New Product Friday: The Sound of Science
Hello and welcome to another Friday New Product Post, where we talk about the new products we have for this week. We have two videos this week, one for new products, and another episode of Robotics 101. Be sure to watch both, multiple times. We were playing with the speaker and amplifier a bit more…
Enginursday: DIY Biometrics
This past Christmas, some of the most popular gifts were “fitness bands” like the Fitbit, the Jawbone Up, and the Nike Fitband. The bands were sold out at retailers all over the country and appeared on just about every online gift guide out there. In my own gift-giving adventures, I…
Skyline Innovation Center and SparkFun
In December 2012, Colorado’s St. Vrain Valley School District was awarded a $16.6M grant as part of the national Race to the Top education program. The grant money will be used to support programs within the district’s schools that, according to a statement from US Education Secretary…
Hacker-in-Residence: Programming with miniBloq
It’s time to welcome another awesome hacker into our ranks for a couple weeks! Meet Julián da Silva Gillig, who is joining us all the way from Argentina, and whose favorite food is cannelloni de ricotta. Julián is the author of miniBloq and the main designer behind Multiplo. MiniBloq was one…
The Science of Licking a 9V Battery
Electricity Basics If you’re familiar with Ohm’s Law, you know that voltage is a function of current and resistance (namely, V = IR). The important thing to remember is that everything is a conductor and can be modeled as a resistor. Things like wire and metal are obvious conductors and…
SparkFun Live!: Random Pick-up Line Generator
Today’s the day! It’s time for another rousing edition of SparkFun Live! This time around, follow along with engineers Toni and Mike as they build a Random Pick-Up Line Generator - just in time for Valentine’s Day. The live video starts at 3:00 p.m. MT here: You can learn more…
New Product Friday: New Product Smorgasboard
This is a pretty big week for new products. We have a lot of new red boards, as well as some revisions, and other goodies. We will be skipping the Robotics 101 video this week, just because we had so many other products. But don’t worry, we’ll be back next week with the Robotics 101…
Enginursday: Key-chain Hardware Comparison
Ah, yet another Thursday has come upon us. It’s almost nostalgic at this point. Nostalgic like the awkward stories parents tell about your youth while visiting for family gatherings. I lived through my own version of this recently, and while hiding in the basement I came across some old,…
National Tour- Virginia to Nebraska and Then Home
From October 7th to November 11th SparkFun’s RV rolled through the “Southern” portion of our National Tour. I’ll bet you guys didn’t realize that Nebraska was in the South, did you? Ok, I’ll admit, I tacked on a couple other stops in order to wrap up the National…
Beatty Robotics + Actobotics
You may remember back in June 2013 when we featured Beatty Robotics, the dad-and-daughters team who were commissioned to build an incredibly awesome Mars Rover for the New York Hall of Science (we also featured their homemade mechatronic tank and first Rover build in 2011). We were excited to get to…
You have been randomly selected to serve on the next Dog Tribunal!
That’s what the recent email in my inbox said. I was randomly selected as the director on the dog tribunal for this January. It’s the SparkFun equivalent of jury duty, and it saved our dog privileges. Many moons ago SparkFun was a lot smaller. The first dogs began showing up at work…
New Product Friday: Galileo Magnifico!
The weekend is almost here and that means it’s time to talk about new products. We just have a few products this week, but we have the new Galileo from Intel as well as another Robotics 101 video. Just to reiterate, the Galileo is only available for pre-order, and we’re not really sure…
Enginursday: Enginerds in Vegas
Earlier this month, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas went down. For the first time, SparkFun attended in an official sense (as attendees). Pete, Dia, and myself represented Engineering, while our new head of Marketing, Jess, attended on behalf of her department. In addition, Nick W. and…
January Caption Contest Winner!
Hello everyone. We know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for this month’s caption contest winner, and the wait is over! Congratulations Member #468914! Quickly going over the table of contents. Mysterious Member #468914 is the proud new owner of the SparkFun “Kits Kit”:…
SparkFun Live! - Random Pick-up Line Generator
Finding love can be hard. But worry not - SparkFun’s got your back. On February 3rd, 2014 at 3 p.m. MT, we’ll be airing the next episode of “SparkFun Live!” In this edition, SparkFun Engineer Toni will guide you through building a random pick-up line generator that will be…
Calling All Colorado Makers! Denver Mini Maker Faire
On May 3-4, 2014, Maker Faire is coming to Denver - and we’ll be there! That’s right, Denver is having its first ever Mini Maker Faire and SparkFun Electronics is sponsoring the event. Today we’d like to invite you to join us! This is the official call to arms to all Colorado-area…
Introducing the SIK Capstone Contest
The SparkFun Inventor’s Kit (or SIK) is one of our favorite teaching tools. Over the years, we’ve seen some amazing projects built using SIK parts that go beyond the circuits we’ve designed. This contest is aimed specifically at teachers/educators that use the SIK in their…
SparkFun's Going to Amsterdam!
Conferences are a subculture unto themselves. Folks here at SparkFun have attended many conferences over the years in many capacities - as red-shirted guests, speakers, sponsors, all the way up to running huge soldering tents. This year SparkFun is hitting the road to a few places that we’ve…
Tearing Down the Nest Protect
You probably know Nest Labs - the tech company focused on “reinventing unloved but important home products.” You’ve probably seen them in the news recently as they were just purchased by Google for $3.2 billion USD. Nest is best known for their smart WiFi-enabled thermostat.…
New Product Friday: Flex Your Creative Muscle
Welcome back everyone! It’s another Friday and another Friday New Product Post. Today we have two videos again - one for new products and another Robotics 101 segment. First, let’s check out the product video, complete with a couple of demos! If you’ve ever wanted to make a simple…
Recent Comments
Member #528941 / 5 hours ago 1
Wow. I found the u.fl to rp-sma adapter for $1 shipped on ebay. I am totally going to try this! Thank you for posting this! Literally going…Member #134773 / 19 hours ago 1
Hey, the opening screen gets me to “dispense” an insult: “Are you not wise enough to realize when the change to Daylight Savings[sic] Time…Member #134773 / 19 hours ago 1
This isn’t really relevant to Friday’s post, but the thing about the Hater-matic “live build” is saying Mar. 11 at 3:00 PM Mountain STANDARD…Member #528713 / 24 hours ago 1
A website must be user-friendly for all devices, and when it comes to mobiles, the means of navigating the website need to be adaptable to…
stilldavid / 1 day ago 1
Read up on the FAR-101 regulations. So long as you build a payload to specification there is no paperwork required, however you must avoid…einro / 2 days ago 1
My Tenergy AA-AAA charger blinks to show power on. Off when empty. Steady red when not charged. Flashing red when something is wrong. Then…CVBruce / 2 days ago 1
Was there any FAA paperwork to fill out or clearances needed?
Member #528713 / 4 hours ago 1
A website must be user-friendly for all devices, and when it comes to mobiles, the means of navigating the website need to be adaptable to…Re: Introducing the SIK Capstone Contest