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News - Little Box Stores | about 4 months ago

For Sweden: Kjell & Company (www.kjell.com, e-mail: kundtjanst@kjell.com) (chain of stores, somewhat similar to Radio Shack in the US I think).

Physical store in Stockholm: Materialbutiken (http://www.materialbutiken.se/, e-mail: info@materialbutiken.se). Crafts material store.

News - Happy Free Day | about a year ago

What’s the point in building a server farm to handle a load that is waay above what is regularly seen? It sounds like a waste of money.
I think Free Day is a great idea, but I think SparkFun should separate the FreeDay concept from server testing, and just forget about building a crazy server and IP infrastructure.
It would give more happy customers if the quiz performs as intended, instead of people spending hours reloading pages in vain.

News - Happy Free Day | about a year ago

How about hosting Free Day 2012 on a cloud like Google or Amazon that can hold up to the traffic next year? Would make it more enjoyable.

Product COM-09765 | about a year ago

The user’s manual does not explain how the circuit works internally.

From what I can tell the ATMega digital outputs (5V when high) are connected directly to the 7-segment display.

Even if the ATMega uses PWM, 5V (or 40 mA for that matter) even for a short time should be enough to burn the LEDs.

Can you explain what current goes to the segment LEDs when they are turned on by the ATMega?

Thank you.

RobertC.:

Check the user’s manual. It is driven through the ATmega controller, so it takes care of all of that for you.

Product COM-09765 | about a year ago

Could someone explain to me how this board can work without resistors?

I would have thought the AVR processor would feed 5V to the LEDs, and with a maximum output current of 40 mA per digital pin, would burn the LED.

Why does this not happen?

Trying to learn!

Product SEN-07915 | about 2 years ago

Proposal for next revision of this board:
Please make pads for the CA1, CA2, CB1 and CB2 pins available on the board!
According to the data sheet, resistors can be connected between CA1 and CA2 pins and CB1 and CB2 pins to reduce the sensitivity of the device.
I plan to use this device as a weather-sealed rotary encoder (have a permanent magnet on an axle that rotates above the chip). I think I am having issues with the magnetic field from the magnet being too strong for the device, and adding resistors between the above pins might have been able to solve my problems.

News - SparkFun and Ponoko Unite | about 2 years ago

How did you do the clear SparkFun logo on the opaque plastic?
(I have not used Ponoko yet, but am curios about what I can make with them).

Product BOB-08882 | about 2 years ago

Suggestions for the next revision:
Mark the ‘positive’ current direction on the board mask, for the two big holes (with an arrow ideally, or + and –).
Also, standard size holes for the current connectors would be nice, to make it easier to connect headers. Perhaps in addition to the big holes?

Product BOB-08882 | about 2 years ago

I’d like to solder some standard male headers to the current pads, in order to be able to plug the board into a breadboard for prototyping.
Could anyone advise as to if that would work (filling the remaining space with solder), or give some tips?

Product SEN-00244 | about 3 years ago

The code in the wiring example is needlessly slow – I replaced the delay(2) calls with delayMicroseconds(1), and it seems to work (but I have not tested it rigorously).