Adafruit Holiday Gift Guide 2012 – GPS

Gobble Gobble day is next week, which means the hotly anticipated (by us!) and dreaded (by you!) holiday shopping season is beginning.  Luckily for you we’re making it easier this year with our 2012 Adafruit Gift Guide series.  Each day until Christmas we’ll roll out a different theme, everything from wearable electronics to Arduino shields, from 3D printers to photography to gift certificates from sites Adafruit likes!

Happy shopping!

Adafruit Ultimate GPS – We carry a few different GPS modules here in the Adafruit shop, but none that satisfied our every desire – that’s why we designed this little GPS breakout board. We believe this is the Ultimate GPS module, so we named it that. It’s got everything you want and more.

FLORA Wearable Ultimate GPS Module – This module is the best way to add a GPS to your wearable project. It’s part of the Adafruit Flora series of wearable electronics, designed specifically for use with the Flora motherboard. Installed on the PCB is the latest of our Ultimate GPS modules, a small, super-thin, low power GPS module with built in data-logging capability! This module’s easy to use, but extremely powerful.

Geogram ONE – An open source tracking device that is packed with features.

  • Quad Band GSM
  • 66 Channel GPS based off the MT3339 Chipset
  • Atmega328p with Arduino Bootloader preinstalled
  • 6 axis digital accelerometer
  • On board single cell lipo fuel gauge
  • 6 pin FTDI connector for connecting optional FTDI cable
  • USB conection for charging Lipo battery
  • 4 Analog inputs (3 can be used as digital IO)
  • 2 Digital IO lines

Cooking Hacks 3G + GPS shield for Arduino - The 3G + GPS shield for Arduino enables the connectivity to high speed WCDMA and HSPA cellular networks in order to make possible the creation of the next level of worldwide interactivity projects inside the new “Internet of Things” era.  The module counts also with an internal GPS what enables the location of the device outdoors and indoors combining standard NMEA frames with mobile cell ID triangulation using both assisted-mobile (A-GPS) and mobile-based (S-GPS) modes.  There is also a version that works with the Raspberry Pi!

Coobro Geo - an easy to assemble GPS navigation kit. Upload coordinates, turn it on, and the Coobro Geo will help you navigate to any destination on earth by using LEDs to show you the correct direction and distance remaining. Before you leave on your quest, press and hold the breadcrumbs button and the Coobro Geo will remember your location and help you navigate back. Store up to five pre-entered destination coordinates and five breadcrumbs, or modify the open source code and store as many coordinates as you want.  Use the Coobro Geo to help you find geocaches, store and navigate between hot fishing spots, complete a scavenger hunt, or simply help you find your car after a hike.

SHIPPING DEADLINES

Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.

UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.

UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.

UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.

UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.

United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.

USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!

Filed under: gift guides,gps — Tags: , , — by Tyler Cooper, posted November 16, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Electronic Demon Costume – How To! #electronichalloween

Have you ever done something silly on a lark and then found it was a big hit? So it went with a “beta test” Halloween idea on the Adafruit Show & Tell last week of my electronic demon costume. This video is a summary of what was done there… and what I’m now scrambling to finish properly before the big day! Video on YouTube (please subscribe!) and Vimeo.

The code for the LED mask with voice is in the adavoice repository on Github. This references the Wave Shield Voice Changer and Multiple LED Backpack tutorials.

Some updates since this was shot: a Ustream chat participant during Show & Tell suggested using a paintball mask as a base. I’m currently working on the faux ribcage idea… there may be enough space to move most of the electronics there and have just batteries in the pack. We shall see!

Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Each day this month (Monday-Friday) we’re going to have a special “Electronic Halloween” post here on Adafruit. It will be a hack, mod, project or something we’ve found that combines all the best things about electronics and Halloween.

Adafruit 527

Don’t miss our FIRST EVER Google+ Live Hangout On Air Costume Contest! It will be on Saturday, October 27th! Stay tuned for more info about that– for now be sure to join the Adafruit Google+ page!

View all our Electronic Halloween posts here! From now until 10/31/2012 use the code HALLOWEEN2012 on check out to get 10% off anything in our “EL Wire/Tape/Panel” category.

Filed under: arduino,halloween,leds-lcds,waveshield,wearables — Tags: , , , , , , , — by PhilB, posted October 24, 2012 at 5:41 pm

Calling all Shield-Bots – help hunt for typos and bugs!

Now that all eight chapters of Robotics with the Board of Education Shield for Arduino  have been posted online, it’s time for me to prep the manuscript for a bound book. I’m hoping all the BOE Shield-Bots out there will join me in a hunt for typos and bugs, so I can fix them before they become paper-permanent and replicated.  If (okay, when!) you find any errors, email me (editor@parallax.com) and I’ll be most grateful.

Okay, so the BOE Shield-Bot’s hermit-crab-like “eyes” can’t really operate as OCRs, even with this magnifying glass. But, these infrared emitter/receiver pairs can let it avoid objects or drop-offs, and gauge close-range distance well enough to follow another ‘bot. And, with a Sony-programmable remote, you can have an IR Remote Controlled Shield-Bot (a bonus mini-project with code and video posted).

Thanks in advance for your bug-hunting help!

-Steph Lindsay

Here’s a video of the Parallax BOEBot in action! We also took this one minute exposure of the bot zooming around the table. Video on YouTube and Vimeo.

Id749 Lrg
Parallax BOEBot Robot for Arduino Kit (Board of Education). We are very excited about this one! This kit brings the excellent design and tutorials of Parallax to the Arduino world. Make your Arduino the onboard brain of a mobile robot and learn robotics, electronics, and programming with this versatile kit and its accompanying step-by-step lessons. The Board of Education Shield plugs into your own Arduino (not included) and mounts on the popular Boe-Bot robot chassis.

Shieldequation

With this kit and your own Arduino module, you can follow the Robotics with the Board of Education Shield for Arduino lessons with over 40 hands-on activities.

  • Learning to program your robot’s Arduino Brain
  • Calibrating the robot’s continuous rotation servo motors
  • Using lights and speakers for status indicators
  • Assembling the robot
  • Preprogrammed navigation
  • Using touch-switches to navigate by contact with objects
  • Using phototransistors to navigate by light
  • Using non-contact infrared sensors to measure distance and avoid or follow objects

Id749Side Lrg

The original Robotics with the Boe-Bot text for the BASIC Stamp microcontroller has enjoyed worldwide popularity with teachers and hobbyists, and has been translated into seven languages. Author Andy Lindsay revised his work for the Arduino community, and Parallax Inc. is making it available as a free, online tutorial at http://learn.parallax.com/ShieldRobot.

Id749Parts Lrg

Kit Contents:

  • Board of Education Shield PCB
  • High-quality aluminum robot chassis, continuous rotation servos, and wheels
  • Boe-Boost Module
  • All the electronic components and sensors needed for the Robotics activities
  • All the assembly hardware needed (nuts, screws standoffs)
  • Parallax Screwdriver

Please note: Arduino + USB cable not included! We suggest picking up an Uno + USB cable to complete the kit if you don’t have one at home already.

Adafruit tested and approved!

In stock and shipping now!

Filed under: arduino,robotics — Tags: , , , , — by Parallax, posted May 31, 2012 at 7:36 am

Elect the next Microcontroller KickStart!

Awesome author Gordon McComb is ready to add more sensors to his online Microcontroller KickStart series:   basic, no-frills wiring diagrams and code examples for the BASIC Stamp 2, Propeller QuickStart, and Arduino Uno.  Which one would you like Gordon to write next? 

Meet the Candidates

KickStart Candidates for May 2012

Sound Impact Sensor

(#29132 at the Parallax Store)

4-Directional Tilt Sensor

(#29132 at the Parallax Store)

4-Direction Tilt Sensor 28036

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

 

Filed under: arduino,propeller — Tags: , , , , , — by Parallax, posted May 29, 2012 at 3:48 pm

Introducing our new blogger, Charles!

Hello world! In my first post, I would like to use this opportunity to introduce myself.

I’m a high school technology education teacher of three different automation and robotics courses. The curriculum in my lab is mainly centered around the Arduino microcontroller, which I’ve used successfully in the classroom since 2008.

I believe in providing students with opportunities and resources to pursue any field that interests them. A Makerbot Thing-o-Matic, a 50 watt laser cutter, a PCB mill, Microsoft Kinects, Arduinos and sensors of every shape and size are just a few of the items that we have in the lab that help their ideas become reality. STEM education is something very important to me. In addition to getting students interested in engineering, my other goal is to help students become more comfortable with technology rather than be intimidated by it. I get no greater satisfaction than when a student tells me he was able to repair his headphones because I taught him how to solder or that she fixed her guitar because she noticed that the knobs on it were just potentiometers. I want to empower my students so they use these skills in every area of their lives.

I’m also a coach of a FIRST Robotics Competition Team, an international robotics competition for high school-aged students. I am a great supporter of FIRST’s mission, to inspire youth to pursue STEM-related fields.

Phillip and Limor have been very generous in allowing me to join their blog and I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experiences with everyone.

Filed under: educators — Tags: , , , — by Charles, posted December 16, 2011 at 12:51 pm

Greetings from Adam Kemp, educator of future engineers!

First off, I would like to thank PT and Limor for the chance to post to the blog, this is an awesome opportunity.

I teach three high school courses in Energy Systems and am an avid developer/enjoyer of open source hardware, primarily Arduino based. Each of my courses focus on physics principles pertaining to energy (primarily electrical and mechanical) and reinforces them through in-depth lab projects that physically demonstrate the math. I really like the students to break out of theory and get their hands dirty with a lab, such as dissecting, measuring and reassembling internal combustions or making bio-fuel.

Over the past two years, I have integrated two Makerbots (a Cupcake and a Thing-o-Matic) into my curriculum, which the students have avidly been using to produce everything from compressed gas jet engine nozzles to hubs for scale wind turbines. I have also installed a 50watt Epilog Helix 24, which has been priceless in the design of shiftable gearboxes, enclosures, etc.

Some of my open source projects include:

  • ArduSat, an Arduino based motherboard for what is to be historys first high school designed and built cubesat, TJ3Sat (www.tj3sat.wikidot.com)
  • The VEXMAS shield, a joint endeavor with my good friend and fellow tinkerer Charles delaCuesta, which creates an interface between Arduino and ALL of the VEX hardware (http://code.google.com/p/vexmas-shield/)
  • The Kilroy board, a Arduino compatible PICAXE 20X2 based development board that we use at the high school to teach 500+ freshman how to program and interface with hardware.

In contributing to the Adafruit blog, I would like to make as much of my expertise available to the community as possible and look forward to hear your questions, comments, complaints, etc.

Cheers!

Filed under: educators — Tags: , , , , , — by akemp, posted December 15, 2011 at 3:21 pm

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