Browse through all that’s new here!
NEW PRODUCTS THIS WEEK
Mini Stepper Motor – 200 Steps – 20x30mm NEMA-8 Size
This tiny stepper motor is the same quality and step-size as the big NEMA-17’s we stock, but so cute so it will work with compact CNC builds. This 4-wire bipolar stepper has 1.8° per step for smooth motion and a nice holding torque. The motor was specified to have a max current of 600mA so that it could be driven easily with an Adafruit motor shield for Arduino, Motor Bonnet for Raspberry Pi or our Feather Motor controller & and a wall adapter or lead-acid battery. It’s rated for 3.9V, if you have a stepper driver with current limiting, use that to keep the power down. If you have a non-current-limiting driver such as the motor shield/hat/feather we found 5V DC power worked well to power the stepper controller.
Adafruit MCP2221A Breakout – General Purpose USB to GPIO ADC I2C – Stemma QT / Qwiic
Wouldn’t it be cool to drive a tiny OLED display, read a color sensor, or even just flash some LEDs directly from your computer? Sure you can program an Arduino or Trinket to talk to these devices and your computer, but why can’t your computer just talk to those devices and sensors itself? Well, now your computer can talk to devices using the Adafruit MCP2221A breakout board!
Adafruit LSM6DSOX 6 DoF Accelerometer and Gyroscope – STEMMA QT / Qwiic
Behold, the ST LSM6DSOX: The latest in a long line of quality Accelerometer+Gyroscope 6-DOF IMUs from ST. Along with the LSM6DSOX, this guide will cover the industrial version, the ISM330DHCX. Both are pin-compatible and are nearly code-compatible – we’ll be using the same library code and wiring diagrams to connect to both
In the ISM330DHCX the sensing elements of the accelerometer and of the gyroscope are implemented on the same silicon die, thus guaranteeing superior stability and robustness. It also has an extended temperature range of -40 to +105 °C compared to the LSM6DSOX’s -40 to +85 °C. Finally, the ISM330’s gyroscope can measure up to ±4000 dps, the LSM6DSOX tops out at ±2000 dps. If those extras aren’t essential for your needs, the LSM6DSOX will do quite nicely.
Adafruit MLX90640 24×32 IR Thermal Camera Breakout – 110 Degree FoV
You can now add affordable heat-vision to your project and with an Adafruit MLX90640 Thermal Camera Breakout. This sensor contains a 24×32 array of IR thermal sensors. When connected to your microcontroller (or Raspberry Pi) it will return an array of 768 individual infrared temperature readings over I2C. It’s like those fancy thermal cameras, but compact and simple enough for easy integration.
Adafruit MLX90640 IR Thermal Camera Breakout – 55 Degree
This version has a narrow 55°x35° field of view we also have a version with a wider 110°x70° field of view
This part will measure temperatures ranging from -40°C to 300°C with an accuracy of +- 2°C (in the 0-100°C range). With a maximum frame rate of 16 Hz (the theoretical limit is 32Hz but we were not able to practically achieve it), It’s perfect for creating your own human detector or mini thermal camera. We have code for using this sensor on an Arduino or compatible (the sensor communicates over I2C) or on a Raspberry Pi with Python. If using an Arduino-compatible, you’ll need a processor with at least 20KB RAM – a SAMD21 (M0) or SAMD51 (M4) chipset will do nicely. On the Pi, you can even perform interpolation processing with help from the SciPy python library and get some pretty nice results!
This sensor reads the data twice per frame, in a checker-board pattern, so it’s normal to see a checker-board dither effect when moving the sensor around – the effect isn’t noticeable when things move slowly.
Know someone who loves electronics but doesn’t know the difference between an XBee, a soldering iron, and a SMA to uFL/u.FL/IPX/IPEX RF Adapter Cable? Want to buy the perfect gift but don’t know whether your Maker friend is a BeagleBone fan or a Rasp Pi devotee? Just a fan of Bruce Yan’s incredible design? If you’re any of these, or more, buy an Adafruit Gift Certificate – the perfect cyber-present for the electronics geek in your life.
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