18 June 2013

It’s all about the Internet of Things (IoT) right now.

ABI Research say that 30 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. One company enabling our connected world is Broadcom. They just came out with the BCM4390, which is designed to give 8 and 16 bit microcontrollers access to the Internet.

It combines WiFi (802.11g/g/n), a microcontroller and network stack onto a small "SOC" or System On Chip. It also supports SDIO, SPI, I2C and UART communications interfaces and runs at 5.5V down to 2.3V.

Broadcom generally only supplies to customers that purchase tens of thousands of chips, and the BCM4390 is presently only available to “early access customers,” so it’s unlikely we’ll see the chip in any Embedded Adventures products immediately.  However, it’s a major play from one of the world’s largest SoC vendors, clearly showing that IoT is being taken seriously. 

While Embedded Adventures is based in London, UK, we do a lot of shipping across the atlantic.

In order to facilitate faster service to our American Adventurers, we are now shipping US and Canadian orders from sunny Brooklyn, NY.

We have been experimenting this for a while, which is why US customers may have been receiving USPS stamped packages instead of Royal Mail stamped packages.  There are a few larger items that are still making their way over so we have enough stock state-side, but for the majority, any order placed for US or Canada delivery should reach you in short order.

Two options will be available for delivery, standard USPS mail (cheap but slow) and USPS priority mail (more expensive but faster, and tracked).  Courier (typically DHL) will also be available.

European orders will continue to be shipped from London, which results in better delivery times and less worry over importa duty for EU countries.

25 April 2013

We've had great success with the MOD-1016 lightning sensor.  A quick note to let everyone know that the new version, v4, will be shipping from tomorrow.

This updated module gives you access to the SPI connection with the flip of a solder jumper, and has changed the i2c address to 0x03 (address 0x00 triggers an AS3935 firmware bug that means access to register 0 can be problematic).

Thanks to everyone for your feedback, there's nothing better than seeing products grow and develop based on input from a vibrant and creative community.

22 April 2013

Humidity. It's very hard to measure accurately.

Enter the SHT25. Super accurate. Super easy to talk to over I2C.

Sensiron have been working on this little guy for years, trying as hard as possible to get the most accurate and smallest sensor available in a pre-calibrated package. We know you'll love adding this one to your sensor collection. Grab one today before the first production batch runs out!

2 March 2013

It's about (real) time that we updated a couple of modules.

Firstly, the MOD-1005 gets a revamp with a removeable battery to make it easier to ship to some locations, which also makes the board thinner and flatter on the bottom. If you need a good quality RTC, this is the place to start.

Of course if you want a temperature sensor with that, the check out the shiny new MOD-1001. One of our oldest and best selling modules, now up to version 5, has got the same treatment. We make clocks with this little guy just for fun. And as we run out of TMP75 sensors we will be shipping them with TMP275 - use them exactly the same way, they're just much more accurate. Within 0.1C over the range of temperatures most humans hang out in.

And by way of new products, the MOD-1006 has arrived. Well, kind of.

Yep, it's missing the silkscreen overlay. These things happen, in this case our manufacturer forget a gerber file.

What does it do? It's a MCP1252 based charge pump.  So you want 3.3 and have two 1.5V batteries? No problem. Or 3x 1.5V batteries. Again, no problem.  It automatically adjusts the voltage up or down as necessary.  Same with 5V (just flip the switch to have it either way). Throw it anything from 2.2V to 5.5V and it will do the rest.

We've made a small run just to see how they go, and we're offering them right now at half price! So grab one while they're hot. When the production run comes in, they'll have a nice silkscreen of course, but back to normal price.  They won't last!