I will be at Maker Faire in NYC this weekend. If you stop by you and are one of the first 4 to ask I will give you a free 5V DC power supply.
Category Archives: Free Stuff
Free Friday: I2C sensor strikes back
It is that time of the week again: Free Friday!
This week we are giving away another I2C sensor board. Since last time we have talked to both the pressure and humidity sensors on the bus but not the light sensor as yet. We would give away an MSPism this week but for the fact that the chips aren’t yet available from Mouser/Digikey etc, and there is a missing part on the Rev 1 design.
We will be giving the sensor board to a random commenter. Of course the shipping is free world wide. It wouldn’t be free Friday without free shipping.
It takes 3 sensors:
Pressure (BMP085)
Humidity (HIH-6130-021-001)
Light (APDS-9301-020)
Both humidity and pressure do temperature as well. Of course you don’t have to use/place all 3 sensors.
All of them are I2C based and share the bus. You will need 3, 2.2K 0603 resistors (all Rs are 2.2K), 2 603 0.1 uF caps (C1, C2), and a larger 603 cap (4.7+ uF recommended) C4. There is no C3 it was removed after annotation.
This week we will give away 2 boards. One to the 17th commenter and one to a random commenter.
The board does require you to wiggle pin headers to get them to fit in (see my posts about Seeed PCBs). I would note the light sensor is pretty hard to tell which way is which, there isn’t really a label and you have to look for the wirebonds and bondpads to tell. This board probably requires a hot plate or hot air to make.
Good luck! As always use a real email address so we can contact you and be sure to tell your friends!
Comments are moderated so don’t worry if it takes a while for your comment to appear on the page.
Edit: Random surprise everyone wins! (The first 4 commenters in this case were in before midnight Eastern Time)
Free Friday: BasicUART
This week’s free item is a fully assembled BasicUART. We would give away the PCB but we made all of them into functional devices!
The current design is due for revision as well and we never bothered to clean up the schematic for release nor prepared a board assembly guide. So this version will probably never get either published.
It is based on MCP2200, which is a USB to UART chip from Microchip that really is a PIC inside. This board is pinned out to match Sparkfun’s FTDI basic.
We haven’t decided if we will stick with the MCP2200 or switch to FTDI. The MCP2200 has more overhead in assembly because it has more external parts, however you get more functionality in terms of supplying power with the LDO arrangement we use here than on Sparkfun’s 3.3V board.
The default configuration of the BasicUART is 5V rail and 3.3 V I/O with the solder jumpers you can pick between 3.3/5V for each.
The board will be given to a random commenter. You need to use a real email for us to contact you for your mailing address. Only your first comment will count in terms getting the board. Comments remain moderated so don’t worry if you don’t see your comment right away.
Edit: the winner is Kevin.
Free Friday: I2C sensor board
It is that time of the week again: Free Friday!
This week a board so new we haven’t had a chance to test it!
It takes 3 sensors:
Pressure (BMP085)
Humidity (HIH-6130-021-001)
Light (APDS-9301-020)
Both humidity and pressure do temperature as well. Of course you don’t have to use/place all 3 sensors.
All of them are I2C based and share the bus. You will need 3, 2.2K 0603 resistors (all Rs are 2.2K), 2 603 0.1 uF caps (C1, C2), and a larger 603 cap (4.7+ uF recommended) C4. There is no C3 it was removed after annotation.
This week we will give away 2 boards. One to the 17th commenter and one to a random commenter.
The board does require you to wiggle pin headers to get them to fit in (see my posts about Seeed PCBs). I would note the light sensor is pretty hard to tell which way is which, there isn’t really a label and you have to look for the wirebonds and bondpads to tell. This board probably requires a hot plate or hot air to make.
Good luck! As always use a real email address so we can contact you and be sure to tell your friends!
Comments are moderated so don’t worry if it takes a while for your comment to appear on the page.
Edit: Lucky number 5, Mike is the winner.
Free Friday PCB: Cygni
This week we are again giving away a revision 1 Cygni PCB to a commenter. To give the whole world a chance a random number generator will be used to select the person who gets it. The selection will be made 24 hours after this post goes live.
Cygni is a great little board to get started with ARM development. We currently offer the assembled version for 20 USD with free worldwide shipping.
You may comment more than once but only your first comment will count! (So don’t spam it. Spammers will be disqualified).
The parts list and assembly guide for Cygni are in our docs section. Be sure to read the main docs for it as well.
Comments are still moderated so don’t worry if your post doesn’t appear on the website right away. Use a real email so you can be contacted if you win!
Edit: Jan H is the winner, congratulations Jan.