Jimb0
Member Since: May 8, 2009
Country: United States
Profile
Bio
Grew up in Dillon, CO. Escaped CU-Boulder with a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Built some speakers for a while and eventually landed a sweet gig with SparkFun in ‘09.
Role
SparkFun Engineer/Content Creator
Spoken Languages
English, Espanol
Programming Languages
In order of competency: C/C++, Java, Javascript, Python. Once upon a time: QBASIC, Flash, Matlab, Perl
Universities
Summit High School University of Colorado - Boulder (B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering 2007)
Expertise
Datasheets and schematics. Eagle PCB Design. SparkFun products!
Interests
Puppies, hiking, baseball, sci-fi,
Websites
http://www.sparkfun.com
Publications
Many SparkFun tutorials! I’ve written some pretty lengthy TS emails too.
Enginursday: Exploring the Arduino/Intel Galileo
The list of official Arduino boards continues to grow, and, continuing with the famous-Italian-person trend, now includes the Galileo. The Galileo is Intel’s toe-dip into the Arduino waters. It features their Quark SoC X1000 – a 32-bit, x86 system-on-a-chip that can run at up to 400MHz…
Enginursday: Visually Programming Arduino
I got my first taste of programming with RCX Code and an old Mindstorms RCX 1.0, so maybe it’s nostalgia speaking, but I really admire visual programming languages for their ability to introduce younger folks to programming. With color coded operators, geometrically shaped data types, and no…
Enginursday - Tutorial Refocus
Hey, have you checked out learn.sparkfun.com recently? You should if you haven’t! You’ve probably noticed we’ve been putting a very high priority on education these days. We’re spreading electronics gospel on the National Tour (or in our own classroom [psst: there’s an…
Engineer Thursday - Artistic PCBs in Eagle
Printed circuit board (PCB) layout is one of the best parts of the project design process. Drawing up schematics, laying out components, and solving the net-routing-puzzle are all fun, oddly relaxing tasks, but my favorite part of PCB design is making them look snazzy. It’s as close as this…
Ultrasonic Ranger Info Video
Our newest product info video features yours truly explaining the basics of ultrasonic range-finding sensors. If you ever want to add distance sensing, or object/motion detection to your project, these sonar sensors are a great option. They're ultra-easy to use, with an analog output (among a…
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Product COM-11442 | about 2 weeks ago
Digits are 10mm tall. For reference, it’s this display.
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Tutorial - How to Use an Oscilloscope | about 2 weeks ago
Ah, that old relic. It’s this kit. We had to retire it when the XR-2206 was end-of-life’d. Very sad. I still create excuses to use it from time-to-time though :).
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Product DEV-12640 | about 2 weeks ago
Sure it can! Use the “RAW” and “GND” pins on the side of the board to power it with a battery – connect the positive side of your battery to “RAW” and the negative to “GND”.
Check out this section of the hookup guide for more details.
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Tutorial - Dot/Bar Display Driver Hookup Guide | about 2 weeks ago
Heh, yeah…darn that gap. I ended up bending the legs that hit the gap 90° over, and wrapping them around the next leg over (for a temporary solution, soldering for more permanent).
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Product WRL-12576 | about 3 weeks ago
If you want to use the Uno’s hardware serial port, it’d be similar to the hookup on this page of the tutorial. But instead, hookup TX and RX like this:
- Bluetooth Mate TX -> Arduino RX (pin 0)
- Bluetooth Mate RX -> Arduino TX (pin 1)
If you’re using the hardware serial port, be careful about leaving the BT module connected when you’re uploading code. I’d recommend disconnecting the Mate’s RX line when you upload, to make sure it doesn’t receive any data meant for the Arduino.
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Product DEV-12640 | last month
Huh, that’s worked for me in the past. I’m not sure what else it could be. It might be best to contact tech support at this point.
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Product DEV-12640 | about a month ago
Ouch! It’s possible to revive it – just takes some perfect timing and patience. Check out the Reset to Bootloader and How to revive a bricked Pro Micro sections on this page. You’ll need to get the Pro Micro into bootloader mode, and try uploading a (5V-compiled) sketch before it exits.
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Product WRL-12576 | about a month ago
Sure! It’s designed to work at both 3.3V and 5V.
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Tutorial - Galileo Getting Started Guide | about a month ago
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the heads up, got the link fixed.
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Product BOB-11040 | about a month ago
I think you’d be safe with those. The dimensions all look very similar, and they look to be common cathodes.
| Name | Contents | Pieces | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Si4707 Simple HookUp
Parts required to set up your own weather radio receiver… |
     |
5 | 65.3 |
|
ATmega128RFA1 Development Board Hookup Guide
|
    |
5 | 21.15 |
|
Electric Imp Breakout Hookup Guide
|
    |
13 | 71.65 |
|
D&D Dice Gauntlet
|
     |
14 | 114.3 |
|
Pro Mini 3.3V Hookup Guide
|
 |
4 | 28.35 |