New Product Friday: Seeing Red Visions

This week we're seeing red (boards) and we've got a lot of new revisions for you!

Favorited Favorite 0

Welcome back, loyal SparkFun followers! We're back with some new products for this week. We have some shirts, boards, and a cable. First, let's check out the video.

Vimeo version here.

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion between the RedBoard Breadboard, RedBoard PTH, and RedBoard PCB Add-On Kit. The end result is pretty much the same, but the contents of each kit are a bit different.

In addition to carrying the standard Arduino Ethernet Shield, we now carry the PoE version, which adds the Power Over Ethernet module. This is the full buffet. It has an SD card socket, PoE, and is compatible with the R3. The PoE module comes pre-installed as seen in the picture above.

The RedBoard PTH Kit has made it to retail packaging. As explained in the video above, the RedBoard PTH Kit gives you all the parts to build your own Arduino compatible development board. All you need is a soldering iron, FTDI for programming, and an idea. We've pre-loaded the IC with the Arduino Uno bootloader so once you have it all together, you can start using it right away.

We've been around for long enough and we've gotten big enough that we wanted to have our own USB cable. Why not? We sell a surprising amount of these cables every month, so it made sense to get them in red with a SparkFun flame molded into the body. It's the same cable we've been selling, but in red with a new molded shell. I must admit, it's pretty cool to use a USB cable with your company's logo on it.

We have a new version of the LPY503AL Gyro Breakout. The new version fixes the high-pass filters that would spit out bad data. Everything else is the same though. This is a versatile two-axis gyro that has low power consumption and works well with 3.3V systems. Just plug it in and go (with proper code of course).

We also have a new version of the ClockIt Kit. The ClockIt is a great beginner soldering kit. Once put together, you end up with your very own alarm clock! We made a few changes to the kit, mainly making it easier to put together.

Speaking of revisions, we also have a new one for the Power Cell. The Power Cell is a combination LiPo battery charger and booster. You can use it to charge batteries, but it can also take the ~3.7V output from a LiPo battery and give you 5V. This new version gives you access to the power-save and the ability to control the under-voltage lock-out as well. Thanks once again for the suggestions and feedback everyone!

We've been selling our LabView and Arduino bundle for awhile now. We just recently started putting in the new Arduino Uno R3 in the bundle. So now you will get the newest version of Arduino (well, the newest based on the ATmega328 anyway) with the software. The bundle is still only available in the US and Canada, sorry!

We have a bunch of t-shirts leftover from AVC and Maker Faire. We have them in various sizes (from small to 2XL) and three different designs. We have the classic red with the SparkFun flame, the RTFM (make up your own meaning and troll your friends!), and the elegant white GEEK. These were a limited run just for AVC and Maker Faire so get them while they last!

That's all I've got for this week. Be sure to check back next week for more new products. Thanks for reading and watching!


Comments 53 comments

  • numinit / about 12 years ago * / 7

    Some haikus, for SparkFun Electronics:

    late at night, surfing

    sparkfun.com, and searching

    for that one button

    the button evades

    but I would click with vigor

    to see destiny

    a random product

    nay, likely pseudorandom

    but still intriguing

    like Russian Roulette,

    but with Arduino and LEDs*

    i'd click it right now

    but one line of code

    one statement of SQL

    an "ORDER BY RAND()"

    but that doesn't scale

    so try some weird OFFSET stuff

    or some other things

    consider this an

    impromptu feature request

    in poetic form.

    SparkFun, I need you

    to defeat order, and with

    chaos enlighten.

    • pronounced "leads"

    Seriously: I want a "Random Product" button.

    • smoke drifts down from

      nearby hills; I sit inside

      and write some bad code

      Enjoy.

      • That is fantastic! Thanks Brennen!

      • numinit / about 12 years ago / 2

        Oh my goodness. This is amazing. You guys rock. Seriously. Now add it to the template ;)

        my wallet thins, but

        my red box of swag thickens

        refrigerator

        • Now add it to the template ;)

          I don't want to clutter up any of the "serious" navigation elements, but I'll see what I can come up with to make it a nice repeatable action.

          • TECH GEEK / about 12 years ago / 2

            I honestly think I (and a lot of others) will use a random product button more than the search bar!!!!!!!!!!!!

          • numinit / about 12 years ago / 1

            Or... when the search bar is empty, you could have it take you to a random product when you click Search.

            • So there's now a link to "try a random product" on the search result for whatever. When referred from there, the view of a given product will have a little widget with a button to get another random product.

              I'll fiddle with it some more after a while, but right now I have actual bugs to fix. :)

          • numinit / about 12 years ago / 1

            You could add a small "?" to the upper right hand corner. It would stay out of the way.

            Loving the new version of SFE, by the way. What's this one called?

    • Pokey / about 12 years ago / 2

      acrid winds surround

      prototype meets its maker

      cube wall gophers stare

  • war_spigot / about 12 years ago / 5

    Great changes to the site layout, especially the new and featured products on the right side.

    • Yeah, but I kinda liked the comments showing on the Index. Can you AJAX them in when we click the link? (*annoying request induced Web Developer groan :p )

  • Did you guys just change the layout of sparkfun?

  • Crawford / about 12 years ago / 3

    Since you're maker-focused, wouldn't "WTFM" be more appropriate?

    • Quazar / about 12 years ago / 2

      "Manual" is so yesteryear. How about ETFW where E=Edit, and W=Wiki?

      • Oh God, I am so using ETFW from now on!! :-P Although, I will say that some things like the Ardupilot Mega has patchy documentation when it comes to the nitty gritty stuff.

    • Zmaster / about 12 years ago / 2

      Lol, you're absolutely right. My problem is always lack of documentation.

    • is that "write the full manual"?

    • dext3r / about 12 years ago / 2

      RTFM still applies in the case of RTFD.(datasheet) :)

  • cshutchinson / about 12 years ago / 2

    Sure wish you guys would accomodate the big and tall guys with 3x shirts. This T-shirt is AWESOME!

  • Far_Seeker / about 12 years ago / 2

    At 5 seconds in the RedBoard retail kit just appears in RobertC.'s hand... Georges Méliès would be proud.;)

  • TECH GEEK / about 12 years ago / 2

    I love SparkFun

  • Member #98770 / about 12 years ago / 1

    I love how you guys help out people wanting to make a stand alone arduino. I remember when i tried, I sifted through tons of docs before I had mine up and running.

    But can you guys PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add a tutorial on: * burning the arduino bootloader on the smaller ATMEGA chips you guys use * and document how you get that stand-alone.

    Not only would this mean buying more from you, but it would increase your PCB business as well. People want to make things that "look" professional. The smaller chip with the PCB really does that.

    If not, what do I need to burn the arduino bootloader onto one of those "small atmega chips"?

    Thanks

  • Member #210857 / about 12 years ago / 1

    where did you get that "FUN GUY" shirt?

    • local goodwill, it was $1.

      most of my non-sparkfun shirts are from goodwill or salvation army. I'm cheap.

      • GeeBob / about 12 years ago / 1

        I have the same shirt. Kids got it for me. I worked in non-vascular botany for a number of years so they know what a fungus is. I just had to show them your video.

  • TECH GEEK / about 12 years ago / 1

    SOMEBODY HELP!!! I CAN'T FIND THE SparkFun WEBSITE!!!

  • Unh0ly_Tigg / about 12 years ago / 1

    This is the 800th post to the news section of the site, the oldest is here ...

  • Another great video. But an even greater T-shirt! (Robert's, that is!)

  • raymohi / about 12 years ago / 1

    Isn't the Leonardo still based off the ATmega32U4. So it says for the LabView and Arduino bundle that "So now you will get the newest version of Arduino (well, the newest based on the ATmega anyway)" Wouldn't that mean the Leonardo should be included instead of the Uno R3? I just find it a bit miss leading.

    • Now it says Atmega328, you should find that slightly less misleading. We've been working with the 328p here for so long that it's become synonymous with ATmega... the same way "Scotch Tape" basically means Scotch Brand Invisible Tape.

      It's a habit we're trying to break ourselves of. Thanks for the heads-up.

  • CF / about 12 years ago / 1

    www.sparkfun.com/redboardkit = 404!!

    • Fixed.

    • Whoa, did you read that off the packaging in the product picture? We haven't quite gotten that Quickstart Guide up and out, but we are working on it!

      • On a side note, Q1: Do you have a Google Search Appliance 'cos the search is slick and has a 'Did you mean...' feature; Secondly, Q2, Do you still use that code base visualisation thingy from a post a while back?? (Probably should have asked Brennen or Dave, but hey)

          1. We use Sphinx for search indexing.
          2. Yeah, we still run things through gource every now and then when we want a pretty animation to show off. For real work, I mostly rely on git log, gitk, and various tools on GitHub.
        • IT guys should be answering this but I'll take a swing: No we don't have a google appliance, search is still all internally controlled. It's not great, but we do get to have some fun tweaks (did you mean? and the nifty drop down suggestion tree).

      • CF / about 12 years ago / 1

        It was mentioned in the video and I saw it on the package. I was curious to see what it looked liked.

  • rub0t / about 12 years ago / 1

    arrg! why didn't i wait to see what new goodies came out before i placed my order!?!?

  • Thanks loyal product manager!

Related Posts

MEMS the Word

Recent Posts

Open-Source HVAC?

What is L-Band?

Tags


All Tags