Creating a Custom Tilt Sensor
For this project we worked with a local company in Longmont, Mountain Molding. Their technicians, Todd and Warren, were kind enough to let us hang out and ask a few questions. Here’s a video we shot during our visits to their facility. The inspiration for this project came from one of my first…
New Product Friday: Dumpster Dive Dos
We have a little something for everyone this week. We’ve got some new Actobotics products, a new 9DoF breakout, the Sound Detector, and other goodies. And of course, we have the second round of the SparkFun Dumpster Dive. The Dumpster Dive will officially go live at noon (Mountain Time Zone).…
Enginursday: Yeah, I found it on eBay
It’s widely known that you can find just about anything on eBay. From Twinkies to the attempted sale of an aircraft carrier, you are bound to find something interesting. Before I found SparkFun, eBay was a pretty decent source for finding parts like motors, relays, power supplies, and really…
SparkFun's Heading to SXSW!
Well, we warned you. Back in August we threatened to show up en masse in Austin, TX, in March 2014, in search of barbeque electronics enthusiasts, and the time has come! Starting Monday, March 3, various contingents of SparkFunions will be bringing our enthusiasm and expertise in hands-on…
SparkFun Live: Coin-operated Insult Generator
Are your days long on confidence and short on insults? Do you find that your morale is just too high? Well we’ve got the solution to your self-assurance problem: Join us on Tuesday, March 11, at 3:00 p.m. MT for the next edition of SparkFun Live, where engineer Mike Hord will help you build…
Chattanooga Public Library 4th Floor and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Studio
One of the things SparkFun’s Department of Education is most interested in is the changing role of libraries in the face of constantly-accelerating technology. We believe libraries hold a unique position as the trusted disseminators of democratized information, and they have the capacity - in…
New Product Friday: Brick Time
Woohoo, it’s Friday! Around here that means it’s time to talk about new products. We have some pretty cool stuff this week, as well as another Robotics 101 video, so let’s get to it. In our next installment of Robotics 101, the tables have flipped, kinda. Gregg, who’s usually…
Enginursday: Adventures in Building My Own Workbench
I wouldn’t call woodworking my forte by any stretch of the imagination. But, like any good DIYer, I felt the need to try it (at least once). When I moved to Boulder back in August, I did not take much furniture with me. I had a basic (read: cheap) desk that I used for many years prior to my…
AVC 2014: Bots, Copters, and Red Balloons of Death
AVC is back and we’ve made some improvements to everyone’s favorite robotic challenge. If you’re not familiar with AVC (or Autonomous Vehicle Competition), it’s SparkFun’s yearly competition where we let you put your autonomous creation through its paces. This…
Check out the LIDAR-Lite Distance Sensor
When you’re building a robot, quadcopter or other project and object avoidance or distance sensing is imperative to your success, finding the right sensor can be a bit tricky. Today, we want to share a brilliant new sensor from the folks over at Pulsed Light - the LIDAR-Lite. The LIDAR-Lite is…
February Caption Contest winner!
The votes are in and our resident Olympic Caption Contest judges can take a day off. Congratulations, asciirory! You’re the gold medalist of captioners. The ReelMaster 9000 Telepathic Popcorn Generator gets its first alpha test with disappointing results… $100 in SparkFun credit is headed…
New Product Friday: The Keypad to my Heart
Happy Valentine’s day SparkFunions! As always, we have a few new products for you this week. In addition, I’ve created world’s worst t-shirt for the product video. You might want to check it out. Be prepared to cringe. Apparently we really like Valentine’s day around here. I…
Enginursday: Time-lapse with the Raspberry Pi Pt. 2
In my previous Enginursday post, I was just getting my feet wet using the Raspberry Pi as a time-lapse camera for my aquaponics system. After trying out different settings, different enclosures, and using both the standard Raspberry Pi Camera Module with the Pi NoIR Camera Module, I’m here to…
GoldieBlox vs. Beastie Boys
This is an excerpt from a post by SparkFun Director of Education Lindsay Levkoff. To read the full article, head to SparkFun’s education page. GoldieBlox vs. Beastie Boys GoldieBlox should be a total win for someone like me. I am a 32 year-old female with a doctorate in a scientific field. I…
February Caption Contest
It’s time again for your monthly caption contest! The rules are simple: Leave your funniest clean caption in the comments section below. We reserve the right to delete captions that we deem inappropriate. We’re not too stingy, but try to keep it moderately PG-13. Captions submitted any other…
ElectriCute - Elastolite Tattoo
In today’s episode of “ElectriCute,” Creative Technologist Nick and Techstyle Specialist Dia build an awesome light-up temporary tattoo made with an Elastolite Panel. If you’re looking to start working with Elastolite - our flexible, waterproof EL material - this is a great…
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…
Recent Blog Comments
Member #437455 / 6 hours ago 1
Will there be any more robotics 101 videos?
s73v3r / 7 hours ago 1
How do any of these cases cope with having shields/capes put on the board?
RobertC. / 8 hours ago 1
0! but you do get disqualified, so there’s that. ;-)
NightPhoenix / 8 hours ago 1
How many bonus points do we get for blowing up those barrels?Member #496520 / 9 hours ago 2
The Loveland CreatorSpace booth at the Denver Mini Maker Faire will have a 60x36 pixel WS2812 LED display that uses Fadecandy boards, server…
Greggor / 5 hours ago 1
I was scrambling to get #10 done last night and I just simply ran out of time. It will be live soon on our [YouTube…Re: New Product Friday: Just in Case...