should try and find an excuse to run into the 20A limit of this relay. You can use them to switch on and off lights, blenders, toasters, or anything up to 20 amps worth of current.
This looks pretty familiar. A week or so ago we had a revision to the Breadboard Power Supply Stick. This is yet another version and it's a bit different. Sometimes you need lower voltage, like 1.8V for the new GPS module above. This new Breadboard Power Supply Stick allows you to switch between 1.8V and 3.3V.
That's all I have for this week. There will be more next week, so check back next Friday for even more new products and happy Halloween!
