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Product PRT-10300 | about 2 months ago

The Features section indicates 5V @ 600mA capability, but this board does not appear to be able to supply the necessary current to power a 5V @ 220mA device that I’ve wired up to the OUT VCC and GND. Am I misunderstanding something?

Product SEN-10736 | about 8 months ago

I purchased this board based on my hope (reading the production description) that it would be an elegant, relatively straightforward way to add an AHRS to my various projects. I’ve tried the 9DOF AHRS Code base that is provided above. It is out of date and doesn’t work. It doesn’t read the Magnetometer correctly. I’ve tried the “Updated Code”, but that isn’t really AHRS code. I see major confusion in the forum here about what AHRS firmware code will actually work, along with suggestions to try using the firmware of competing products (which I’ve tried and they don’t work either). I’ve tried them all with no good results.
So, my question is this: Does anyone (at Sparkfun or in the forum) have a link to AHRS firmware that actually works on this board? Is anyone at all using this version of this product successfully? It seems like this is a very cool and important product for Sparkfun. If someone could link me to some functional AHRS that would be great.
Any help would be appreciated.

Product SEN-10736 | about 8 months ago

Ignore this. I figured out my problem. I had the Arduino Terminal window set to Carriage Return. WHen I set it to “No line ending” the data started flowing.

Product SEN-10736 | about 8 months ago

I just purchased this board along with the 3.3V FTDI Basic Breakout. I connect it to my PC. When I first plug it into the USB port, the green status light flashes once, then twice quickly, then stays off. There is a dim red light near the power jack that stays on that I assume is the power indicator. I bring it up in the Arduino Terminal window set to 57600 baud. I see the menu, but whenever I type any of the choices, such as 4 to show raw data, the menu just displays again. No data comes out. So, the board seems to be alive, and running the Test Firmware, but I can’t get it to display any raw data. I’m sure I’m missing something simple.
What am I doing wrong?

News - The Mechatronic Tank and … | about 9 months ago

It can roll over many types of surfaces, but the real issue, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is whether the servos can rotate the wheels on the z-axis in order to make turns. In anticipation of this, we installed high-torque digital Hitec servos. Smooth and/or loose low-friction terrain such as hardwood floors, concrete, asphalt, large rock surfaces, small-sized gravel surfaces, loose or hard dirt, etc. is OK. It doesn’t do as well on certain types of carpets because these particular wheel treads tend to stick almost like velcro to certain carpet types, so it struggles a bit to rotate the wheels. It can do it, but it’s not nearly as quick and smooth as on other surfaces. Sometimes it even torques the whole frame a bit before turning because the wheels get temporarily stuck in the carpet. (So, if it was going to be a carpet-bot, then we would change the tread style). In the future, we’ll do some videos of outside expeditions.

News - The Mechatronic Tank and … | about 9 months ago

I smiled when I saw your post. Yeah, I could definitely see the girls at a finishing school like that. :)

News - The Mechatronic Tank and … | about 9 months ago

Our two quad rotors were not kits. The large one is made of an aluminum frame that we constructed from raw sheets of aluminum and aluminum square tubes. The mini quad is made out of ABS sheet, velcro, and kite parts. Both these units have the same Arduino-based AutoPilot microcontroller, IMU, and downward-facing sonar (for automatic altitude control when flying in drone mode), which were purchased at Sparkfun. My girls and I learn a lot from and participate with the www.diydrones.com community, which is where a lot of the knowledge and components come from. This is a Do-It-Yourself crew who are into the details of building, programming, and flying autonomous arial vehicles. They also sell parts, and more recently really neat kits, and whatever you need to get started. If you’re interested in building one of these, it starts here: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10294.

Product PRT-07840 | about 10 months ago

From the picture, this cell looks blue. Is it really blue or is that just the lighting in the photograph?
I am working on a robot project that involves a number of solar cells. I already have four of the “Huge” cells (PRT-09241). Those are black. I am now considering a couple of the “Large” cells (PRT-07840) for the same project, but it’s only going to work for me if the “Large” cells are black like the “Huge” cells.

Product WIG-09715 | about 10 months ago

I am not a Sparkfun person, just a user, but I have successfully connected my MP3 Trigger to an Arduino Uno. Yes, I connected the TX to the RX and vice versa to handle the serial communication. I then wrote a little sketch to open the serial port and send commands to the MP3 player. It’s simple and easy. Just a few lines of code.
There is a solder jumper on the MP3 board to allow it to run either at 3 volt or at 5-12 volts (labeled “VBUS”). You could connect the Arduino to a Trigger pin, but that’s not nearly as flexible as the serial approach. On the other hand, the serial approach does take up your serial pins on your Arduino. With the latest firmware of the mp3 board, you can set the baud rate from 38400 to 9600, which would allow you to use the Arduino NewSoftSerial library, which allows you to make any digital pin into a serial port (so you don’t use up your dedicated serial port).

Product WIG-09715 | about 10 months ago

This is an excellent board. I’ve used these successfully on several project. On my current project I’m running into a problem. When I start up my robot, the MP3 board status light flashes three times quickly and then goes off (indicating everything is OK). Then after about 20 seconds, the green status light starts flashing and the speaker starts clicking: click-click-click-click-click… The frequency of the flash (and the clicking) is about 3 times a second. The MP3 datasheet indicates “Constant short blinks – Hardware problem with MP3 Decoder.” Does this mean my mp3 has burned out or is otherwise damaged? Or does this mean I have set it up incorrectly (such as a power, grounding or other problem)?