Since you also have to buy machine screws, they are a little expensive at $0.15 each, in quantities of 100. These brass inserts perform better than expected. The soldering iron tip makes them incredibly easy to install and the holding strength is more than sufficient for anything you would be 3D printing in plastic.
Photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show what a solar eclipse looks like from the perspective of the Moon (!). More from Universe Today:
The May 20 annular eclipse may have been an awesome sight for skywatchers across many parts of the Earth, but it was also being viewed by a robotic explorer around the Moon!
During the event NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter turned its camera to look back home, acquiring several images of the Earth with the Moon’s fuzzy shadow cast onto different regions during the course of the eclipse. The image above is a 4-panel zoom into one particular NAC image showing the Moon’s shadow over the Aleutian Islands.
LRO captured a total of four narrow-angle camera (NAC) images during two of its orbits. During one orbit the Moon’s shadow was over the southern part of Japan, and during the next it had moved northeast to cover the island chain of Alaska.
Memorial day is 05/28/2012 – Adafruit will be open and taking orders, free shipping to any military base as always… Postal orders & UPS will ship out on May 29th.
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 28 in 2012). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War), it was expanded after World War I.
The weekly show-and-tell is SATURDAY NIGHT 5/26/12 at 9:30pm ET!
NEW INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BE ON THE SHOW AND TELL. If you are on Google+ and want to join, post a message/comment on Limor’s post on Google+ and say you want to show off a project and she will add you the “Show and Tell” circle. Then just look for the hangout announcement on the very same page later for your invite. There’s an 8 to 10 (at the same time) people limit per hangout, so if it’s full try later or just pop by next week same time. Some weeks are packed!
At 9:30pm ET you will see a link to the hang out. Just keep your mics muted until we call on you and have your project ready.
Google is allowing some accounts to broadcast and record – Ladyada is trying this out, with your help
Previously we broadcasted the hangouts on Google to Ustream using their Producer tool to capture the hangout. We’re still using Ustream for “ASK AN ENGINEER”.
So if anything goes wrong, it’s all very new, but that’s also part of the fun
What is “Ask an engineer”? From the electronics enthusiast to the professional community – “Ask an Engineer” has a little bit of everything for everyone. If you’re a beginner, or a seasoned engineer – stop in and see what we’re up to! We have demos of projects and products we’re working on, we answer your engineering and electronics questions and we have a trivia question + give away each week. Mosfet the cat stops by too. Previous chats can be viewed at http://www.adafruit.com/ask
And don’t forget, 30 minutes before the show we’re doing our weekly show-and-tell. If you are on Google+ and want to join, just add/follow +Limor Fried’s (Ladyada) page and post a comment so you can be added to the show and tell circle. At 9:30pm ET you will see a link to the hang out. Just keep your mics muted until we call on you and have your project ready.
For those who just want to watch, you’ll be able to watch it live on Ustream here and we usually have a recorded version posted later.
Its a very common question, ‘How do I read and RC Receiver with my micro controller‘ and the answer is often very simple however the simple answer is close to useless in a real world application.
The approach outlined in this series of posts has been tested in an RC Race car running at 40+ Kmh at a range of 100 meters.
The approach is reliable, resilient, easy to understand and easy to modify. It has been tested using using 27Mhz AM radio equipment and entry level electronics. Use of better quality electronics and radio equipment will provide improvements in range and signal quality however as the development process has demonstrated, even low end equipment can be interfaced with Arduino for control of an RC Race car.
NEW PRODUCT – Waterproof 2xAA battery holder. Keep your power source safe and toasty in these waterproof 2xAA battery holders. They’re just like classic switched battery holders, but designed for survival! The case has a rubber gasket around the edge of the case (its black and hard to see in the photos but it is there) and attaches together with 4 machine screws. What we like about this design is that the hexnuts are captive in one side and you can assemble/disassemble as many times as you need. There’s a potted power switch and a rubber-boot on-off switch (press to turn on/off). Use with any alkaline or rechargeable batteries for about 3V output.
Would work great with our waterproof DC power plugs (just use heatshrink to waterproof the solder connections)
We also have a 3xAA version when you need a little more power.
Weight: 36 grams
2″ (2.5″ with machine screw ears) x 3″ x.8″ (50mm (63mm with machine screw ears) x 77mm x 20mm)
NEW (UPDATED) PRODUCT – Thermocouple Amplifier MAX31855 breakout board (MAX6675 upgrade). New! Now uses the MAX31885K instead of the MAX6675, so it can measure a wider temperature measurement range. Please note! the MAX31885 is not pin compatible or drop-in code compatible with the MAX6675. We do have an Arduino library for both chips but you’ll need to adjust any existing MAX6675 designs for the mew MAX31855. The MAX6675 has been discontinued by Maxim. Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference. The MAX31855K does everything for you, and can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller, even one without an analog input. This breakout board has the chip itself, a 3.3V regulator with 10uF bypass capacitors and level shifting circuitry, all assembled and tested. Comes with a 2 pin terminal block (for connecting to the thermocouple) and pin header (to plug into any breadboard or perfboard). Goes great with our 1m K-type thermocouple.
Works with any K type thermocouple
Will not work with any other kind of thermocouple other than K type
-200°C to +1350°C output in 0.25 degree increments
Adafruit IoT Printer Project Pack Internet of Things printer. Build an Internet of Things connected mini printer that will do your bidding! This is a fun weekend project that comes with a beautiful laser cut case. Once assembled, the little printer connects to Ethernet to get Internet data for printing onto 2 1/4 wide receipt paper. The example sketch weve written will connect to Twitters search API and retrieve and print tweets according to your requests: you can have it print out tweets from a person, a hashtag, mentioning a word, etc! Once youve gotten that working, you can of course easily adapt our sketch to customize the printer.
The project is not very difficult but does require some light soldering, so youll want to have a little experience with a soldering iron. Youll also need a small flathead screwdriver to assemble the box. Its also best if youve had a little Arduino experience so you can feel comfortable downloading the IDE and uploading our example sketch.
This pack does not contain an Arduino+Arduino Ethernet Shield, Arduino Ethernet or Ethernet cable To complete the project you will need to add either an Arduino + Ethernet Shieldor an Arduino UNO Ethernet. If youre using an Arduino UNO Ethernet you will also need an FTDI friend or FTDI cable to upload the sketch. A plain straight-thru Ethernet cable is also required (any length)
In this new video Jared Hofhiens, Digi’s XBee Product Manager, offers an inside peek at the company’s Kilo-Node test fixture where giant wireless networks are put through their paces at the company’s Lindon, Utah offices.
Each “blade” of the K-Node holds 32 XBee radios, with variable RF attenuation so that effective distance between the radios can be changed for different simulations. Multiply that by 32 blades in a test fixture and you get 1024 radios total! Hofhiens says, “This flexibility allows us to simulate anything from pipeline monitoring to streetlight controls or home energy management systems.That’s what makes the XBee the most reliable, most tested RF module on the planet!”
It is hard to even imagine how much R&D time went into this. Very impressive.
NEW PRODUCT – USB Microscope – 5.0 Megapixel / 220x magnification / 8 LEDs. As electronics get smaller and smaller, you’ll need a hand examining PCBs and this little USB microscope is the perfect tool. Its smaller and lighter than a large optical microscope but packs quite a bit of power in its little body. There’s a 5.0 megapixel sensor inside and an optical magnifier that can adjust from 20x (for basic PCB inspection) to 220x (for detailed inspection). Eight white LEDs are angled right onto whatever you’re examining so you get enough lighting to see, and are smoothly adjustable via a dial on the side.
New! We’ve upgraded from the previous model we stocked, this is a microscope to 5.0 Megapixel (from 2.0M) and this one comes with two removable plastic caps to get close ups for a wider focusing range.
If you plug this into any computer, it just shows up as a standard USB camera (we used this for our weekly Ask an Engineer show) and the Windows/Mac software lets you take snapshots using the button on the side of the microscope or direct from the software (so you don’t move the camera).
We tried a bunch of different USB microscopes and found this one to be the best combination of optical clarity, usability, and price. It’s perfect for electronics hacking, rework, SMT (de)soldering, inspection, and soon you’ll find yourself pulling it out to look and photograph all sort of cool small stuff around your lab and home.
This board focuses mainly on self-tracking gadgets and sensors – especially those designed for health. While most are wearable, there are some that track from inside the body or that you put against your body. Some of these products are concepts or are not yet commercially available. Welcome to the world of Wear, Share, Compare!
Printable catalog (PDF)
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