Adafruit – Page 15 – Don Luc Electronics

Adafruit – Half-Size Breadboard

October 4, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 64

Description

This is a cute half size breadboard, good for small projects. It’s 2.2″ x 3.4″ (5.5 cm x 8.5 cm) with a standard double-strip in the middle and two power rails on both sides. You can pull the power rails off easily to make the breadboard as thin as 1.4″ (3.5cm) and stick it onto an Arduino protoshield. You can also cut these in half with a saw to create 2 tiny breadboards, or “snap” these breadboards together either way to make longer and/or wider breadboards.

Technical Details

Dimensions:

2.2″ x 3.4″ (5.5 cm x 8.5 cm)
9.7mm(0.38in) thick, including sticky foam on the bottom
Weight: 38.9g (1.27oz)

Don Luc

Adafruit – RGB LCD Shield Kit w/ 16×2 Character Display – Only 2 pins used! – Positive Display

October 1, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 716

Description

This new Adafruit shield makes it easy to use a 16×2 Character LCD. We really like the RGB LCDs we stock in the shop both the RGB negative and RGB positive. Unfortunately, these LCDs do require quite a few digital pins, 6 to control the LCD and then another 3 to control the RGB backlight for a total of 9 pins. That’s half of the pins available on a classic Arduino!

With this in mind, we wanted to make it easier for people to get these LCD into their projects so we devised a shield that lets you control a 16×2 Character LCD, up to 3 backlight pins AND 5 keypad pins using only the two I2C pins on the Arduino! The best part is you don’t really lose those two pins either, since you can stick i2c-based sensors, RTCs, etc and have them share the I2C bus. This is a super slick way to add a display without all the wiring hassle.

This shield is perfect for when you want to build a stand-alone project with its own user interface. The 4 directional buttons plus select button allows basic control without having to attach a bulky computer.

The shield is designed for ‘classic’ Arduinos such as the Uno, Duemilanove, Diecimilla, etc. It uses the I2C pins at Analog 4 and Analog 5. It will also work perfectly with Arduino Mega R3’s which have the extra SDA/SCL I2C pins broken out. Earlier Mega’s have the I2C pins in a different location and will require you to solder two wires from the I2C pins on the shield and plug them into the different I2C locations at Digital 20 & 21. This shield will not fit easily on top of an Arduino Ethernet because of the Ethernet jack height. You can use a set of stacking headers to give the shield more ‘lift’ above the jack.

This product comes as a kit! Included is a high quality, USA-made PCB and all the components (buttons, header etc). This product comes with a 16×2 RGB positive. Assembly is easy, even if you’ve never soldered before and the kit can be completed in 30 minutes. Check the product tutorial page for assembly instructions before purchasing

Of course, we even wrote an easy-to-use Arduino library that you can easily add to your project. It acts just like the built in LiquidCrystal library, but automatically uses the shield pins. You can also easily query the 5 keypad buttons to get input through the library, so you get extra buttons without using any more pins. The buttons are automatically de-bounced inside the library.

At this time, the library and shield can control the RGB backlight of our character LCDs by turning each LED on or off. This means you can display the following colors: Red, Yellow, Green, Teal, Blue, Violet, White and all off. There is no support for PWM control of the backlight at this time, so if you need to have more granular control of the RGB backlight to display a larger range of colors, this shield can’t do that (the I2C expander does not have PWM output).

Technical Details

Dimensions: 2.1″ x 3.2″
Comes with a 16×2 RGB backlight LCD, positive display
Plug and play with any Arduino ‘classic’ – UNO, duemilanove, diecimilla, etc as well as Arduino Mega R3.
Uses only the I2C pins – Analog 4 & 5 on classic Arduinos, Digital 20 and 21 on Arduino Mega R3
This board/chip uses I2C 7-bit address 0x20
Mounting hole size is 2.5mm

Don Luc

Adafruit – ChronoDot – Ultra-precise Real Time Clock – v2.1

September 30, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 255

Description

The ChronoDot RTC is an extremely accurate real time clock module, based on the DS3231 temperature compensated RTC (TCXO). It includes a CR1632 battery (not shown, but included in the product) 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.

The top side of the Chronodot now features a battery holder for 16mm 3V lithium coin cells. It should work fine for CR1620 – CR1632 batteries.

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.

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.

Technical Details

Dimensions (without battery):

Length: 30.4mm/1.2in diameter
Height: 14.1mm/0.55in
Weight: 4 g
This board/chip uses I2C 7-bit address 0x68

Don Luc

Adafruit – Panel Mount 100K potentiometer (Breadboard Friendly) – 100KB

September 28, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 1831

Description

This potentiometer is a two-in-one, good in a breadboard or with a panel. Its a fairly standard linear taper 100K ohm potentiometer, with a grippy shaft. Its smooth and easy to turn, but not so loose that it will shift on its own. We like this one because the legs are 0.2″ apart with pin-points, so you can plug it into a breadboard or perfboard. Once you’re done prototyping, you can drill a hole into your project box and mount the potentiometer that way.

Technical Details

Dimensions:

Body: 16mm / 0.6″
Body Circumference: 50mm / 2″
Shaft Length: 15mm / 0.6″
Weight: 6g
100K ohm potentiometer, linear taper
100,000 Cycle Life
Rotational Travel: 300 °
Static Stop Strength: 90 oz-in
Rotational Torque: 0.5 to 1.25 oz-in

Don Luc

Adafruit – Panel Mount 1K potentiometer (Breadboard Friendly) – 1K Linear

September 27, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 1789

Description

This 1K potentiometer is a two-in-one, good in a breadboard or with a panel. Its a fairly standard linear taper 1K ohm potentiometer, with a grippy shaft. Its smooth and easy to turn, but not so loose that it will shift on its own. We like this one because the legs are 0.2″ apart with pin-points, so you can plug it into a breadboard or perfboard. Once you’re done prototyping, you can drill a hole into your project box and mount the potentiometer that way.

Technical Details

1K ohm potentiometer, linear taper
100,000 Cycle Life
Power: 0.2W
Rotational travel: 300 °
Static Stop Strength: 90 oz-in
Rotational Torque: 0.5 to 1.25 oz-in

Don Luc

Adafruit – Perma-Proto Quarter-sized Breadboard PCB

September 1, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 1608

Description

Customers have asked us to carry basic perf-board, but we never liked the look of most basic perf: its always crummy quality, with pads that flake off and no labeling. Then we thought about how people actually prototype – usually starting with a solderless breadboard and then transferring the parts to a more permanent PCB. That’s when we realized what people would really like is a proto board that makes it easy!

This proto-board is the PCB you always wish you had, but never realized it! We took the basic layout of a quarter-sized breadboard (basically, a ‘tiny’ breadboard plus power rails) and turned that into a beautiful PCB. The top side has a white silkscreen, and the same markings you’re familiar with, to make transferring components easy. The bottom has the 5-hole pad design that matches a classic breadboard, with 4 power bus lines on the sides, and no mask so you can easily cut traces when necessary. We used 1.2mm diameter drill holes so even parts with big leads will fit. All holes are thru-plated for strength – these wont peel off with rework. The finish is a gold plate – you won’t get oxidation like with bare copper perf! There are also two mounting holes so you can attach the PCB to your project box.

Once you use a Perma-Proto board, you’ll never go back!

Technical Details

15 rows of double 5-hole rows
4 power rails with positive/negative markings
1.7″ x 2.0″ (44mm x 55mm), 0.063″ thick FR4
1.2mm / 0.047″ drill holes
2 x 0.125″ or 3.2mm mounting holes 1.4″ apart
Weight: 6g

Don Luc

Adafruit – Lithium Ion Battery – 3.7v 2000mAh

August 26, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 2011

Description

Lithium ion polymer (also known as ‘lipo’ or ‘lipoly’) batteries are thin, light and powerful. The output ranges from 4.2V when completely charged to 3.7V. This battery has a capacity of 2000mAh. If you need a larger (or smaller!) battery, we have a full range of LiPoly batteries

The batteries come pre-attached with a genuine 2-pin JST-PH connector as shown and include the necessary protection circuitry. Because they have a genuine JST connector, not a knock-off, the cable wont snag or get stuck in a matching JST jack, they click in and out smoothly.

The included protection circuitry keeps the battery voltage from going too high (over-charging) or low (over-use) which means that the battery will cut-out when completely dead at 3.0V. It will also protect against output shorts. However, even with this protection it is very important that you only use a LiIon/LiPoly constant-voltage/constant-current charger to recharge them and at a rate of 2A or less (500mA is best). We suggest our Micro Lipo charger, which has a 100mA default rate. You can also set the Micro Lipo to 500mA rate for a faster charge.

Like most lipos, the batteries we sell do not have thermistors built in. This is why we suggest charging at 1 C or even less – 100 to 500mA is a good rate, and available from any USB port if using a USB-powered charger.

Additional safety notes: Do not use a NiMH/NiCad/lead-acid charger! Also, do not abuse these batteries, do not short, bend, crush or puncture. As with all Lithium ion polymer batteries and with any power source – they should be used by experts who are comfortable working with power supplies.

Technical Details

Dimensions: 60mm x 36mm x 7mm / 2.4″ x 1.4″ x 0.3″
Weight: 34g
Nominal Capacity: 2000mAh ±2%
Nominal Voltage: 3.7V
Standard Charge Current: ~0.2C / 0.5A
Charge Cut-Off Voltage: 4.2V
Standard Discharge Current: ~0.2C / 0.5A

Don Luc

Adafruit – Potentiometer Knob – Soft Touch T18 – Blue

August 20, 2015 by DonLuc

Adafruit: 2048

Description

Oh say can you see
By the knob’s early light…

Sorry – we thought that was clever. And while it wasn’t really, this potentiometer knob definitely is. It’s a ‘soft touch’ T18 knob that works great with our Panel Mount 10K, Panel Mount 1K, and Panel Mount 100K potentiometers. The knob is designed to set directly on the potentiometer’s ridges so it’s an easy & secure fit. It has a nice feel, with a rubbery grip, tweaking it is quite fulfilling.

This is the blue version and it has a nice deep color on the inside with a striking blue line on the outside for great visibility with whatever you’re making. We also carry it in white and red if you’re looking for a variety of colors.

Technical Details