Success With SparkFun: User Stories

Every day our community creates something awesome with SparkFun products. Here are just a few of their stories. We hope this page provides inspiration for your next project and encourages you to start something.

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Caving With RTK.jpg

Caving with RTK

Whether it’s exploring uncharted caves in France or contributing to an Open Source street-mapping project, Eric Siebert relies on the SparkFun RTK Express for the positional accuracy he needs.

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Cryologging the Cryosphere

Cryologging the Cryosphere

When Adam Garbo of the Water and Ice Research Laboratory at Carleton University saw a lack of data coming from the cryosphere, he turned to an affordable, open-sourced solution he dubbed the Cryologger.

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Sea Ice Tracking with Artemis Global Tracker

Tracking Sea Ice with the Artemis Global Tracker

When Jean Rabault was looking for a cheaper and more compact way to collect data on sea ice for the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, he looked to the Artemis Global Tracker (AGT) as an alternative.

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GPS-RTK Enclosure

GPS RTK Brings Orienteering Dreams to Life

When avid orienteer Don Bayly needed a way to make his orienteering maps more accurate, he started researching GPS options. His need for a small footprint and extreme accuracy led him to the SparkFun GPS-RTK2 Board - ZED-F9P (Qwiic).

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uBlox for GPS Precision

Using u-blox GPS for Greater Precision

While pursuing his passion of autocross, Anker Berg-Sonne found himself in need of an inexpensive, high precision and upgradable data logger. To fit his needs, he turned to the SparkFun GPS Breakout - Chip Antenna, SAM-M8Q (Qwiic).

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Tracking Valuable Items with RFID

Using RFID to Prevent Property Theft

Theft is a problem Kevin Fahsholtz, VP of Business Development for Kirio, has faced before. At a prior company, he managed a large number of vacation rental properties. Fahsholtz shared an example of a scenario Kirio hopes to prevent.

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Tracking Possums with RFID

Using RFID to Track a Goat Herd's Health

Cory Spencer runs a 150-head goat dairy farm. One problem he encounters is that most technology for dairy farmers is designed for cows, not goats. Due to the specific needs of goats he needed to craft his own solution to manage the health of his herd.

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Distance Sensing Timer

Improving Timing with Distance Sensing

While working as a fitness director, Ryan Turner realized there were plenty of opportunities for innovation in the industry. He used his interests in fitness and hobby robotics to create an innovative timing system that fit the needs of many.

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Distance Sensing Eye Glasses

Distance Sensing Glasses Offer Alternative Vision

While on vacation a few years ago, Tommy Sullivan met a woman who had become blind after the birth of her first child. This encounter led him to start thinking about how technology could be used to help those with vision impairments.

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PurpleAir

SparkFun OpenLog Brings Data Logging to Air Quality Sensors

When a gravel pit blew dust into the surrounding area, Adrian Dybwad was curious to find out how much dust was actually in the air. This quest ultimately led to the founding of PurpleAir and the creation of “a global network of nearly 11,000 [air quality] sensors.”

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Sustainable Farming

Sustainable Farming Practices with Machine Learning

The 2050 Robotics Lab is working on a number of agriculture and environmental projects that include using robots to plant crops on high sloped hills, finding and spot treating pests in crops, and locating blue-green algae on open surface water.

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Bounce Box

More Efficient Sprinting with Arduino

Running and sprinting are simple in theory - put one foot in front of the other as fast as possible. It’s not rocket science, but it is a science. See how the Bounce Box, using Arduino, provides instant feedback on athlete’s ground contact time.

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Automated Keg Washer

Automatic Keg Washer with Raspberry Pi

Over the years, the combination owning a homebrew store and nano brewery has led Greg Kallfa to experiment with incorporating electronics into a number of projects to improve the brewing experience.

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FarmHand Robot

Custom Farming Solution

Developing a system for long-range communication to support autonomous micro-tractors.

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Tracking Possums with RFID

Tracking Possums with RFID
 

Nonprofit Landcare Research is working to better understand how possums interact with traps in order to improve capture rates. They have chosen to use RFID components due to their low cost and ability to identify individual possums.

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