The Alpha Geek – Geeking Out

Musical Instruments

Musical Instruments

SparkFun – Capacitance Meter DIY Kit

SparkFun KIT-09485 Mk01

SparkFun KIT-09485 Mk02

SparkFun KIT-09485 Mk03

SparkFun: KIT-09485

Description: This kit includes everything you need to make your very own capacitance meter, able to measure caps anywhere between the range of 500uF to 1pF. Many multimeters are able to measure capacitance, but they’re rarely as precise as a dedicated capacitance meter. Not only does this product provide a great chance to hone your soldering skills, but you also come out with an accurate, fully functional, capacitance measuring tool.

Assembly is very straightforward, and all components are through-hole. You’ll get a chance to solder a wide range of components such as resistors, seven segment LEDs, a 28-pin ATmega48 microcontroller, and more!

An 8-16VDC power supply is required, but not included.

Features:

  • About 1% accuracy, <2% error
  • Measuring range: 1pF – 500uF
  • Automatic range switch
  • Zeroing available
  • Real time serial output of measurement read-outs with time stamp
  • Low cost and easy to build
  • Power supply voltage: 8-16VDC
  • Power supply current: <30mA

Don Luc

Seeed Studio – Music Shield V1.2

seeed studio Music Shield Mk01

seeed studio Music Shield Mk02

seeed studio Music Shield Mk03

Seeed Studio: Music Shield V1.2

Introduction

The Music Shield is a professional audio codec.It can work with Arduino, Seeeduino, Seeeduino Mega and Arduino Mega. It is based on VS1053b IC, and can play a variety of music formats stored on MicroSD cards with Seeed the provided Arduino Library.

Note: Recording is only supported on Seeeduino Mega and Arduino Mega for now.

Features

  • Arduino,Seeeduino, Arduino Mega, and Seeeduino Mega compatible
  • 2 control-push buttons and 1 knob switch
  • Plays music from micro SD cards Decodes: MP3, WAV, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis
    I2S interface for external DAC
  • Headphone/Line Out for playback
  • Line In for recording in OGG format
  • Excellent sound quality with ±1dB Frequency Response
  • FCC verification

Usage – Hardware Installation

Insert the Micro SD card and the earphone; Plug the Music Shield onto the Arduino/Seeeduino; Connect the board to PC using USB cable.

Don Luc

Adafruit – Push-button Power Switch Breakout

Adafruit 1400 Mk01

Adafruit 1400 Mk02

Adafruit 1400 Mk03

Adafruit: 1400

Description

The Adafruit Push-button Power Switch is a tidy little design that lets you control a DC power source using an everyday tactile button. The breakout uses a latching analog circuit that is triggered by a push of the button. Press once to turn on, then press again to turn off. The circuit uses a 3A P-FET to connect and disconnect the IN pin to the OUT pin. Works great from 3V to 14VDC and up to 3A (although the FET gets a little toasty at continuous 3A draw) yet has only 0.5uA quiescent current draw.

Using it is easy: connect the power source to Ground and IN, then the load from Ground to OUT. We include a 12mm tactile switch that works well but you can solder in your own switch as well. Press the button (or short the button pins) to alternate between on or off. A on-board red LED will light up when active so you know its working. There’s a fourth KILL pin, which you can use to turn off the load and/or keep it off even if the button is pressed. When 1 or more volts is applied it will instantly turn off the FET. This allows your project to turn itself off.

Comes with a assembled & tested bread-board friendly breakout board with four mounting holes, a 12mm tactile button, and some 0.1″ male header you can solder to the board to plug it into a breadboard.

The power switch is an elegant way to control power to your project, but there are some things to keep in mind: since there is a pass FET, this is only for 3-14V DC voltages. This is not a mechanical switch so there is no air-gap isolation. There is a ‘body diode’ in the pass FET so if the load has a voltage on it that is higher than the input voltage, current will flow back to the input. There is built-in debouncing but very bouncy switches can be annoying as they will turn on and off fast instead of latching.

Technical Details

  • Dimensions: 20.51mm / 0.8″ x 17.75mm / 0.69″ x 2.66mm / 0.1″
  • Height with Switch: 8.69mm / 0.34″
  • Weight: 2.6g
  • MC14093 Datasheet (the NAND gate used) P-Channel Pass MOSFET

Don Luc

Adafruit – Stereo 3.7W Class D Audio Amplifier – MAX98306

Adafruit 987 Mk01

Adafruit 987 Mk02

Adafruit 987 Mk03

Adafruit 987 Mk04

Adafruit: 987

Description

This incredibly small stereo amplifier is surprisingly powerful – able to deliver 2 x 3.7W channels into 3 ohm impedance speakers. Inside the miniature chip is a class D controller, able to run from 2.7V-5.5VDC. Since the amp is a class D, its incredibly efficient (over 90% efficient when driving an speaker at over a Watt) – making it perfect for portable and battery-powered projects. It has built in thermal and over-current protection but we could barely tell it got hot. This board is a welcome upgrade to basic “LM386” amps!

The inputs of the amplifier go through 1.0uF capacitors, so they are fully ‘differential’ – if you don’t have differential outputs, simply tie the R- and L- to ground. The outputs are “Bridge Tied” – that means they connect directly to the outputs, no connection to ground. The output is a 360KHz square wave PWM that is then ‘averaged out’ by the speaker coil – the high frequencies are not heard. All the above means that you can’t connect the output into another amplifier, it should drive the speakers directly.

Comes with a fully assembled and tested breakout board with 1.0uF input capacitors. We also include header to plug it into a breadboard, 3.5mm screw-terminal blocks so you can easily attach/detach your speakers, and a 2×4 header + jumper to change the amplifier gain on the fly. You will be ready to rock in 15 minutes!

  • Output Power: 3.7W at 3O, 10% THD, 1.7W at 8O, 10% THD, with 5V Supply
  • Passes EMI limit unfiltered with up to 12 inches (30 cm) of speaker cable
  • High 83dB PSRR at 217Hz
  • Spread-Spectrum Modulation and Active Emissions Limiting
  • Five pin-selectable gains: 6dB, 9dB, 12dB, 15dB and 18dB. Select with a jumper or by setting the G and G’ breakout pins
  • Excellent click-and-pop suppression
  • Thermal and short-circuit/over-current protection
  • Low current draw: 2mA quiescent and 10uA in shutdown mode

Technical Details

Dimensions (without 0.1″ header):

  • Length: 28.25mm/1.11in
  • Width: 24.15mm/0.95in
  • Height: 3.03mm/0.12in
  • Weight: 2.33g

Don Luc

Adafruit – Breadboard-Friendly RGB Smart NeoPixel

Adafruit 1312 Mk01

Adafruit 1312 Mk02

Adafruit 1312 Mk03

Adafruit 1312 Mk04

Adafruit: 1312

Description

This is the easiest way possible to add small, bright RGB pixels to your project. We took the same technology from our Flora NeoPixels and made them breadboard friendly, with two rows of 3 x 0.1″ spaced header on each side for easy soldering, chaining and breadboarding. These ultra-bright LEDs have a constant-current driver cooked right into the LED package! The pixels are chainable – so you only need 1 pin/wire to control as many LEDs as you like.

These pixels have full 24-bit color ability with PWM taken care of by the controller chip. Since the LED is so bright, you need less current/power to get the effects you want. The driver is constant current so its OK if your battery power changes or fluctuates a little.

Each pixel draws as much as 60mA (all three RGB LEDs on for full brightness white). An Arduino can drive up to 500 pixels at 30 FPS (it will run out of RAM after that). Using ribbon cable you can string these up to 6″ apart (after that, you might get power droops and data corruption)

Each order comes with 4 individually controllable pixels. In the photos above we show the pixels with headers soldered on, but the pixels do not come with any headers.

Technical Details

  • Dimensions: 0.4″ x 0.5″ x 0.1″ / 10.2mm x 12.7mm x 2.5mm
  • 0.5″ (12.5mm) diameter circle PCB, 0.1″ (2.5mm) total thickness
  • 800 KHz speed protocol
  • Chainable design
  • 5-9VDC power (can run at 3.5V but color will be dimmed), constant current 18.5mA per LED (~55mA max total per pixel)

Don Luc

Pololu – 3.3V Step-Up Voltage Regulator NCP1402

Pololu 2114 Mk01

Pololu 2114 Mk02

Pololu 2114 Mk03

Pololu 2114 Mk04

Pololu 2114 Mk05

Pololu 2114 Mk06

Pololu 2114 Mk07

Pololu: #2114

This compact step-up (or boost) regulator generates 3.3 V from voltages as low as 0.8 V and delivers up to 200 mA, making it perfect for powering small 3.3 V electronics projects from one or two NiMH, NiCd, or alkaline cells.

Overview

These tiny boost (step-up) switching regulators are based on the NCP1402 boost regulator IC. Their small dimensions of just 0.33″ × 0.5″ (8.4 mm × 12.7 mm) and a startup voltage of down to 0.8 V make it easy to build 3.3 V and 5 V circuits that are powered by lower battery voltages. The available output current and output voltage ripple depend on the input voltage, but the regulator can provide up to 200 mA if the input voltage is high enough.

With low input voltages, the output voltage ripple is under 40 mV peak-to-peak. When the input voltage is close to the output, the output ripple quickly climbs to 150 mV peak-to-peak. Therefore, adding capacitance from the output to ground is recommended for noise-sensitive applications with input voltages close to the output voltage.

Some example applications include:

  • Powering 3.3 V or 5 V systems from lower-voltage batteries.
  • Powering higher-voltage subsystems in lower-voltage systems (e.g. powering a 5 V sensor in a 3.3 V system).
  • This regulator is available with a fixed 3.3 V or 5 V output.

For higher-power applications, consider using one of our adjustable boost regulators or our U3V12Fx boost regulators. For a regulator that supports similarly low input voltages but higher currents, consider our U1V11x boost regulators, which offer features that the rest of our boost regulators lack, such as a true shutdown and automatic linear down-regulation when the input voltage exceeds the output voltage.

Using the Boost Regulator

The boost regulator has just three connections: the input voltage, ground, and the output voltage. These three connections are labeled on the back side of the PCB and they are arranged with a 0.1″ spacing along the edge of the board for compatibility with standard solderless breadboards and perfboards and connectors that use a 0.1″ grid. You can solder wires directly to the board or solder in either the 3×1 straight male header strip or the 3×1 right-angle male header strip that are included.

Features

  • Operating voltage: 0.8 V – VOUT
  • 3.3 V or 5.0 V output with 2.5% accuracy
  • <3 mA typical no-load quiescent current
  • Small size: 8.4 mm × 12.7 mm × 3.8 mm (0.33″ × 0.50″ × 0.15″)
  • Weight without header pins: 0.6 g (0.02 oz)

Don Luc

Pololu – Adjustable Step-Up Voltage Regulator U1V11A

Pololu 2560 Mk01

Pololu 2560 Mk02

Pololu 2560 Mk03

Pololu 2560 Mk04

Pololu 2560 Mk05

Pololu 2560 Mk06

Pololu 2560 Mk07

Pololu: #2560

This compact (0.45″×0.6″) U1V11A switching step-up (or boost) voltage regulator efficiently boosts input voltages as low as 0.5 V to an adjustable output voltage between 2 V and 5.25 V. Unlike most boost regulators, the U1V11A offers a true shutdown option that turns off power to the load, and it automatically switches to a linear down-regulation mode when the input voltage exceeds the output. The pins have a 0.1″ spacing, making this board compatible with standard solderless breadboards and perfboards.

Overview

This adjustable boost (step-up) voltage regulator generates higher output voltages (between 2 V and 5.25 V) from input voltages as low as 0.5 V, and it also automatically switches to a linear down-regulation mode when the input voltage exceeds the output. This makes it great for powering electronics projects from 1 to 3 NiMH, NiCd, or alkaline cells or from a single lithium-ion cell. Additionally, unlike most boost regulators, this unit offers a true shutdown option that turns off power to the load (with typical boost regulators, the input voltage will pass directly through to the output when they are disabled).

When boosting, this module acts as a switching regulator (also called switched-mode power supplies (SMPS) or DC-to-DC converters) and has a typical efficiency between 70% to 90%. The available output current is a function of the input voltage, output voltage, and efficiency (see Typical Efficiency and Output Current section below), but the input current can typically be as high as 1.2 A. This regulator is also available with a fixed 3.3 V or fixed 5 V output, and very similar regulators are available in a much smaller size with a fixed 3.3 V or fixed 5 V output.

The regulator’s thermal shutdown engages at around 140°C and helps prevent damage from overheating, but it does not have short-circuit or reverse-voltage protection.

Features

  • Input voltage: 0.5 V to 5.5 V
  • Adjustable output voltage from 2 V to 5.25 V
  • True shutdown option that turns off power to the load
  • Automatic linear down-regulation when the input voltage is greater than the output voltage
  • 1.2 A switch allows for input currents up to 1.2 A
  • Good efficiency at light load: <1 mA typical no-load quiescent current, though it can exceed 1 mA for very low input voltages (<100 µA typical quiescent current with SHDN = LOW)
  • Integrated over-temperature shutoff
  • Small size: 0.45″ × 0.6″; × 0.1″ (11.5 × 15.3 × 2.5 mm)

Don Luc

SparkFun – 3.3V Step-Up Breakout – NCP1402

SparkFun PRT-10967 Mk01

SparkFun PRT-10967 Mk02

SparkFun PRT-10967 Mk03

SparkFun: PRT-10967

Description: The NCP1402 is a 3.3V DC-DC converter. The breakout board will accept voltage inputs between 1 and 3 Volts (such as 1 or 2 AA batteries) and output a constant, low ripple 3.3V output capable of sourcing up to 200 mA. This board is great for supplying power to 3.3V sensors or providing 3.3V from a a single AA battery.

The breakout board includes the necessary peripheral components. The input, output and ground pins are broken out on a 0.1″ grid to allow easy access on a breadboard.

Don Luc

SparkFun – Audio Bluetooth Breakout – RN-52

SparkFun WRL-11777 Mk01

SparkFun WRL-11777 Mk02

SparkFun WRL-11777 Mk03

SparkFun: WRL-11777

Description: The RN-52 Bluetooth from Roving Networks is an audio module that makes it simple for you to create a hands free audio system for your car or remote control your media center. With this breakout board we’ve made it easy for you to drop it into any project you could use it for. All pertinent headers are broken out and labeled for your convenience.

The RN-52 module combines a class 2 Bluetooth radio with an embedded digital signal processor (DSP). The module is programmed and controlled with a simple ASCII command language. It provides a UART interface, several user programmable I/O pins, stereo speaker outputs, microphone inputs, and a USB port.

Features:

  • Fully qualified Bluetooth module
  • FCC Certified
  • Fully configurable UART
  • Dual-channel, differential audio input and output
  • Supports iAP profile
  • Low power sleep mode
  • Maximum over air data rate of 3.0Mbps
  • Compatible with all Bluetooth products that support SPP (almost all do)
  • Embedded Bluetooth stack profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, HFP/HSP, and SPP
  • 3.0 ~ 3.6V operation
  • Bluetooth Technology v3.0 compatible
  • Class 2 power output

Don Luc

SparkFun – XBee Explorer USB

SparkFun WRL-08687 Mk01

SparkFun WRL-08687 Mk02

SparkFun WRL-08687 Mk03

SparkFun WRL-08687 Mk04

SparkFun: WRL-08687

Description: This is a simple to use, USB to serial base unit for the XBee line. This unit works with all XBee modules including the Series 1 and Series 2.5, standard and Pro version. Plug the unit into the XBee Explorer, attach a mini USB cable, and you will have direct access to the serial and programming pins on the XBee unit.

You get the red board only. XBee modules and USB cable sold below.

Don Luc

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