New Product Friday: A Mega New Product Post!
Yet another new product post with more new products, some classes, and of course a video.
Hello everyone and welcome to yet another Friday New Product Post. We have a good list of new products and a video, as usual. As yet another reminder, today (Friday, November 4th) is inventory day for us so that means no local pickups (unless already cleared/arranged) and no shipping today. But don't worry, we'll start shipping again right after inventory is over.
Our videographer is doing some filming over in Europe this week so our videos will be a bit shorter and simpler than usual next week. I have every intention of doing more explanation and demonstration in later videos, but we need Gregg to get back and get settled in before a big video.
Our first product is an exciting one! This is the Electric Sheep. Perhaps you've heard of the source of this product's name? The Electric Sheep is essentially our version of the Arduino ADK. Based on the ATMEGA2560-16AU and carrying the same bootloader as the Arduino Mega 2560, this board communicates with your Android device over USB by taking advantage of Android's "Open Accessory" protocol.
Oh Polymorph. I remember getting the sample of this stuff in awhile back and having a blast making all sorts of shapes and parts with it. The best part about it is that you only need warm or hot water to start making shapes; no other tools are required. Of course you can get creative and do some pretty cool things with casting techniques. I also love the fact that it can be reused over and over, which makes it a fantastic prototyping tool when you just want to test out an idea. We carry it in 250g bags and also large 1kg tubs.
If you need the connectivity of an Arduino Mega, but don't have the space for the board, why not check out the Mega Pro Mini 3.3v? It uses the same IC, a modified bootloader, and breaks out all the same pins, but in a much smaller form factor. We did away with the traditional Arduino Mega form factor, shrunk it down, and used JST-SH 8-pin headers for connecting all the I/O pins. And since it's a 3.3V board, you can power the whole thing with a LiPo battery.
We also have this JST-SH cable for use with the Mega Pro Mini 3.3v. This plugs directly into one of the 10 sockets on the Mega Pro Mini 3.3v and allows you access to all the I/O pins. They are 8" in length and have unterminated tinned leads on the end.
The Ardupilot Mega has been a pretty popular board and many great projects have come out of it. We now carry the accessory board to go with the Ardupilot Mega, the Oil Pan.The Oil Pan includes all the sensors you need to turn the Ardupilot Mega into a full autopilot solution with data logging, airspeed, gryro, accelerometer, etc.
We now have a new supplier for our conductive thread bobbin. This new version now has 60ft of thread per bobbin as opposed to only 30ft from our previous version. It's like, half-price or something man. Get sewing!
We've finally rounded out our selection of light pipe. We now have the 3.5mm white core in 5 foot lengths. We also have all the other varieties, so check them all out if you want an alternative to EL wire.
We are now including a coin-cell battery with the ProtoSnap LilyPad E-Sewing Kit. If you haven't yet checked out this or any of our other ProtoSnap products, you might want to take a look at them. They are a great way to start learning about electronics because they don't require soldering, you just load code and watch them go. Or in the case of the E-Sewing Kit, add battery and hit the on switch.
We also have a revision of our famous Bluetooth Portable Rotary Phone. Thsi time it's with the red version of the phone. We've updated the guts a bit and it now includes an ATMega328. Other than that, it goes largely unchanged. One day in the distant future, we might be retrofitting iPhones with whatever the new technology becomes.
In an ongoing effort to educate the world about electronics, we have a few more classes listed. Starting January 14th, 2012, we have 3 classes in a row. We will be offering our popular Introduction to Arduino on the 14th, ATMega In-Depth on the 15th, and Exciting XBee on the 16th. So if you're coming from out of town, you can take more than one class in the same trip.
Yet another new product post comes to a close. But don't worry, I'll be back next week with even more new products.Thanks for reading and see you next week.
