Tag Archives: Sparkfun

RVR is a Sphero robot for budding tinkerers

Posted on by
Sphero's been amusing us with its collection of robotic balls, like its adorable BB-8, for eight years. But lately the company has been getting away from the toy aspect of its products and embracing its educational potential. It's had an app th...

DIY Remote Controlled Flamethrower: Wi-Fire

Posted on by

The Internet of Things isn’t just about connecting your garage door to your car or your fridge to Amazon. It can also be about connecting your smartphone to a flamethrower, as SparkFun’s Nick Poole shows in a DIY project that he made to promote their new ESP8266 Thing dev board.

internet_connected_flamethrower_1zoom in

Nick made a webpage that contains links to toggle the flamethrower’s valves and ignitor. He then set up the Thing to broadcast a Wi-Fi access point from which you’ll connect to access the webpage.

Now that’s blazing fast Wi-Fi. Head to SparkFun’s blog to see Nick’s full guide.

[via Gadgetify]

SparkFun Rogue Router Solar-powered File Server Lives, Dies, Lives Again

Posted on by

SparkFun Electronics came up with a neat idea for a set and forget file server. The Rogue Router can power itself using one of SparkFun’s new solar panels, so you can place it even in remote locations.

sparkfun_rogue_router_solar_powered_file_server_1zoom in

The server uses the Arduino-based SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Board. It also has a microSD breakout board, a LiPo solar charger, a 2000mAh battery and a 3.5W solar panel.

SparkFun also made two smaller versions of the Rogue Router: the Rogue 1.2 and the Rogue Mini:

sparkfun_rogue_router_solar_powered_file_server_2zoom in

sparkfun_rogue_router_solar_powered_file_server_3zoom in

Head to SparkFun’s GitHub page to get the Rogue Router’s firmware and the 3D files for all three enclosures.

[via Geeky Gadgets]

Intel Edison Released; Expandable with Sparkfun Blocks

Posted on by

Earlier this year Intel unveiled Edison, its first low-cost system-on-a-chip. Its production version is now available for pre-order, and while it’s changed its form factor it’s still an interesting or useful platform for tinkerers, students and entrepreneurs.

intel edison system on a chip 620x409magnify

The Edison we saw earlier this year had the size and form of an SD card, but the production version is rectangular and slightly bigger than its predecessor. It’s still pretty tiny though. The Edison is useless without expansion boards, which is why it comes with Intel’s Arduino-compatible expansion board, which works with Arduino Uno R3 software and hardware. Intel also made a breakout board for prototyping. Here’s MAKE’s unboxing of the Edison:

Here’s Intel’s guide to setting up the Edison, which includes installing drivers and the Arduino IDE as well as flashing Linux on to the tiny computer.

To help you get off and running, Intel worked with SparkFun Electronics to create even more expansion boards, including a base board for attaching peripherals via microUSB, a 400mAh battery block with a charger and a 0.66″ OLED display block.

You can pre-order the Intel Edison from SparkFun for $50 (USD); SparkFun’s Intel Edison Blocks are available for pre-order as well.

[via Intel, SparkFun & MAKE: via Slash Gear]

Don’t miss Reggie Watts, Mark Frauenfelder, Sparkfun, Techdirt and Sol Design Lab at Expand NY!

Posted on by

DNP Don't miss Reggie Watts, Mark Frauenfelder, Sparkfun, Techdirt and Sol Design Lab at Expand NY!

With every subsequent post, our excitement for Expand New York grows -- and this is a particularly good one. We might go so far as saying that this is our most exciting speaker post yet, but we'll leave that for you to decide. Improvisational musician / comedian Reggie Watts will be on stage discussing and demoing his sampling setup. We'll also be joined once again by Boing Boing founder and Make Magazine editor-in-chief Mark Frauenfelder, along with Sol Design Lab founder Beth Ferguson, Techdirt CEO Mike Masnick and Sparkfun's educational outreach coordinator, Jeff Branson.

And, of course, we've already announced a number of folks who will be joining us on November 9th and 10th, including LeVar Burton, Ben Heck, Peter Molyneux, Ben Huh and folks from companies like Google, Sony, Pebble, Adafruit and The Electronic Frontier Foundation -- and we've still got plenty to come. Check out the full list below.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: Expand Speakers

The Engadget Show 44: Education with Google, OLPC, Code.org, LeapFrog, SparkFun, Adafruit and more

Posted on by

It's time to rethink the way our children learn. It's all a bit overwhelming, attempting to restructure the age-old classroom model, particularly in a system as bogged down in bureaucratic red tape as education. This month, however, we packed up our things and toured the country to find out how educational institutions are adopting new models to help reinvent the learning process -- rather than sitting idly by, waiting for the system to change around them. Naturally, technology is playing a huge role in that shift, moving from models of teaching to models of learning, where students can explore, express themselves and learn at their own speed.

We kick things off in Chicago, where Jackie Moore, a former systems programmer, is teaching inner city students how to build robots in a shopping mall basement at LevelUP. Next up, we head Miami and California, to see how technologies like the iPad, Google Chromebook and One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop are being implemented in three schools, including interviews with educators, students, OLPC CEO Rodrigo Halaby and Google director of product management, Rajen Sheth. We'll also talk to component retailers SparkFun and Adafruit about the initiatives those companies have implemented to help kids learn electronics at an early age, and then we sit down with American Museum of Natural History president, Ellen Futter, to discuss the ways the New York City institution is redefining itself for the 21st century.

We've also got an interview with Ali Partovi, a serial entrepreneur, who is working to make computer science an essential part of the elementary-level STEM program, through Code.org. Richard Culatta, the acting director of the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology discusses how devices can help target the learning process for individual students and LeapFrog CEO John Barbour tells us how his company is rethinking the educational toy. All that plus prognostications from John Roderick and some really sweet moose dioramas can be yours to enjoy after the break.

Filed under: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

On the sidelines of SparkFun’s Autonomous Vehicle Competition (video)

Posted on by

DNP On the sidelines of SparkFun's Autonomous Vehicle Competition video

We're a bit torn when we arrive at the Boulder Reservoir, past all the chain-linked signs warning of "potential danger ahead." The organizers of the Autonomous Vehicle Competition are running two separate tracks -- land and air -- and frankly, we don't have the resources to cover both. As the competitors scramble to complete last-minute repairs in the Team Pits area, we approach an employee in a red SparkFun T-shirt, to suss out the best plan of attack. "A lot of the aerial vehicles tend to fail in the first round," she answers, without much deliberation, "so it's probably best to start there." The organizers would've been hard-pressed to have constructed a more beautiful Colorado spring day, as "Come Fly With Me" wafts over the PA while spectators settle into the bleachers and competitors find spots at the edge of the gravel pit.

Thirty teams will compete for the $1,000 aerial grand prize. The task: taking off autonomously, staying within the allowed fly zone, dropping a tennis ball onto a thin sliver of land inside the reservoir, ducking beneath a goalpost-like wicket and landing on the same surface from where it took off -- and, as the name implies, all this must be done via a pre-programmed set of instructions without external control. The takeoff, it seems, is the hardest, as the first several competitors are knocked out of the contest, failing to launch in all sorts of spectacular fashions, including fixed-wing aircraft that just can't seem find their way into the clear Colorado sky, sliding along the gravel or twitching mechanically atop the PVC launchpad. When a quadcopter finally manages to lift off successfully, there's an audible sigh of relief amongst the crowd, followed by explosive applause. When it works, it's magic.

Gallery: On the sidelines of SparkFun's Autonomous Vehicle Competition

Filed under:

Comments

SparkFun’s 2013 National Education Tour plans to bring DIY electronics to all 50 states

Posted on by

Image

SparkFun is looking to further its educational push this summer, announcing its 2013 National Education Tour. The intiative, set to kick off in June, will bring the hacker supplier to schools in all 50 states, teaching six to eight hour courses aimed at getting students started in the world of DIY. The courses will focus on topics like the PicoBoard Scratch sensor, SparkFun Inventor Kit and e-textiles, teaching kids programming and hardware concepts. SparkFun will be footing a portion of the bills, to the tune of $1,000 per location and leaving hardware behind so education doesn't have to stop when the company's RV pulls away. SparkFun is also looking toward libraries as resources for its educational initiative, with programs aimed at educating librarians in the ways of Arduinos and the like. More information on the program can be found after the break.

Comments

SparkFun’s 2013 National Education Tour plans to bring DIY electronics to all 50 states

Posted on by

Image

SparkFun is looking to further its educational push this summer, announcing its 2013 National Education Tour. The intiative, set to kick off in June, will bring the Hacker supplier to schools in all 50 states, teaching six to eight hour courses aimed at getting students started in the world of DIY. The courses will focus on topics like the PicoBoard Scratch sensor, SparkFun Inventor Kit and e-textiles, teaching kids programming and hardware concepts. SparkFun will be footing a portion of the bills, to the tune of $1,000 per location and leaving hardware behind so education doesn't have to stop when the company's RV pulls away. SparkFun is also looking toward libraries as resources for its educational initiative, with programs aimed at educating librarians in the ways of Arduinos and the like. More information on the program can be found after the break.

Comments

SparkFun’s 2013 National Education Tour plans to bring DIY electronics to all 50 states

Posted on by

Image

SparkFun is looking to further its educational push this summer, announcing its 2013 National Education Tour. The intiative, set to kick off in June, will bring the Hacker supplier to schools in all 50 states, teaching six to eight hour courses aimed at getting students started in the world of DIY. The courses will focus on topics like the PicoBoard Scratch sensor, SparkFun Inventor Kit and e-textiles, teaching kids programming and hardware concepts. SparkFun will be footing a portion of the bills, to the tune of $1,000 per location and leaving hardware behind so education doesn't have to stop when the company's RV pulls away. SparkFun is also looking toward libraries as resources for its educational initiative, with programs aimed at educating librarians in the ways of Arduinos and the like. More information on the program can be found after the break.

Comments