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Product COM-11218 | about 6 days ago

Chock full of subpoena potential.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

That said, we’re planning to make it possible to place an order without registering an account

This will come in handy when Sparkfun starts selling long range HF card readers ;)

Product COM-11119 | about 3 weeks ago

The picture of the LED is correct; it’s more of a gold color than a pure yellow (it’s almost orange). Actually it’s a very pleasant color.

Product ROB-11162 | about 3 weeks ago

The shell is held in place with 2-sided tape (it doesn’t just snap on). The wheelbase is 5-¼" with 2" diameter wheels on 0.12" axles and are not easily removable. It has real rack-and-pinion steering with a spring return to neutral (so it drives straight if there’s no power to the steering motor). The battery is a 3.7V protected type held in place with two-sided tape and looks to be about 750 mAh capacity. The ISP programming header is not supplied but it’s PTH so it’s easy to add. There are pads for a MMA7455L 3-axis accelerometer chip. There is a connector for a nRf24L01 type transceiver, but it’s buried under the bluetooth module so they are mutually exclusive radio options. It comes with a dozen stickers (8 android guys in various colors, 2 “bluteooth”, 2 “Android Control”).

Product KIT-11087 | about 2 months ago

Current with LED off should be about 5 mA with a 3.7V battery level.

News - The Slap Method for Solde… | about 4 months ago

You won’t learn this sort of technique in an electronics tech school (for good reason). The slap method is good for removing solder from the lugs of switches and pots, but not much else. Slap method is bad for PCB mounted components. And don’t even bother trying the slap method on a PCB that has 4 or more layers.

Product TOL-11060 | about 4 months ago

The probe tips are made of soft metal so they are easy to bend, and they are not [easily] replaceable. The actual probe tip measurements are 0.375" (9.5mm) between tips and each tip is 0.050 (1.27mm) wide by 0.016 (.41mm) thick by 0.20" (5mm) long. The cable length from the probe handle to the jacks is 16.5". A great tool for probing SMT parts and lighting up SMT LEDs. Buy 2 of these so you will have a spare for when the tips wear out (they will eventually break off due to bending and straightening).

News - Free Day 2012 is Under Wa… | about 5 months ago

I don’t know what you are talking about; the captcha’s are easy enough for my bot to read and it won on the 451'st try. Word problems can be much tougher for the bot to solve, but using that would go against the whole “no thought required” theme of the 2012 free day. It’s so great not having to learn anything about electronics or be a loyal customer to get free stuff now!

News - According to Pete - Janua… | about 5 months ago

That’s a great idea for a video! In the meantime, a coupling capacitor is a capacitor that’s used to allow the AC component of a signal to pass while blocking DC voltage. A decoupling capacitor is a capacitor that’s used to reduce localized power supply noise, thus “decoupling” the noise from another section of the circuit. The placement of a capacitor can be a critical factor; it depends on the application. Different capacitor types are often interchangeable, but using the appropriate type is sometimes important because different types have different operating characteristics such as the ESR. Most important is to connect polarized capacitors correctly; when connected backwards a polarized capacitor can “pop” or even explode, sometimes violently enough to make you glad that you wore your safety glasses.

Product DEV-10711 | about 5 months ago

The datasheet for a typical Sparkfun LiPo battery indicates the protection IC is a DW01 type. The DW01 datasheet “Overdischarge Protection” section states:

When the voltage of the battery cell goes below the overdischarge protection voltage (VODP) beyond the overdischarge delay time (TOD) period, discharging is inhibited by turning off the discharge control MOSFET. The default of overdischarge delay time is 10ms. Inhibition of discharging is immediately released when the voltage of the battery cell becomes higher than overdischarge release voltage (VODR) through charging.