We are pleased to announce a new section of our store and new category of products – Breakout boards! Some of these have been in our store for awhile and others are brand new – take a look!

MicroSD card breakout board+ – v1 – Not just a simple breakout board, this microSD adapter goes the extra mile – designed for ease of use.

• Onboard 5v->3v regulator provides 150mA for power-hungry cards
• 3v level shifting means you can use this with ease on either 3v or 5v systems
• Uses a proper level shifting chip, not resistors: less problems, and faster read/write access
• Use 3 or 4 digital pins to read and write 2Gb+ of storage!
• Activity LED lights up when the SD card is being read or written
• Four #2 mounting holes
• Push-push socket with card slightly over the edge of the PCB so its easy to insert and remove
• Comes with 0.1″ header (unattached) so you can get it on a breadboard or use wires – your choice
• Tested and assembled here at the Adafruit factory
• Works great with Arduino, with tons of example code and wiring diagrams

To use with an Arduino, connect GND to ground, 5V to 5V, CLK to pin 13, DO to pin 12, DI to pin 11, and CS to pin 10. Then you can use the wonderful SDfatLib which supports FAT and FAT32 SD cards. For details on getting started, check out this relevant tutorial from the data logger shield instructions

The HMC6352 Compass – Module is fully integrated and combines 2-axis magneto-resistive sensors with the required analog, digital, microprocessor and algorithms required for heading computation.

The HMC6352 Compass Module provides a direct heading angle and includes internal calibration algorithms within its firmware. Stray magnetic field protection and temperature compensation are also included.

Features:

• Small package size
• Stray magnetic field protection
• Temperature compensation
• Internal calibration algorithm
• Can run with 3.3V or 5V logic using i2c communication

Key Specifications:

• Power requirements: 2.7 VDC to 5.2 VDC @ ~2 mA (@ 5V)
• Communication: 2-Wire I2C Serial Interface (100 kbps max)
• Dimensions: 0.46 x 0.59 x 0.54 in (11.7 x 14.9 x 13.65 mm)
• Operating temp range: -4F to +158F (-20C to +70C)

Downloads & Resources:
Honeywell HMC6352 Compass Docs (.pdf)
Arduino library for HMC6352
Another Compass library

Sensiron Temperature/Humidity Sensor – SHT11 – Humidity is notoriously difficult to measure. Some of the scientific and electronic considerations to measuring humidity include: analog to digital interface and external circuitry which might require op-amps or oscillator circuitry; temperature compensation adjustments to calculate dew point; calibration against a known humidity source; mounting, protection and response time in the real-world. If you’re interested in the details see Tracy Allen’s web site (EME Systems) for his discussion.

The Sensirion SHT1x addresses many of these issues head on. It is a smart sensor for both humidity and temperature, and it comes from the factory in a tiny package that incorporates the analog to digital interface. All that your microcontroller has to do is read out the humidity and temperature values through the two-wire digital serial interface. The only math required is a simple scale and offset. The SHT1x is factory calibrated so that it returns temperature with a resolution of 0.01 degrees Celsius and relative humidity with a resolution of 0.03 percent. The accuracy is better than most other sensors too. Worst-case temperature accuracy is +/- 2 degrees C – but in the “room temperature” range the accuracy better than +/- 1 degree C. The relative humidity sensor is similarly accurate: +/- 3.5% in the range 20% to 80%. This is quite remarkable for a low-cost sensor. Excellent for commercial or home-based projects that require such readings.

Features:

• Provides a fully calibrated, digital output
• Measure temperature with a resolution of 0.01 degrees and within +/- 2 degree accuracy
• Measures relative humidity with a resolution of 0.03%and within +/- 3.5% accuracy
• Low power consumption (typically 30 μW)

Key Specifications:

• Power requirements: 2.4 to 5.5 VDC
• Communication: Two-Wire Serial
• Dimensions: 0.43 x 0.49 in (11 x 12.5 mm)
• Operating temp range: -40 to +254.9 F (-40 to +123.8 C)

Downloads & Resources:
Sensirion Kit Documentation (.pdf)
Sensirion SHT1x Documentation and Source Code (.zip)
Sensirion SHT1x Data Sheet (.pdf)

Javelin Stamp Example Code (.zip)
N&V column “Environmental Sensing” #91 (.pdf)
N&V code “Environmental Sensing” #91 (.zip)
Sensor Objects for Propeller Programmers

ChronoDot – Ultra-precise Real Time Clock -The ChronoDot RTC is an extremely accurate real time clock module, based on the DS3231 temperature compensated RTC (TCXO). It includes a CR2016 battery which should last at least 8 years if the I2C interface is only used while the device has 5V power available. No external crystal or tuning capacitors are required.

Click here for documentation and example code

The DS3231 has an internal crystal and a switched bank of tuning capacitors. The temperature of the crystal is continously monitored, and the capacitors are adjusted to maintain a stable frequency. Other RTC solutions may drift minutes per month, especially in extreme temperature ranges…the ChronoDot will drift less than a minute per year. This makes the ChronoDot very well suited for time critical applications that cannot be regularly synchronized to an external clock. Here is a live demo of a DS3231 chip that has been keeping time since it was last synchronized in 2005: DS3231 Web Demo

The ChronoDot will plug into a standard solderless breadboard and also has mounting holes for chassis installation.

The I2C interface is very straightforward and virtually identical to the register addresses of the popular DS1337 and DS1307 RTCs, which means that existing code for the Arduino, Basic Stamp, Cubloc, and other controllers should work with no modification.

3-axis accelerometer (+-3g analog output) – ADXL335 – Triple-axis accelerometer with 3 analog outputs for X, Y and Z axis measurements on a 0.75″x0.75″ breakout board. The ADXL335 is the latest and greatest from Analog Devices. Runs from 1.8-3.6 volts (3.3 is suggested), with ratiometric output. That means that 0g measurement output is always at half of the supply voltage Vdd, -3g is at 0v and 3g is at Vdd with full scaling in between. Fully assembled and tested. Comes with 6 pin 0.1″ standard header in case you want to use it with a breadboard or perfboard. 4 x 0.125″ mounting holes for easy attachment. See the ADXL335 webpage for datasheets and more