New Product Post
To all of you, who celebrated Chinese New Year, welcome back! We are starting out the New Year with bang. This week we announced the launch of our new Shield Evolution line. The Shield Evolution line includes 18 shields for Arduino, many of them new or improved. As you know, shields are add-ons that enhance the feature set of your Arduino. They provide added functionality or simplified interfaces. They are a must-have for anyone who wants to take their project to the next level with ease.
In addition to all of the great enhancements you’ll find with the shields, we also spent a great deal of time designing and optimizing them. Each shield is built to the same general specs. They all share the same linear dimensions and will easily attach to the Arduino. They all have minimal heat dissipation and minimal power requirements too. You will also find detailed documentation with each shield and libraries to help automate different tasks.
Our product line falls into four different categories: Beginner, Utilitarian, Communication, and Entertainment. The Beginner group is your intro to the Arduino world. In this group, we have the Tick Tock Shield and the Shield Bot. The Tick Tock Shield is a perfect place to start, as it provides a great platform for learning how to solder while constructing a digital clock at the same time. The Shield Bot is an entry point to the world of robotics. It has a plug-and-play format and includes Grove expansion ports for solderless connections to sensors and actuators. It has great libraries and instructions for learning how to direct and move your robot.
Next up the Utilitarian, contains six different shields: the Base Shield, the Energy Shield, the Motor Shield, the Relay Shield, the Screw Shield, and the SD Card Shield. These shields provide added utilities for the Arduino, such as I/O options and power management. The Base Shield is the standard interface for our Grove line of products. It has plug-and-play connectors to connect a wide variety of modules and sensors. The Energy Shield can power your Arduino project from a wide variety of power sources while the Screw Shield converts Arduino pins into screw terminals.
The shields found in the Communications group send and receive data. The GPRS Shield works with unlocked SIM cards and can dial a number or send a text. Or you can choose a WiFi Shield to hook up your device to 802.11b/g wireless networks. Other shields in this group include the NFC Shield, the XBee Shield, and the CAN-Bus Shield.
Last but not least are Entertainment shields which add user interface, displays or lighting options. The E-Ink Display Shield uses Electronic Paper technology, like the Kindle, for a crisp easy-to-read display. The Music Shield enhances audio functionality, the EL Shield can help you create light displays with electroluminescent (EL) products, and the TFT Touch Screen has a 2.8” touch display.
To celebrate the Shield Evolution launch we are holding a giveaway until April 15, 2013. Whenever you purchase a shield from the Shield Evolution collection, you will receive a sticker and a game board/poster. The sticker will have one of six possible images on it. Match the sticker to the image on the poster and once you have collected all of the required stickers you can redeem your game board via email. Prizes range from a Tick Tock Shield, to a set of Entertainment shields, to the grand prize of 17 shields. You have until June 15, 2013 to claim your prize, but prizes are limited.
Until next time, keep on making.
(Written by Erin Linke)
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