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.
NEW PRODUCT – INA169 Analog DC Current Sensor Breakout – 60V 5A Max. This breakout board will solve all your current-monitoring problems. Instead of struggling with a multimeter, you can just use the handy INA169 chip on this breakout to both measure both the DC current draw and have a handy analog output that is with respect to ground. The analog output makes this an ideal breakout for feedback-loop control.
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!
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Runs on 5V-16V power (if you need to run it off of 3V you can do that by bypassing the regulator, but that means doing a bit of soldering). Digital signal output is 3.3V high/low. Sensing range is about 7 meters (120 degree cone)
For a full tutorial with wiring diagrams, code examples and project ideas, PIR sensor tutorial page!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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