New Product Post

It’s been a couple of weeks, but we are back with a bunch of exciting new products, including an accessory for the wildly popular Raspberry Pi.

The AlaMode – Arduino Compatible Raspberry Pi Plate is a breakthrough bridge product for both Arduino and Raspberry Pi fans. Containing an Arduino compatible Atmel328P processor, AlaMode is a stackable, Arduino compatible board that plugs into the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header. While there are lots of emerging examples of interfacing hardware to the Pi, it’s just not as easy as the Arduino, and the Arduino already has hundreds of libraries for interfacing with motors, sensors, and displays. While you can always plug an Arduino into the USB port, that’s just not as neat and compact as a GPIO interfaced board. You can write a program on the Pi in any language you want to control or monitor your Arduino application, making Internet integration and control super easy while utilizing the Pi’s display capabilities. In addition you can even program the AlaMode directly from the Pi.

Sometimes using an analog light sensor is a bit of a bother due to its non-linear response characteristic curve and different spectrum compared with the human-visible light spectrum.  That’s why we created Grove – Digital Light Sensor.  Its active spectrum is selectable, so that you can tune the output until it’s in synch with your eyes.  Or take advantage of infrared mode or full spectrum mode for other projects.

Signals from some sensors are just too weak to be measured. Have you experienced this before?  Perhaps when carefully holding two multimeter probes in your hands?  The Grove – Amplifier is the tool that will save you from that kind of drama.  It amplifies the weak signal, usually in mV scale, into V scale, making it much easier to be measured. Plus, it is configurable, so you can select the amount of amplification that you need by using a simple switch on the board.

Want to build your own soldering station? Open Soldering Station PCB is the brainchild of Arhi Bogdan Kecman over at the Dangerous Prototypes forum. Then Dangerous Prototypes improved it and presented us with this bare bones PCB version. The motherboard helps you accurately control the soldering process for several name brand and clone soldering pencils. Its features include:

1) Analog front-end that is capable of reading thermocouple and PTC temperature sensors

2) Compatible with any PTC or TC soldering iron

3) HD44780 2×16 character LCD display

4) Low noise, zero crossing AC heater control

The only catch is that you need to self source all the parts and solder them before you can enjoy the features.  But for a true hacker, this is an adventure waiting to be embraced.

A lovely gift for your geek friends!  In a shape of dynamic green leaf, we designed Fusion PCB Service Coupon as a special gift for the NY Maker Faire. It was so popular, we produced some more for those weren’t able to attend.  The leaf simultaneously shows the build quality of our Fusion PCB Service and includes a $10 coupon towards this service.

For all of you trick-or-treaters out there, enjoy a fun and safe Halloween.

Until next time, keep on making.

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