Friday Celebration of New Products!

Check out our selection of new products for this week.

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It's Friday, and that means we get to talk about new products. There's some cool stuff for this week, so check out the video and then the products below.

We listened to your comments last week and decided to have a bit more fun with the video. Hopefully you liked it. OK, enough fun, here are the products for this week.

We now have stock of the DSO Quad. This is a pocket-sized oscilloscope with 4 channels and a nice 3" color LCD screen. It comes with a rechargeable battery and probes. It even has 2MB of internal memory for storing waveforms. The DSO Quad is also open source so you can download new firmware to access additional features.

If you're more into sewing than soldering, the LilyPad TechStyles Kit might interest you. It comes with a screen-printed fabric template, LilyPad LEDs, a battery, battery holder, some conductive thread, a switch, and needles. These kits are great for starting out in e-textiles. These were the same kits we had in Maker Faire.

Sometimes you need a lot of power for your project. RC cars tend to use 7.4V or 11.1V cells. Our new charger allows you to charge just about any battery type. It has a large range of charging currents and a display to see and select your charger settings. It even comes with a good assortment of cables for hooking up to a variety of batteries.

Ever since we started carrying the thermoelectric cooler, we've been looking for an inexpensive fan that works well with it. This heatsink/fan combo is powerful enough to cool down the hot side of the thermoelectric cooler but can have a lot of other uses as well. The fan is relatively quiet for the amount of air it moves.

What initially started as a KickStarter project ended up being a really cool product. The Ubertooth One is an open source 2.4GHz wireless development platform aimed at Bluetooth experimentation. This small module allows you to send, receive, and monitor 2.4GHz signals, making it a great tool for wireless development.

Flexible PCBs are a very new concept (at least to us). They've just recently become available and we though we'd offer them in the form of flexible LEDs. We have these in 5 packs with either green, white, blue, yellow, or red. They include a surface mount LED and a current limiting resistor soldered to a flexible PCB which can be sewn, soldered, or clipped to.

In addition to the tip that comes with the Hakko FX-888, we now have two more replacement tips as well. If you need a bigger tip for those monster solder joints, check out the bevel tip. And if you don't like the small profile of the included tip and want something with a wider profile, check out the chisel tip.

In addition to all the other varieties of light pipe we offer, we now have this one that has a white core, 6mm diameter, and is a foot long. Light pipes are great for visual displays or times when a simple LED isn't enough.

The Max Power IR LED Kit solves an issue when trying to drive an IR LED on the digital pin of a microcontroller. This kit allows you to drive an IR LED at ~48mA which is enough for IR control applications. It comes as an easy to assemble kit with everything you see above.

We found a new suppler for XT60 connectors and have them back in stock. These come in a pair, one male and one female. They fit together tightly for a good connection and can handle a lot of current.

We also have a some new JST RCY connectors. These are also commonly found in RC cars and on batteries. We are selling these as a set of one male and one female connector, complete with the mating crimp pins.

We have a new revision of the Musical Instrument Shield. We've tweaked the design a little bit to make it better. We've added a stereo output header, better regulator, and solder jumpers on pins 3 and 4. Overall, the function is the same, but you should run into less issues with this revision.

That's all folks! We have some cool stuff for this week and we have even more coming next week. Thanks for reading and watching and see you again next week!


Comments 59 comments

  • SomeGuy123 / about 13 years ago / 5

    Next week, I want to see Dave get his revenge on Rob.

  • Scotty / about 13 years ago / 4

    Was it just me or was the audio a problem?

  • Greeeg / about 13 years ago / 2

    +1 because Dave owns a github pint glass ^_^

  • mikey / about 13 years ago / 2

    I thought for sure you'd rev wire the beer cooler and make a beer warmer prank.

  • TheRobberDotCom / about 13 years ago / 2

    "We found a new suppler for XT60 connectors and..."

  • orcinus / about 13 years ago / 2

    Typo...
    "We found a new suppler for XT60 connectors and have them back in stock."
    -- Probably should've been supplier, unless the XT60s in stock are especially bendy :D

  • TimZaman / about 13 years ago / 2

    Nooo not the lilypad lights-on-tshirtstuff again!! :'(. good pricing on the musical shield.

    • TimZaman / about 13 years ago / 2

      So if the lilypad is popular or cool and all, and you want to promote it, why have i not seen Robert in a futuristic lady-gaga LED&Music outfit yet? hint

      • there's NO way anyone's getting me to do that...

        • Dude, all you'd need is a shirt or tie that blinks LEDs (edit: to the beat), like the tie in this video at 0:24, or the head display at 0:16. You could even play the music in the background (The Robots by Kraftwerk).

  • Dare I ask what was in the "beer" at the end? No, I daren't.

    • Yvan256 / about 13 years ago / 1

      I'll simply imagine it was warm apple juice, and nothing else.

      • Oh, it was beer. It was a Major Tom's Pomegranite Wheat from Fort Collins Brewery, to be precise. Not my favorite, but it's what was in the keg.

        • billiam2536 / about 13 years ago / 1

          Just checked the twitter feed. I think it broke. Is there a missing decimal or bit?
          @SparkFunKeg
          SparkFun Kegerator
          Temp: 274° F. Est 172% full Pull Count: 2340432
          @SparkFunKeg
          SparkFun Kegerator
          Temp: 318° F. Est 361% full Pull Count: 2326991

          • SomeGuy123 / about 13 years ago / 1

            I'm willing to bet anything employees pull it just to see how high they can get the pull counter.

          • over 2 million pulls? WOW, SparkFun has very liberal views on office drinking! Sounds like fun, but I don't think I'd like drinking boiling hot beer puts me off somewhat.

            • MobBarley / about 13 years ago / 2

              They are using it as an educational example of what happens when you do not debounce a switch - awesome high scores!

  • lexxmac / about 13 years ago * / 2

    Flexible PCBs are not new tech.
    Also... why are you using a BJT to drive an IR LED? MOSFET anyone? TTL is dead.

    • There. Corrected.

    • AndrewMV / about 13 years ago / 2

      Why is a BJT inappropriate (not challenging you - I'm curious)?

      • lexxmac / about 13 years ago / 3

        Sure, valid question. Most microcontrollers and such are CMOS. What this means is that they are constructed out of MOSFETs. There are several differences between CMOS (using MOSFETS to build digital circuits) and TTL (using BJTs to build digital circuits). First, the base on a BJT (the control pin) requires a small current at the applied voltage. Secondly, BJTs are more complicated. As indicated by some of the comments, the circuit is setup slightly awkwardly - easy to do with a BJT. A 2N7000 MOSFET (dirt cheap) would have been simple (no math!) and more effective.
        So, use fets instead of BJTs unless you have a good reason. Even Electrical Engineers don't like doing math unless you absolutely have to...

        • Wow, thanks! I saw the MAKE Presents: Transistors video, but Collin Cunningham did not explain FETs. I cannot figure out BJT math or why it's needed... Thanks!

  • Member #167681 / about 13 years ago / 1

    Geez I hope that wasn't rob's piss.

  • Happy Birthday Dave!

  • Yvan256 / about 13 years ago / 1

    The description of item 10691 above says it's a clear core, however the photo and the product page says it's white core.

  • Litago92A / about 13 years ago / 1

    :)) Love you guys... some day, I'll fly in to visit!

    • Litago92A / about 13 years ago / 1

      And, as I can see now, that does not sound very impressive... I'm from Norway, but my profile lists me as from the US.
      How can I change this? Couldn't find it on the profile page...

  • DMKitsch / about 13 years ago / 1

    I liked the music, sounds too office like now D:

  • Got my free stuff today, anyone know anything about the MSP430-H413 and the micro on it? Also, I got a mysterious SF board with 4 male headers and 3 solder points labeled PPS, nMR, and either DO or DD. Seems to be a wireless module of some kind. Update: It has the 2.4GHz White Ceramic Chip Antenna, too. I've checked the entire Wireless section. Any ideas as to what it might be?

    • I think that might have been a nordic?

      • I searched "nordic" in the search box and the closest I could find was #8283 except it was shorter, only 4 headers not shrouded, and had a ceramic chip antenna. Hmmm...
        The micro on the module says:
        * SIRF 6SC3LT
        * F8072 KADC
        * 999330BG
        * 933 MYS
        * (e2)

        • Ah, that's a GPS. Probably a mini-mod or something. Check the retired GPS category, or the current GPS category.
          But SIRF is a GPS module.

          • Looks frighteningly similar to #8936, although there's no metal on top of the module of ICs.
            EDIT: Doesn't look like a MiniMod, cause there's only a date on the back. Also, 4 pins instead of 3. Strange.

            • SomeGuy123 / about 13 years ago / 2

              How much free stuff did you get total?
              Post a picture of the board you got.

              • 1 of: EM-406A SiRF III GPS, Olimex Header Board for MSP430F413, XBee Explorer Requlated, Shirt+Poster, Mystery Module (back and front); 2 of: SerIO, 3.3v FTDI Basic (old version).

                • SomeGuy123 / about 13 years ago / 1

                  I cant find a part that resembled the one you found anywhere on the SparkFun site, and I know their catalog extremely well.
                  What do the pin labels say?

                  • Let's see, pins with headers left to right (antenna facing you): GND, TXO, RXI, VCC; pins without headers (top to bottom): PPS, nMR, DO;
                    I forgot: I also got a panel of LilyPad Button Boards.

                    • Idea: add an ASCII picture part search! Then you could take a picture of the part, use a picture-to-ASCII converter, and find the most similar part!

                • Sorry about the quality of the JPEGs, I had to use my moms MacBook camera. Our first family camera got stolen at a church picnic, second won't turn on (lens can't move) and our third uses CF cards and we don't have a cable for it or a CompactFlash reader. Mom's is an expensive SLR (Canon G5) that she uses for taking pictures of Gargoyles throughout the Capital District, so... I was left with a bad-quality photo taken with a built-in webcam.

  • suttonr / about 13 years ago / 1

    I have recently been looking at flex PCBs, do you know anyone who does prototype runs or even if you can do it through BatchPCB in the future?

  • tiagofumo / about 13 years ago / 1

    I liked the tips, charger and ocilloscope
    sparkfun should supply UV solder mask syringes like this one:
    http://cgi.ebay.com/2pcs-PCB-UV-Curable-Solder-Mask-Repairing-Paint-Green-/190542853910?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5d3d3716

    • SomeGuy123 / about 13 years ago * / 1

      Quick Tip: You can make that link clickable like this:

      [Link Text] (http://example.com/)
      

    • Subwired / about 13 years ago / 1

      Thanks for the link I've been searching for ages to get hold of some of this.

  • sultanblender / about 13 years ago / 1

    I wanted to hear more about the Ubertooth!

  • So will you be offering 20Ah LiPos anytime soon? That would be fab for a Gas to Electric Scooter conversion...

    • TLAlexander / about 13 years ago / 1

      You can get some cheap big LiPos from HobbyKing. I can't speak to their quality as I only just got one, and haven't used it for much. but it seems fine. I got a 6S 2.6AH pack for like $30 or $40 or so. Though try to get it from their US warehouse, or shipping is pricey.

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