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Product PRT-10473 | last year

This looks very similar to the charger I’ve been using. If so, I’m in the process of reverse engineering it (mine has an atmel mega168 in it). Also, on mine the temp sensor can be configured as what they call a “usb port”. Really, it outputs TTL serial at 9,600 baud… One pin is +5V, one pin is ground, the middle pin outputs binary data (with some ASCII). Google for LogView for a program that can record/plot all the parameters…
– Steven Ciciora

News - E-Textile Meet-Up | about a year ago

Are you sure that the MCP73827 chip can be used for LiFePO4? LiFeP04 should only be charged up to 3.6V, where as the MCP73827 chip charges up to 4.1 or 4.2V… I’ve been looking for a cheap LiFePO4 charger chip that isn’t too small, with no luck…

• Steve

News - Free Day is January 13th,… | about a year ago

For a banner of total $ given out, are you going to re-purpose the giant green GPS clock to display that? :–) That would be cool…

News - SparkFun Levels Up! | about 2 years ago

Hmm, maybe that’s why I couldn’t pull up

https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/account_history_info.php?order_id=xxxxx earlier today… heck, couldn’t pull up anything. Well, still can’t pull up the above link. Not sure if it’s considered a bug or not though…

Keep on growing…

• Steve
  

News - 2010 Autonomous Vehicle C… | about 2 years ago

I was hoping to be there (I work in Boulder) but I’m still at NASA Dryden preparing our Ozone instrument to fly on the Global Hawk UAV this Wednesday. It’s going to leave Edwards Air Force base and fly for 30 hours to within 5 degrees of the north pole and back. Man, it would kick-butt in the spark fun contest if the FAA would let us fly over land :–)
– Steve
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=46205&id=1653915544&l=f7e094c490

News - Facebook and a Mini-Maker… | about 3 years ago

I’ve been avoiding Facebook, as it seem to me to be one more thing for me to spend my (limited) time keeping up with… Do you think the SparkFun facebook page will have content not found on the SparkFun home page? How will it be different? Or will it (hopefully) be the same information as what’s published on the home page, but via a different route for those that prefer Facebook? I don’t want to feel left out… :–)
Thanks!

News - Nuclear Fusion | about 3 years ago

In desperation, I have been known to “charge” a small coin cell. Yes, I know you are not suppose to, and it is potentially dangerous, but quite often it will make your calipers (or calculator, or stop watch) work for a few more minutes till you can finish what you need to do. I have never had any problems except for the time I burned my finger charging a 1.5V cell using a car battery…
Another thing I have done, when I needed a set of A76 cells for my HP11C calculator, and only had some smaller cells, I put in a 6-32 nut to take up the space.
Hmm, thinking about it, I wonder if I was really charging up the cell, or just heating it. Heating the cell will cause the chemical reaction to happen faster, lowering it’s impedance, allowing you to wring out the last few breaths of life.
– Steven Ciciora

Tutorial - Better PCBs in Eagle | about 4 years ago

Thanks for the helpful tips!
Has anyone had luck with Tented Vias when using Advanced Circuits (www.4pcb.com)? Their www.FreeDFM.com web site says they can’t fix (to their liking) tented vias…
Thanks,
– Steve