Use it with Processing! – Adafruit Color Sensors @ The Adafruit Learning System.

The Adafruit_TCS34725 Library includes a processing sketch to communicate with the ColorView Arduino sketch and display color on your computer screen in real time.

RGB Color Sensor with IR filter – TCS34725.

Flora Color Sensor – TCS34725.

Tutorial: Adafruit Color Sensors @ The Adafruit Learning System.

Your electronics can now see in dazzling color with this lovely color light sensor. We found the best color sensor on the market, the TCS34725, which has RGB and Clear light sensing elements. An IR blocking filter, integrated on-chip and localized to the color sensing photodiodes, minimizes the IR spectral component of the incoming light and allows color measurements to be made accurately. The filter means you’ll get much truer color than most sensors, since humans don’t see IR. The sensor also has an incredible 3,800,000:1 dynamic range with adjustable integration time and gain so it is suited for use behind darkened glass.

We add supporting circuitry as well, such as a 3.3V regulator so you can power the breakout with 3-5VDC safely and level shifting for the I2C pins so they can be used with 3.3V or 5V logic. Finally, we specified a nice neutral 4150°K temperature LED with a MOSFET driver onboard to illuminate what you’re trying to sense. The LED can be easily turned on or off by any logic level output.

For more flexibility, we’ve made two different versions of this board: A breadboard-friendly breakout, and a wearable version designed to work with the Flora wearable platform.

Stay tuned, on Wearable Wednesday we’re going to have an amazing project you can build these color sensors and FLORA!

NEW PRODUCT – Standalone Momentary Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout – This breakout board is the simplest way to create a project with a single “momentary” capacitive touch sensor. No microcontroller is required here – just power with 1.8 to 5.5VDC and touch the pad to activate the sensor.

When a capacitive load is detected (e.g. a person touches the sensor-pad area) the red LED lights up and the output pin goes high. You can also solder a wire to the middle pad and create your own capacitive pad if the built-in one isn’t suited to your project.

If you want to save power, the LED can be disconnected from the output pin (cut the trace between the jumper marked as such). We designed this breakout to have the more-responsive “fast mode” which draws about 0.5mA. If you need ultra-low (~50uA) power usage, the mode jumper can be cut on one side & soldered closed on the other to fix it into that mode. Check the datasheet for specific power usage measurements.

Comes with a fully assembled board, and a small stick of 0.1″ header so you can solder and plug it into a breadboard. For additional contacts, we suggest using copper foil, then solder a wire that connects from the foil pad to the breakout.

The datasheet has many details on sensitivity, power usage, etc.

Technical Details:

• Dimensions: 20mm / 0.8″ x 28mm / 1.1″
• Weight: 1.87g

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Standalone Momentary Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout – This breakout board is the simplest way to create a project with a single “toggle” capacitive touch sensor. No microcontroller is required here – just power with 1.8 to 5.5VDC and touch the pad to activate the sensor.

This sensor is a toggle output type: touch-on then touch-off. That means that when a capacitive load is detected (e.g. a person touches the sensor-pad area) the red LED will alternate turning off and the output pin will go high or low, respectively. This sensor is good for a project where you want to activate something on the first touch, then deactivate it when touching again, like a switch. You can also solder a wire to the middle pad and create your own capacitive pad if the built-in one isn’t suited to your project.

If you want to save power, the LED can be disconnected from the output pin (cut the trace between the jumper marked as such). We designed this breakout to have infinite time-out. The chip does support having the sensor time-out, so for example, if something is turned on, it will eventually turn off on its own. If you’d like to use this mode, cut the TIMER jumper and then connect a resistor/capacitor to the TIME pin. Check the datasheet for how to calculate the TIME pin to match your desired timeout.

Comes with a fully assembled board, and a small stick of 0.1″ header so you can solder and plug it into a breadboard. For additional contacts, we suggest using copper foil, then solder a wire that connects from the foil pad to the breakout.

The datasheet has many details on sensitivity, power usage, etc.

Technical Details:

• Dimensions: 20mm / 0.8″ x 29.35mm / 1.15″
• Weight: 2.03g

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Standalone 5-Pad Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout – AT42QT1070. This breakout board is the simplest way to create a project with mutiple capacitive touch sensors. No microcontroller is required here – just power with 1.8 to 5.5VDC and connect up to 5 conductive pads to the 5 left-hand pins.
When a capacitive load is detected (e.g. a person touches one of the conductive contacts) the corresponding LED on the right lights up and the output pin goes low. You can use this to update an existing normal-button project where buttons connect to ground when pressed.

Note that only one contact will be detected at once (this is to protect against having a hand brush against two or more contacts at once.

Comes with a fully assembled board, and a stick of 0.1″ header so you can plug it into a breadboard. For contacts, we suggest using copper foil, then solder a wire that connects from the foil pad to the breakout.

The datasheet has many details on sensitivity, power usage, etc. – note that this board uses the chip in ‘standalone’ mode only, it cannot be used in I2C mode.

In stock and shipping now!

Featured Adafruit Products

Miniature Keyboard- Microcontroller-Friendly PS/2 and USB – Add a typing interface to your project with this microcontroller-friendly miniature keyboard. We found the smallest PS/2+USB keyboard available, a mere 8.75″ x 4.65″ x 0.6″ (220mm x 118mm x 16mm)! It’s small but usable to make a great accompaniment to either a microcontroller project or a computer such as the Beagle Bone or Raspberry Pi. The keyboard supports either USB or PS/2 interface and will automatically adjust to whichever its plugged into (there’s an adapter included).

Comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, and has a num-lock number pad. Nearly all microcontrollers have existing PS/2 keyboard examples that would work fine with this keyboard. For Ardiuno users, we tried out PJRC’s PS2_Keyboard library with great success – just check the ‘simple text’ example for which pins you can connect to on your ‘duino (on an Uno we used digital pins 2 and 3). We suggest our PS/2 adapter cable to make the wiring easy. Start typing and you’ll see the data appear in the serial terminal! (read more)

In this lesson, you will learn how to use the digital inputs on the GPIO connector with a door sensor and a PIR motion detector.

In this lesson, we will concentrate on sensing movement and activation of the door switch. In Lesson 13 we will build on this security sensing to have the Pi use a digital output to control the power to an electrical appliance when movement is detected.

Check out the tutorial here!

Featured Adafruit Products

PIR (motion) sensor – PIR sensors are used to detect motion from pets/humanoids from about 20 feet away (possibly works on zombies, not guaranteed). This one has an adjustable delay before firing (approx 0.3-18 seconds), adjustable sensitivity and we include a 1 foot (30 cm) cable with a socket so you can easily reposition the sensor or mount it using the two drills on either side. (read more)

We now have Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB RAM in stock and shipping now!

This is an Arduino porting of the excellent work by Markus Frejek.
The final aim is to create an economic component tester using Arduino and a few passive components;

You can see more about ArduTester in our Arduino Forum.

NEW PRODUCT – Maxbotix Ultrasonic Rangefinder – HR-USB-EZ1 – MB1413 – The HRLV-MaxSonar-EZ sensor line is the fastest way to get precision range-finding into your computer. No microcontroller or adapter required, simply connect any micro B USB cable (not included) into the sensor and install the FTDI drivers to get serial sonar distance data via serial on any computer operating system.

The HR-USB-EZ sensor line provides high accuracy and high resolution ultrasonic proximity detection and ranging in air, in a package less than one cubic inch. This sensor line features 1mm resolution, target-size and operating-voltage compensation for improved accuracy, superior rejection of outside noise sources, internal speed-of-sound temperature compensation and optional external speed-of-sound temperature compensation. This ultrasonic sensor detects objects from 1mm to 5meters, senses range to objects from 30cm to 5meters, with large objects closer than 30cm typically reported as 30cm.

• USB interface
• Resolution of 1 mm
• Multi-sensor operation
• ~250mS between range readings
• Maximum Range of 5000 mm (196 inches)
• 42kHz Ultrasonic sensor measures distance to objects
• RoHS compliant
• Virtually no sensor dead zone, objects closer than 30 cm range as 30 cm
• Small, light weight module
• Designed for easy integration into your project or product
• Great starting point for users unsure of which sensor to use

HRLV-EZ1 Data Sheet / Product Information Guide is available here.

Technical Details:

• Length: 15.52mm/0.61in
• Width: 22.36mm/0.88in
• Height: 20.0mm/0.79in
• Weight: 4.23g/0.15oz

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – RGB Color Sensor with IR filter – TCS34725 – Your electronics can now see in dazzling color with this lovely color light sensor. We found the best color sensor on the market, the TCS34725, which has RGB and Clear light sensing elements. An IR blocking filter, integrated on-chip and localized to the color sensing photodiodes, minimizes the IR spectral component of the incoming light and allows color measurements to be made accurately. The filter means you’ll get much truer color than most sensors, since humans don’t see IR. The sensor also has an incredible 3,800,000:1 dynamic range with adjustable integration time and gain so it is suited for use behind darkened glass.

We add supporting circuitry as well, such as a 3.3V regulator so you can power the breakout with 3-5VDC safely and level shifting for the I2C pins so they can be used with 3.3V or 5V logic. Finally, we specified a nice neutral 4150&Deg;K temperature LED with a MOSFET driver onboard to illuminate what you’re trying to sense. The LED can be easily turned on or off by any logic level output.

Connect to any microcontroller with I2C and our example code will quickly get you going with 4 channel readings. We include some example code to detect light lux and temperature that we snagged from the eval board software.

A detailed tutorial is in the works, till then, check out our Arduino library and follow our tutorial to install. Wire up the sensor by connecting VDD to 3-5VDC, Ground to common ground, SCL to I2C Clock and SDA to I2C Data on your Arduino. Restart the IDE and select the example sketch and start putting all your favorite fruit next to the sensor element!

Technical Details:

• Weight: 3.23g
• Dimensions: 20.44mm / 0.8″ x 20.28mm / 0.79″

In stock and shipping now!

Gadgets to Help Tend a Garden – NYTimes.com.

Picture a tiny drone that arises from your vegetable garden to shoo away hungry deer. Or maybe a houseplant that, when you’re away, meanders through your rooms like a cat following a sunbeam. Or one that posts a request for water on Twitter.

The future is knocking at the door of home gardening. And, if some do-it-yourselfers have their way, there is no aspect of nature that can’t be improved with a rechargeable motor and a sensor or two.

NEW PRODUCT – Membrane 1×4 Keypad + Extras – Punch in your secret key into this numeric membrane keypad. This keypad has 4 buttons, and since every key has its own wire line, no matrix code is required – just treat these like every day switches. The membrane is soft and has a removable paper backing to expose a strong adhesive so you can stick this on an enclosure and feed the cable through a slot. It’s a simple keypad but that’s why we like it.

We include a 5-pin extra-long header strip so you can plug this into a breadboard with ease.

Technical Details

• Weight: 2.83g
• Keypad dimensions: 69.14mm / 2.72″ x 20.07mm / 0.79″
• Length of cable + connector: 87.31mm / 3.43″ x 14.28mm / 0.56″
• 5-pin 0.1″ pitch connector

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Membrane LED Keypad + extras – This membrane keypad has a single key, but it does have an embedded surface-mount red LED installed. The flex cable is also extra-long, so we can think of a lot of wearable and portable projects that would use this sort of switch and have an LED as feedback (say, to indicate that an action is occuring or the power is on). Since the keypad is soft plastic, it can be sewn with needle and thread.

The back of the pad has a removable paper cover that protects an adhesive backing. You can see how the pins correspond to the LED anode/cathode and button by looking at the photos above.

We include a 3-pin extra-long header strip so you can plug this into a breadboard with ease.

Technical Details:

• Weight: 1.97g
• Keypad dimensions: 19.05mm / .75″ x 34.92mm / 1.37″
• Length of cable + connector: 350mm / 13.77″ x 8.24mm / 0.32″
• 5-pin 0.1″ pitch connector

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – AM2315 – Encased I2C Temperature/Humidity Sensor. Finally we have an I2C-interface temperature & humidity sensor in a nice enclosed style. This sensor contains a DS18B20 temperature sensor and a capacitive humidity sensor. A small microcontroller inside does the readings and provides a simple I2C interface for reading the finished & calibrated output data. Especially nice is that this sensor is in a rugged case with mounting bracket, which makes it way superior to a normal PCB-mounted sensor.

While it is not rated as ‘weatherproof’, this sensor would do much better for sensing where there might be wind, rain, zombies, etc. than SHT PCB-breakout sensors, and the i2c interface makes it easier to interface with microcomputers that can’t do the delicate timing of the DHT sensors.

Simply connect the red wire to 5V power, black to ground, yellow wire to your i2c data pin, and the white wire to the i2c clock pin. You cannot change the i2c address so only one sensor per i2c bus. Two ~10Kohm pullup resistors are required for use, connect from the SDA and SCL lines to the power wire, the pullup resistors are not included!

In stock and shipping now.

Tutorial – ADXL345 Digital Accelerometer @ The Adafruit Learning System.

The ADXL345 is a low-power, 3-axis MEMS accelerometer modules with both I2C and SPI interfaces. The Adafruit Breakout boards for these modules feature on-board 3.3v voltage regulation and level shifting which makes them simple to interface with 5v microcontrollers such as the Arduino.

The ADXL345 features 4 sensitivity ranges from +/- 2G to +/- 16G. And it supports output data rates ranging from 10Hz to 3200Hz.

Learn more!

LSM303 Accelerometer + Compass Breakout @ The Adafruit Learning System.

The LSM303 breakout board combines a magnetometer/compass module with a triple-axis accelerometer to make a compact navigation subsystem. The I2C interface is compatible with both 3.3v and 5v processors and the two pins can be shared by other I2C devices. Combined with a 3-axis gyro such as the L3GD20, you have all the sensors you need for a complete IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) for use in aerial, terrestrial or marine navigation.

In this tutorial we will show you how to connect the LSM303 to an Arduino and use it to measure orientation relative to the earth’s magnetic field, and acceleration in three axis.

Learn more!

Using the Pulse Sensor Amped, Sebastian Tomczak aka Little-Scale uses his heart beat to control the tempo in Ableton Live.

Source code and more here!

Featured Adafruit Products

Pulse Sensor Amped – Pulse Sensor Amped is a greatly improved version of the original Pulse Sensor, a plug-and-play heart-rate sensor for Arduino and Arduino compatibles. It can be used by students, artists, athletes, makers, and game & mobile developers who want to easily incorporate live heart-rate data into their projects. (read more)

Here’s a helpful video tutorial contribution from Adafruit community member David Nash. Thanks for sending this in!

This is a simple project that builds on several of your Raspberry Pi Lesson projects that I thought you might consider including in a more advanced lesson. All of the components were purchased from Adafruit. The project uses your 8×8 matrix as the display so, when the Python program is automatically invoked from bootup, it requires no monitor or keyboard to run. It uses 12C for input and output to two devices and uses one GPIO analog interface. It’s a neat project for a number of reasons not least of which is it provides a means of verifying that your programmable home thermostat is functioning properly.

Read more.

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit, be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Have you tried the new “Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro” ? It’s our tweaked distribution for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi. But wait, there’s more! Try our new Raspberry Pi WebIDE! The easiest way to learn programming on a Raspberry Pi.

We now have Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB RAM in stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Soil Temperature/Moisture Sensor – SHT10 – Take your gardening project to the next level with a SHT-10 based soil sensor. The sensor includes a temperature/humidity sensor module from Sensiron in a sinter metal mesh encasing. The casing is weatherproof and will keep water from seeping into the body of the sensor and damaging it, but allows air to pass through so that it can measure the humidity (moisture) of the soil. It is designed to be submersible in water, but it’s always best to avoid long-term (over 1 hour at a time) submersion, if you need something that can be submerged for over an hour you may want to find a different sensor. It can also be simply placed outside for exterior weather sensing.

Humidity readings have 4.5% precision, temperature is 0.5% precision. A microcontroller is required to interface. The sensor is not washed after reflow and is rehydrated according to datasheet requirements.

The sensor is essentially just a Sensiron SHT-10 with the 4 data/power wires brought out so any SHT-1X code for a microcontroller will work. The sensor works with 3 or 5V logic. The 1 meter long cable has four wires: Red = VCC (3-5VDC), Black = Ground, Yellow = Clock, Green = Data. For Arduino, there’s a handy Sensiron library with example. For Propeller, there’s an SHT1X sensor object. Don’t forget to connect a 10K resistor from the green Data line to VCC.

• Body dimensions: 14mm diameter, 50mm long
• Cable length: 1 meter
• Humidity readings with 4.5% accuracy
• Temperature readings with 0.5 degree C accuracy
• Working Temperature/Humidity range: -40°C ~ 120°C, 0~100% RH
• Four wires: Red = VCC (3-5VDC), Black = Ground, Yellow = Clock, Green = Data
• All other sensor specifications are in the SHT10 Datasheet
• Soil sensor datasheet

In stock and shipping now!

Check out this excellent flow sensor project from the Adafruit Forums:

I have a problem. When I look at my brewery I think that if it is working, then it doesn’t have enough features. Certain parts of the brewing process suggest specific liquid flow rates, but without instantaneous feedback, how can anyone ever really judge if they’re doing it right? It seemed that commercial flow meters are complete garbage or are insanely expensive. Luckily, Adafruit had my back with an inexpensive flow sensor.

I slapped a couple quick disconnects on it, and replaced the screws that held it together with 3/4″ #4 brass wood screws to allow it to be mounted to a nice enclosure.

The rest of the parts were maybe $15-20, but I had them sitting around from my other projects. I need to get a 9V battery clip. Soldering wires onto a 9V battery because you’re more excited about getting it working than driving to Radio Shack is surprisingly difficult.

The PCB is custom made from OSH Park and drives the LCD, PWM backlight and contrast, and of course counts the sensor pulses. I went a slightly different way than the example sketch does it, because I found that the resolution at low flow rates was too coarse. I use Timer1 set to 62.5Khz and use the input capture interrupt to store the elapsed ticks between pulses.

The sensor works great, but is quite a bit off spec (450 pulses per liter) at flow rates less than 4 lpm. I calibrated by running hundreds of liters of water through it and creating some calibration points that I can LERP between. Flow rate accuracy now pretty tight, off by a couple percent. Careful calibration can take this sensor down below its minimum spec’ed flow rate, down to about 0.7 lpm, but the pulses-per-liter count at that rate changes dramatically.

Here’s some pictures of the device in action on the brewery, where it just snaps on to the existing pump infrastructure. Using sleep modes between pulses means the current draw is relatively low and the 9V battery should last roughly 30 hours in use….

Read more.

NEW PRODUCT – Contact-less Infrared Thermopile Sensor Breakout – TMP006. Unlike all the other temperature sensors we have, this breakout has a really cool IR sensor from TI that can measure the temperature of an object without touching it! Simply point the sensor towards what you want to measure and it will detect the temperature by absorbing IR waves emitted. The embedded thermopile sensor generates a very very small voltage depending on how much IR there is, and using some math, that micro voltage can be used to calculate the temperature. It also takes the measurement over an area so it can be handy for determining the average temperature of something.

This sensor comes as a ultra-small 0.5mm pitch BGA, too hard to solder by hand. So we stuck it on an easy-to-work-with breakout board. The sensor works with 3 to 5V logic so it requires no logic level shifting. There are two address pins and using a funky method of connecting the pins you can have up to 8 TMP006′s connected to one i2c bus (see the datasheet table 1 for the connections). We also include a small piece of 0.1″ breakaway header so you can easily solder to and use this sensor on a breadboard. Two mounting holes make it easy to attach to an enclosure.

Of course, we wouldn’t just hand you a datasheet and wish you luck, we’ve written an easy-to-use Arduino library with an example that will have you up and running in 5 minutes. The code can also be ported to any microcontroller with i2c support, the hardest math part has already been taken care of.

• Dimensions (without headers):Length: 20mm/0.8in, Width: 20mm/0.8in
• TMP006 Datasheet
• TMP006 userguide

A video on adjusting the “view” of the TMP006:

An interesting writeup on the TMP006 with a bus pirate

In stock and shipping now!

Check out this great PIR Sensor Tutorial Part 1 and and Part 2 over at Raspberry Pi Spy! (Goes nicely with our recent Pi Learning System tutorial here!)

A great little sensor you can add to your Raspberry Pi projects is a PIR module. These 5V “Passive Infra Red” sensors are available for a few pounds from eBay. They can be powered from 5V and output 3V so can be connected directly to pins on the Pi’s GPIO header without any other components.

The module sets a single output pin high whenever it detects movement within its field of view. It holds this pin High (3.3V) for a minimum period of time. If continuous movement is detected the output pin will stay High. When the time has elapsed and no more movement is detected the output pin returns Low (0V).

I am currently using one in an alarm system and it works great for such a small and cheap device.

Read more.

Featured Adafruit Product

PIR (motion) sensor: PIR sensors are used to detect motion from pets/humanoids from about 20 feet away (possibly works on zombies, not guaranteed). This one has an adjustable delay before firing (approx 0.3-18 seconds), adjustable sensitivity and we include a 1 foot (30 cm) cable with a socket so you can easily reposition the sensor or mount it using the two drills on either side. (read more)

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit, be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Have you tried the new “Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro” ? It’s our tweaked distribution for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi. But wait, there’s more! Try our new Raspberry Pi WebIDE! The easiest way to learn programming on a Raspberry Pi.

We now have Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB RAM in stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCTS – Massive Arcade Buttons with LED – 100mm Green, Blue, Red, White, and Yellow – OMG WATCH OUT! These 100mm diameter arcade buttons are so massive and inviting they may collapse upon themselves and form a black hole from which not even light can escape! Until they do, however, they’re ready for all sorts of pressing and pushing. Science has shown no one can resist pressing its shiny surface and saying “beep!”. We’ve seen these on some games of skill in arcades, they’re easy to mount on nearly any kind of enclosure. They’re not waterproof or weatherproof, so best used indoors.

NEW PRODUCT – Massive Arcade Button with LED – 100mm in White – This button has a domed white plastic cover with a black retaining ring around it. There’s an optional LED included that will light up the button. The LED has a built in resistor so you can run it up to 12V but given the massive size and shallow depth of the button, it doesn’t illuminate the entire button face evenly. The button activates a common arcade microswitch (included), the switch contacts are normally open. When the button is pressed, the contacts close.

NEW PRODUCT – Massive Arcade Button with LED – 100mm in Blue

NEW PRODUCT – Massive Arcade Button with LED – 100mm in Green

NEW PRODUCT – Massive Arcade Button with LED – 100mm in Yellow

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCTS – Large Arcade Buttons with LED – 60mm Green, Blue, Red, White, and Yellow – BAM! These 60mm diameter arcade buttons are large and inviting and ready for all sorts of pressing and pushing. We’ve seen these on some games of skill in arcades, they’re easy to mount on nearly any kind of enclosure. They’re not waterproof or weatherproof, so best used indoors.

NEW PRODUCT – Large Arcade Button with LED – 60mm Yellow – These buttons have a flat plastic cover with a black retaining ring around it. There’s an optional LED included that will light up the button. The LED has a built in LED so you can run it up to 12V but given the shallow depth of the button, it doesn’t illuminate the entire LED face evenly. The button activates a common arcade microswitch (included), the switch contacts are normally open. When the button is pressed, the contacts close.

NEW PRODUCT – Large Arcade Button with LED – 60mm White

NEW PRODUCT – Large Arcade Button with LED – 60mm Green

NEW PRODUCT – Large Arcade Button with LED – 60mm Blue

In stock and shipping now!

Learn to stitch up our new Flora accelerometer in this step-by-step tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System. Also check out the video on YouTube (please subscribe!) and Vimeo.

Flora Accelerometer/Compass Sensor – LSM303 – v1.0 – Add motion and direction sensing to your wearable Flora project with this high precision 3-axis Accelerometer+Compass sensor. Inside are two sensors, one is a classic 3-axis accelerometer, which can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity) or how fast the board is accelerating in 3D space. The other is a magnetometer that can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north. By combining this data you can then orient yourself.

We based this sensor on the latest version of this popular sensor, the LSM303DLHC. The sensor has a digital (I2C) interface. Attaching it to the Flora is simple: line up the sensor so its adjacent to the SDA/SCL pins and sew conductive thread from the 3V, SDA, SCL and GND pins. They line up perfectly so you will not have any crossed lines. You can only connect one of these sensors to your Flora, but you can connect other I2C sensors/outputs by using the set of SCL/SDA pins on the opposite side.

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Using the hot air SMD rework station to place surface mount components on the L3GD20 Triple-Axis Gyro Breakout Board. When the tester beeps, they’re good to go!

NEW PRODUCT – ADXL345 – Triple-Axis Accelerometer (+-2g/4g/8g/16g) w/ I2C/SPI – Filling out our accelerometer offerings, we now have the really lovely digital ADXL345 from Analog Devices, a triple-axis accelerometer with digital I2C and SPI interface breakout. We added an on-board 3.3V regulator and logic-level shifting circuitry, making it a perfect choice for interfacing with any 3V or 5V microcontroller such as the Arduino.

The sensor has three axes of measurements, X Y Z, and pins that can be used either as I2C or SPI digital interfacing. You can set the sensitivity level to either +-2g, +-4g, +-8g or +-16g. The lower range gives more resolution for slow movements, the higher range is good for high speed tracking. The ADXL345 is the latest and greatest from Analog Devices, known for their exceptional quality MEMS devices. The VCC takes up to 5V in and regulates it to 3.3V with an output pin.

Fully assembled and tested. Comes with 9 pin 0.1″ standard header in case you want to use it with a breadboard or perfboard. Two 2.5mm (0.1″) mounting holes for easy attachment.

Get started in a jiffy with the Adafruit Arduino library for the ADXL345! Simply connect the VIN pin to 3-5V power, GND to ground, SCL to I2C clock (also known as A5 on an UNO), SDA to I2C data (aka A4 on UNO). Then download the library and uncompress it. Rename the folder inside Adafruit_ADXL345 and check it contains a .cpp and .h file. Place the folder into your Arduino libraries folder. Check out our tutorial about libraries if its your first library installation.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Arcade/Button Quick-Connect Wire Pair – Set of 10 pairs – Quick connector wire sets will make wiring up our arcade-style or metal waterproof buttons quicky-quick. Each wire comes as a ‘pair’ with two 0.11″ quick-connects pre-crimped onto 20cm long wires. The wires are then terminated together in a JST 2.5mm/0.1″ spaced 2-pin connector (we don’t have the exact part number yet for the connector but you can just use 0.1″ header) Of course you can cut this off if you don’t have use for it.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Barcode Reader/Scanner Module – CCD Camera – USB Interface - Decode nearly any kind of 1D (striped) barcode in your project using this adorable compact barcode scanner. We’ve looked all over for a small, light, low-power module that can be easily integrated. This OEM scanner has a little camera inside that takes 100 photos per second, instead of using a ‘scanning mirror’ assembly. This means its less likely to get damaged or out of alignment.

This all in one module is the simplest we could find. On the end is just a USB cable, plug it into any computer (or microcomputer such as BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi, etc) and it will show up as an HID keyboard. When a barcode is scanned, the raw data is decoded, parity-checked and spit out as if they were typed on a keyboard.

Like all barcode scanners, you can do some basic configuration by powering it up and ‘scanning’ in special barcodes in the manual. For example you can change the delay between ‘typed’ characters, or what the terminating character, if any, should be. Check the download tab for the printable manual. If you’d like to set up the scanner to be different than the default, print it out on plain white paper and scan each ‘configuration’ code. The config will be saved to non-volatile memory so you only have to do it once.

This reader will read a wide variety of barcode standards. The most common ones such as CODE39 and UPC are supported out of the box. To enable some of the rarer standards, check the manual as you may have to ‘scan configure’ to enable it.

NEW PRODUCT – Barcode Reader/Scanner Module – CCD Camera – PS/2 Interface – This all in one module is the most microcontroller-friendly we could find. It is powered over 5V and instead of a USB port, it has a PS/2 interface and acts like a ‘keyboard’. In fact, its designed to be a ‘pass through keyboard wedge’ device for point-of-sale terminals. What’s nice about PS/2 is that it uses a single connector for power and data, and uses two data pins. When a barcode is scanned, the raw data is decoded, parity-checked and spit out as if they were typed on a keyboard.

Most current-measuring devices such as our current panel meter are only good for low side measuring. That means that unless you want to get a battery involved, you have to stick the measurement resistor between the target ground and true ground. This can cause problems with circuits since electronics tend to not like it when the ground references change and move with varying current draw. This chip is much smarter – it can handle high side current measuring, up to +60VDC!

A precision amplifier measures the voltage across the 0.1 ohm, 1% sense resistor. The resistor is rated for 2W continuous so you can measure up to +5A continuous. The output is a current that is drawn through the on-board 10K resistor so that the output voltage is 1V per Amp. So for 2A draw, the output will be 2V. You can change out the load resistor to be larger or smaller by cutting the traces next to it and soldering a thru hole resistor over. If you solder in a 20K resistor you’ll get 2V per Amp, with a 5K resistor, 0.5V per Amp.

We include a 6-pin header (so you can easily attach this sensor to a breadboard) as well as a 3.5mm terminal plug so you can easily attach and detach your load. Usage is simple. Power the sensor with 2.7-60V, and connect V+ to the high side of your power supply, then connect V- to your grounded load. Then use a multimeter to measure the voltage output, that’s it!

In stock and shipping!

NEW PRODUCT! Maxbotix Weather-Resistant Ultrasonic Rangefinder – Take your sonar outside – great for all weather robots! The XL-MaxSonar-WRMA1 ignores smaller targets and only reports the range to target with the largest acoustic return. This is our most advanced weather resistant sensor designed for target detection and ranging outdoors or in tank or bin applications.

The weather resistant XL-MaxSonar-WRMA1 is a rugged ultrasonic sensor component module. This outdoor sensor provides very short to long distance detection and ranging in a compact, robust PVC housing. The ultrasonic sensor meets the IP67 water intrusion standard and matches standard electrical 3/4‑inch PVC pipe fittings.

High output acoustic power combined with continuously variable gain, real‑time background automatic calibration, real‑time waveform signature analysis, and noise rejection algorithms results in virtually noise free distance readings. This holds true even in the presence of many of the various acoustic or electrical noise sources. The XL‑MaxSonar-WR sensors are factory calibrated to match narrow sensor beam patterns and provide reliable long range detection zones.

MB7092 Data Sheet / Product Information Guide is available here.

In stock and shipping now!

I’ve wanted to do something like this since I first started playing with microprocessors.  The idea of an inexpensive, distributed sensor network throughout the house is really cool.  In Hollywood we always see someone sitting at their computer console accessing their security system.  It’s typically a wire-frame display with sensors all over the place.  They’re getting all kinds of data, and even providing the occasional remote output (displays, lights or sirens, etc).

The $35 Raspberry Pi is almost the ideal basis for this kind of sensor network.  It runs a (relatively) well developed Linux distribution.  It has two USB ports, runs on 5v, sports an ethernet port, and will support almost any video display out there.  More importantly, it has several exposed general purpose I/O pins and supports I2C.

I’m using Lady Ada’s Occidentalis distro.  So far it has been incredibly stable (though it swaps between video outputs if I cut power to the system).  I’m using this distro because there are examples using Python to access the various GPIO’s and the I2C.

Read more.

Featured Adafruit Tutorials!

Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro: Adafruit <3 Raspberry Pi – especially how easy it is to hack circuits using the electronics breakout pins! But sadly, the latest official distro “July 15 Raspbian Wheezy” did not have many of the delicious hackables built in. That’s why we decided to roll our own distribution. Our distro is based on “Wheezy” but comes with hardware SPI, I2C, one wire, and WiFi support for our wifi adapters. It also has some things to make overall hacking easier such sshd on startup (with key generation on first boot) and Bonjour (so you can simply ssh raspberrypi.local from any computer on the local network) (read more).

For other Raspberry Pi Learning System tutorials, visit here!

Featured Adafruit Products!

BMP085 Barometric Pressure/Temperature/Altitude Sensor- 5V ready: This precision sensor from Bosch is the best low-cost sensing solution for measuring barometric pressure and temperature. Because pressure changes with altitude you can also use it as an altimeter! The sensor is soldered onto a PCB with a 3.3V regulator, I2C level shifter and pull-up resistors on the I2C pins. NEW! We now have a fully 5V compliant version of this board – a 3.3V regulator and a i2c level shifter circuit is included so you can use this sensor safely with 5V logic and power. (read more)

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit, be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Have you tried the new “Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro” ? It’s our tweaked distribution for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi. But wait, there’s more! Try our new Raspberry Pi WebIDE! The easiest way to learn programming on a Raspberry Pi.

Want a FREE RASPBERRY PI? All orders over $350 get a FREE Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB RAM!

Electret Microphone Amplifier – MAX4466 with Adjustable Gain. These awesome mic amp breakouts were so popular we sold out in only a few days, but we just whipped up some more! Get them while they’re hot. Add an ear to your project with this well-designed electret microphone amplifier. This fully assembled and tested board comes with a 20-20KHz electret microphone soldered on. For the amplification, we use the Maxim MAX4466, an op-amp specifically designed for this delicate task! The amplifier has excellent power supply noise rejection, so this amplifier sounds really good and isn’t nearly as noisy or scratchy as other mic amp breakouts we’ve tried!

This breakout is best used for projects such as voice changers, audio recording/sampling, and audio-reactive projects that use FFT. On the back, we include a small trimmer pot to adjust the gain. You can set the gain from 25x to 125x. That’s down to be about 200mVpp (for normal speaking volume about 6″ away) which is good for attaching to something that expects ‘line level’ input without clipping, or up to about 1Vpp, ideal for reading from a microcontroller ADC. The output is rail-to-rail so if the sounds gets loud, the output can go up to 5Vpp!

Using it is simple: connect GND to ground, VCC to 2.4-5VDC. For the best performance, use the “quietest” supply available (on an Arduino, this would be the 3.3V supply). The audio waveform will come out of the OUT pin. The output will have a DC bias of VCC/2 so when its perfectly quiet, the voltage will be a steady VCC/2 volts (it is DC coupled). If the audio equipment you’re using requires AC coupled audio, place a 100uF capacitor between the output pin and the input of your device. If you’re connecting to an audio amplifier that has differential inputs or includes decoupling capacitors, the 100uF cap is not required.

The output pin is not designed to drive speakers or anything but the smallest in-ear headphones – you’ll need an audio amplifier (such as our 3.7W stereo amp) if you want to connect the amp directly to speakers. If you’re connecting to a microcontroller pin, you don’t need an amplifier or decoupling capacitor – connect the OUT pin directly to the microcontroller ADC pin.

For audio-reactive projects, we suggest using an FFT driver library (such as this one) which can take the audio input and ‘translate’ it into frequencies.

In stock and gaining.

NEW PRODUCT – Pulse Sensor Amped. Pulse Sensor Amped is a greatly improved version of the original Pulse Sensor, a plug-and-play heart-rate sensor for Arduino and Arduino compatibles. It can be used by students, artists, athletes, makers, and game & mobile developers who want to easily incorporate live heart-rate data into their projects.

Pulse Sensor Amped adds amplification and noise cancellation circuitry to the hardware. It’s noticeably faster and easier to get reliable pulse readings. Pulse Sensor Amped works with either a 3V and 5V Arduino.

Lastly, the Pulse Sensor creators have also streamlined and improved the Processing visualization software and Arduino code that comes with this hardware.

The kit includes:

• A 24-inch Color-Coded Cable, with a standard male header connectors. Plug it straight into an Arduino or a Breadboard. No soldering is required.
• An Ear Clip, perfectly sized to the sensor. It can be hot-glued or epoxied to the back of the sensor to get reading from an ear lobe.
• Parts to make a handy Velcro finger strap. This is another great way to get heart-rate data.
• 4 Transparent Stickers, to insulate the front of the Pulse Sensor from oily fingers and sweaty earlobes.
• The Pulse Sensor has 3 holes around the outside edge which make it easy to sew it into almost anything.
• Visualization software (made in Processing) to instantly see output of the sensor and for troubleshooting.

There is Arduino code and a Processing visualizer at the Pulse Sensor site!

In stock and shipping now.

NEW PRODUCT – Tactile On/Off Switch with Leads. Squeeze once to turn on, squeeze again to turn off! This clicky switch makes a great power switch or mode toggler. We like this switch because it’s easy to embed in a seam for easily powering up/off wearable and fabric projects. Can handle up to 14V and 2 Amps! This is a really satisfying switch.

• Length of wires: 117mm / 4.6″
• Thickness: 8.4mm / 0.33″
• Length: 18.2mm / 0.72″
• Width: 15.43mm / 0.6″
• Weight: 4.39g

In stock and shipping now.

This video from the TechPhotoBlog explains how to interface Adafruit’s Variable Gain Electret Microphone with the Camera Axe. The Camera Axe is an open source photography trigger project. When you interface this microphone sensor with the Axe, you can trigger a camera or flash on a sound.

Check out this link for Adafruit’s Sensor Product Page and this link for a few other sensors used with the Camera Axe!

Electret Microphone Amplifier – MAX4466 with Adjustable Gain

Add an ear to your project with this well-designed electret microphone amplifier. This fully assembled and tested board comes with a 20-20KHz electret microphone soldered on. For the amplification, we use the Maxim MAX4466, an op-amp specifically designed for this delicate task! The amplifier has excellent power supply noise rejection, so this amplifier sounds really good and isn’t nearly as noisy or scratchy as other mic amp breakouts we’ve tried!

This breakout is best used for projects such as voice changers, audio recording/sampling, and audio-reactive projects that use FFT. On the back, we include a small trimmer pot to adjust the gain. You can set the gain from 25x to 125x. That’s down to be about 200mVpp (for normal speaking volume about 6″ away) which is good for attaching to something that expects ‘line level’ input without clipping, or up to about 1Vpp, ideal for reading from a microcontroller ADC. The output is rail-to-rail so if the sounds gets loud, the output can go up to 5Vpp!

Using it is simple: connect GND to ground, VCC to 2.4-5VDC. For the best performance, use the “quietest” supply available (on an Arduino, this would be the 3.3V supply). The audio waveform will come out of the OUT pin. The output will have a DC bias of VCC/2 so when its perfectly quiet, the voltage will be a steady VCC/2 volts (it is DC coupled). If the audio equipment you’re using requires AC coupled audio, place a 100uF capacitor between the output pin and the input of your device. If you’re connecting to an audio amplifier that has differential inputs or includes decoupling capacitors, the 100uF cap is not required.

The output pin is not designed to drive speakers or anything but the smallest in-ear headphones – you’ll need an audio amplifier (such as our 3.7W stereo amp) if you want to connect the amp directly to speakers. If you’re connecting to a microcontroller pin, you don’t need an amplifier or decoupling capacitor – connect the OUT pin directly to the microcontroller ADC pin.

For audio-reactive projects, we suggest using an FFT driver library (such as this one) which can take the audio input and ‘translate’ it into frequencies. Also, check out this awesome Voice Changer project that uses this mic and an Adafruit Wave Shield!

 

BACK IN STOCK! Wii controller (Nunchuck / Wiichuck) – We got a new batch of these in white!

This is a generic Wii Nunchuck controller, we haven’t tried it with a Wii but it does work great with the Video Game shield, and all the microcontroller code we tried.

We suggest getting a Nunchucky breakout board if you want to use this with an electronics project.

There’s a 3-axis accelerometer inside as well as a resistive 2-axis joystick and two buttons. You can grab the data over two i2c data lines. There’s tons of example code for all sorts of microcontrollers for these guys!

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT! Square Force-Sensitive Resistor (FSR) – Interlink 406

FSRs are sensors that allow you to detect physical pressure, squeezing and weight. They are simple to use and low cost. This sensor is a Interlink model 406 FSR with a 38mm square sensing region. Note that this sensor can’t detect where on the square you pressed (for that, check out our ribbon soft pots or capacitive touch pad).

FSRs are basically a resistor that changes its resistive value (in ohms Ω) depending on how much its pressed. These sensors are fairly low cost, and easy to use but they’re rarely accurate. They also vary some from sensor to sensor perhaps 10%. So basically when you use FSRs you should only expect to get ranges of response. While FSRs can detect weight, they’re a bad choice for detecting exactly how many pounds of weight are on them.

FSRs are made of plastic and the connection tab is crimped on delicate material. The best way to connect to these is to simply plug them into a breadboard or use a clamp-style connector like alligator clips, female header, or a terminal block. It is possible to solder onto the tabs but you must be very fast because if your iron is not good quality or you dally even a few seconds, you will melt the plastic and ruin the FSR! Don’t attempt to solder directly to your FSR unless you are absolutely sure you have the skills to do so.

For a full tutorial with wiring diagrams, code examples and project ideas, please read the FSR tutorial page!

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT! Extra-long force-sensitive resistor (FSR)! FSRs are sensors that allow you to detect physical pressure, squeezing and weight. They are simple to use and low cost. This sensor is a Interlink model 408 FSR with a massive 1/4-inch x 24-inch sensing region. You can press anywhere along the strip and the pressure will be recognized. Note that this sensor can’t detect where on the strip you pressed (for that, check out our ribbon soft pots).

FSRs are basically a resistor that changes its resistive value (in ohms Ω) depending on how much its pressed. These sensors are fairly low cost, and easy to use but they’re rarely accurate. They also vary some from sensor to sensor perhaps 10%. So basically when you use FSRs you should only expect to get ranges of response. While FSRs can detect weight, they’re a bad choice for detecting exactly how many pounds of weight are on them.

FSRs are made of plastic and the connection tab is crimped on delicate material. The best way to connect to these is to simply plug them into a breadboard or use a clamp-style connector like alligator clips, female header, or a terminal block. It is possible to solder onto the tabs but you must be very fast because if your iron is not good quality or you dally even a few seconds, you will melt the plastic and ruin the FSR! Don’t attempt to solder directly to your FSR unless you are absolutely sure you have the skills to do so.

For a full tutorial with wiring diagrams, code examples and project ideas, please read the FSR tutorial page!

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT! Short Flex/Bend Sensor: This sensor can detect bending in one direction. They were popularized by being used in the Nintendo PowerGlove as a gaming interface.

These sensors are easy to use, they are basically resistors that change value based on how much their flexed. If they’re unflexed, the resistance is about ~25KΩ. When flexed all the way the resistance rises to ~100KΩ. They’re pretty similar to FSRs so following this tutorial will get you started. You can use an analog input on a micro-controller (with a pullup resistor) or a digital input with the use of a 0.1uF capacitor for RC timing.

The bottom part of the sensor (where the pins are crimped on) is very delicate so make sure to have strain relief – such as clamping or gluing that part so as not to rip out the contacts!

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT! Circular Soft Potentiometer (Ribbon Sensor): Manufactured by Spectra Symbol, these are nice little ribbon controllers (also known as ‘soft potentiometers’) with an adhesive backing. This shape is a circular soft potentiometer with a donut-shaped sensing region whose outer diameter is 55.96mm/2.2in and inner diameter is 35.63mm/1.4in.

There is a nominal 10K resistance across the two outer leads. The middle pin resistance with respect to either of the outer pins changes depending on where on the strip one presses. When no pressure is applied, the middle pin floats, so be sure to use some sort of weak pullup, such as 100K ohm.

NEW PRODUCT – Electret Microphone Amplifier – MAX4466 with Adjustable Gain. Add an ear to your project with this well-designed electret microphone amplifier. This fully assembled and tested board comes with a 20-20KHz electret microphone soldered on. For the amplification, we use the Maxim MAX4466, an op-amp specifically designed for this delicate task! The amplifier has excellent power supply noise rejection, so this amplifier sounds really good and isn’t nearly as noisy or scratchy as other mic amp breakouts we’ve tried!

This breakout is best used for projects such as voice changers, audio recording/sampling, and audio-reactive projects that use FFT. On the back, we include a small trimmer pot to adjust the gain. You can set the gain from 25x to 125x. That’s down to be about 200mVpp (for normal speaking volume about 6″ away) which is good for attaching to something that expects ‘line level’ input without clipping, or up to about 1Vpp, ideal for reading from a microcontroller ADC. The output is rail-to-rail so if the sounds gets loud, the output can go up to 5Vpp!

Using it is simple: connect GND to ground, VCC to 2.4-5VDC. For the best performance, use the “quietest” supply available (on an Arduino, this would be the 3.3V supply). The audio waveform will come out of the OUT pin. The output will have a DC bias of VCC/2 so when its perfectly quiet, the voltage will be a steady VCC/2 volts (it is DC coupled). If the audio equipment you’re using requires AC coupled audio, place a 100uF capacitor between the output pin and the input of your device. If you’re connecting to an audio amplifier that has differential inputs or includes decoupling capacitors, the 100uF cap is not required.

The output pin is not designed to drive speakers or anything but the smallest in-ear headphones – you’ll need an audio amplifier (such as our 3.7W stereo amp) if you want to connect the amp directly to speakers. If you’re connecting to a microcontroller pin, you don’t need an amplifier or decoupling capacitor – connect the OUT pin directly to the microcontroller ADC pin.

For audio-reactive projects, we suggest using an FFT driver library (such as this one) which can take the audio input and ‘translate’ it into frequencies.

In stock and gaining.

NEW PRODUCT – L3GD20 (L3G4200 Upgrade) Triple-Axis Gyro Breakout Board. A gyroscope is a type of sensor that can sense twisting and turning motions. Often paired with an accelerometer, you can use these to do 3D motion capture and inertial measurement (that is – you can tell how an object is moving!) As these sensors become more popular and easier to manufacture, the prices for them have dropped to the point where you can easily afford a triple-axis gyro! Only a decade ago, this space-tech sensor would have been hundreds of dollars.

This breakout board is based around the latest gyro technology, the L3GD20 from STMicro. It’s the upgrade to the L3G4200 (see this app note on what to look for if upgrading an existing design to the L3GD20) with three full axes of sensing. The chip can be set to ±250, ±500, or ±2000 degree-per-second scale for a large range of sensitivity. There’s also build in high and low pass sensing to make data processing easier. The chip supports both I2C and SPI so you can interface with any microcontroller easily.

Since this chip is a 3.3V max device, but many of our customers want to use it with an Arduino, we soldered it to a breakout board with level shifting circuitry so you can use the I2C or SPI interface safely using a 5V interface device. We also place a 3.3V regulator on there so you can power it from 5V.

Since we expect people will want to attach it firmly to their project, the PCB comes with four 2.1mm mounting holes. Use #2-56 imperial or M2 screws screws.

Getting started is easy – simply connect SDA to your Arduino I2C data pin (On the UNO this is A4), SCL to I2C clock (Uno: A5), GND to ground, and Vin to 3 or 5VDC. Then install and run our easy to use Arduino library, which will print out the XYZ sensor data to the serial terminal. Our library also supports SPI on any 4 digital I/O pins, see the example for wiring.

The L3GD20 Gyro Datasheet

Please note: This gyro chip is export controlled – you can only purchase it if you are in the USA. At this time, we are not permitting resellers to purchase this sensor.

Dimensions (without header):

• Length:30.65mm
• Width:19.11mm
• Height:3mm
• Weight:2.02g

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCTS – IR distance sensor includes cable (20cm-150cm) [GP2Y0A02YK]. This SHARP distance sensor bounces IR off objects to determine how far away they are. It returns an analog voltage that can be used to determine how close the nearest object is. Comes with 12″ long 3-JST interface wire. These sensors are good for detection between 20cm-150cm. For over 1 m distance, we suggest using sonar sensors.

To use, connect black wire to ground, red wire to 5V and white wire to analog input. The analog voltage out will range from 3V when an object is only 4″ (10 cm) away and 0.4V when the object is 32″ (80 cm) away.

For more information, please see the datasheet!

Dimensions:

• Length: 21.66mm/0.85in
• Width: 44.39mm/1.75in
• Height: 18.67mm/0.75in
• Weight: 35.06g/1.237oz

Screw holes are 37mm apart, 3.2.mm diameter.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Food-Grade Heat Shrink – 3/8 diameter 12 long. We decided to stock this food-safe heat shrink specifically for people who were building beer-brewing or sous-vide projects using our waterproof DS18B20+ digital temperature sensors. This heat shrink is FDA Compliant for contact with food. The end of the sensor is stainless steel, but the jacketing is PVC, not good for dunking into your food or drink! But this heat shrink makes it easy – simply slip it on, allowing about 1 cm of the stainless steel sensor cap to be exposed, then heat it up to seal it on. The heat shrink will make a seal over the cap, so that no PVC touches your food project.

This product is just 12″ long piece of heat shrink, it does not include the waterproof DS18B20+ digital temperature sensors so be sure to pick up one of those too.

• Clear, food-grade heat shrink
• Acrylated olefin tubing
• Shrink Ratio: 2 to 1
• 3/8″ diameter before shrinking, 3/16″ after
• 12″ long piece, can be cut down as much as you’d like
• Shrink Temperature: 250°F (120 °C)
• Usage Temperature Range: -67° to +250° F / -55°C to +120 °C

In stock and shipping now.

NEW PRODUCT – ADXL326 – 5V ready triple-axis accelerometer (+-16g analog out). We’ve now got a wider range version of favorite triple-axis accelerometer – it even has an on-board 3.3V regulator – making it a perfect choice for interfacing with a 5V microcontroller such as the Arduino. This breakout comes with 3 analog outputs for X, Y and Z axis measurements on a 0.75″x0.75″ breakout board. The ADXL326 is the latest and greatest from Analog Devices, known for their exceptional quality MEMS devices. The VCC takes up to 5V in and regulates it to 3.3V with an output pin. The analog outputs are ratiometric: that means that 0g measurement output is always at half of the 3.3V output (1.65V), -16g is at 0v and 16g is at 3.3V with full scaling in between.

Fully assembled and tested. Comes with 8 pin 0.1″ standard header in case you want to use it with a breadboard or perfboard. Two 2mm (0.08″) mounting holes for easy attachment.

The XYZ filter capacitors are 0.1uF for a 50 Hz bandwidth

See the ADXL326 webpage for datasheets and more

Dimensions (without header):

• Length:19mm/0.75in
• Width:19mm/0.75in
• Height:3.14mm/0.12in
• Weight:1.29g/0.05oz

In stock and shipping!

NEW PRODUCT – Polar T34 Heart Rate Transmitter The Polar T34 Non-Coded Heart Rate Transmitter monitors and then wirelessly transmits your heart rate data from the chest strap to a Polar WearLink+ compatible receiver.  This allows the wearer to monitor their heart rate. This transmitter can also be paired with your local gym’s exercise equipment if it is Polar WearLink compatible.

Key Features:

• Heart rate sensor wirelessly transmits heart rate data without the need for conductive gel
• Water-resistant up to 30 meters for use in extreme environments 
• Battery to last up to 2,500 hours of continuous usage
• Adjustable elastic strap for comfortable yet secure sensing
• Removable and machine washable textile strap keeps your sensor bacteria-free

Details:

• Water resistant up to 30 meters
• ECG accuracy
• Up to 2,500 hours of usage
• Non-user replaceable battery
• Adjustable medium size elastic chest strap included (25-54 inches)
• Machine washable and anti-bacterial

Application Ideas:

• Measuring heart rate during workout or during cooldown
• Applications with Polar Heart Rate Monitor Receiver

Parallax has a a heart rate sensing tutorial with sample code on their learning site.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – MPL115A2 – I2C Barometric Pressure/Temperature Sensor. This pressure sensor from Freescale is a great low-cost sensing solution for measuring barometric pressure. At 1.5 hPa resolution, it’s not as precise as our favorite pressure sensor, the BMP085, which has up to 0.03 hPa resolution so we don’t suggest it as a precision altimeter. However, it’s great for basic barometric pressure sensing. The sensor is soldered onto a PCB with 10K pull-up resistors on the I2C pins.

This chip is good for use with power and logic voltages ranging from 2.4V to 5.5V so you can use it with your 3V or 5V microcontroller. There’s a basic temperature sensor inside but there’s no specifications in the datasheet so we’re not sure how accurate it is.

Using the sensor is easy. For example, if you’re using an Arduino, simply connect the VIN pin to the 5V voltage pin, GND to ground, SCL to I2C Clock (Analog 5 on an UNO) and SDA to I2C Data (Analog 4 on an UNO). Then download our MPL115A2 Arduino library and example code for temperature, pressure and basic altitude calculation. Install the library, and load the example sketch. Immediately you’ll have the temperature, pressure and altitude data printed in the serial console.

• PCB weight: 0.61g
• Vin: 2.4 to 5.5 VDC
• Logic: 3 to 5V compliant
• Pressure sensing range: 500-1150 hPa (up to 10Km altitude)
• 1.5 hPa / 50 m altitude resolution

In stock and shipping!

We really dig the Maxbotix sonar modules. They’ve got every kind of interface option, solid construction and are super easy to use. We made a little more space here in the Adafruit factory for 7 more flavors of the module – including the new “Hi Rez” HRLV modules with 1mm resolution!