HVW Tech (and Solarbotics) will be closed
tomorrow (July 1st), and Friday (July 3rd). Standard
rules apply - you can still place orders, send email, and leave phone
messages while we’re closed. Shipping and correspondance will resume on
Thursday and then again on Monday.
And what’s the reason for these crazy, crazy schedules? While
Canada Day and the annual Cowboy
Hick Fest
make convenient excuses, the truth is that we’re taking this
opportunity to do some major organizing and renovations around the
office. We apologize for any immediate inconvenience, but these
improvements will benefit everyone in the long run. Just you wait and
see - once Monday rolls around, we’ll be a leaner, meaner Oscar
Meyar Weiner
robot sellin’ machine. In the mean time, we wish all our fellow Cunucks
a Happy Canada Day and all our friendly neighbours to the south a
fantastic July 4th.
Oh, and we have a bit of good news for you! The oh-so-popular Freeduino SB is back in stock! And not only is it back in stock, but it's an all-new 2.2
revision. When you start breaking out version numbers and decimal
points, you know you're onto something good. In this case, 2.2 brings a
preinstalled 16MHz crystal, FTDI "Bit-Bang" interface pins, and
battery-friendly power routing. Neat stuff!
Posted
June 30th, 2009 by Chris
Odds and ends from SparkFun (and a little bit from Parallax
too)
Hi everyone! We've been busy over the past few days, and have
a few new items from Sparkfun to show for it. I could go through a nice
long schpiel about how each item is pretty neat, but I'll get out of
your way so you can move on to having a look for yourself.
Anyways, that's all for now. Stay tuned for more goodies in the coming
weeks!
Posted
June 24th, 2009 by Chris
More
Arduino, Arduino, Arduino...oh, and
SparkFun! And Adafruit! And more SparkFun!
I love when we get these great boxes of goodies. Just like Christmas!
Now that the giggling has subsided, here's what we unpacked... Let's
see... We have the:
Arduino
BT - Bluetooth connectivity and an onboard DC/DC converter
for long-term, remote, battery-powered Arduinoing (yeah, we just made
that word up!
Arduino
Nano with USB - Think of it like Arduino, but in a
Stamp-format package (and built-on USB)
LilyPads, plus accessories. Sew them
onto...something, and
make them do... something. On textiles!
LilyPad Main
Board - Low voltage, slow, but oh-so-sweet to use!
Whew! That's quite the parcel of goodies! And just in time to put into
some of the project ideas we got at the Maker Faire...
Posted
June 11th, 2009 by Dave
We're back from the Maker Faire - and we brought a treat!
Wow, what a crazy week! Most of us have returned from Maker Faire,
where we had a fantastic
time. We met a lot of great people, saw loads of neat projects and
displays, and got a chance to take in some beautifully
marginal California
weather ("hey... it's this cold back home!"). We’re
absolutely exhausted after an
insanely long and busy
weekend, but we’re slowly getting back into the groove.
We’ve resumed
processing and filling orders as well as answering emails and other
inquiries.
If you feel like you missed out, we have something new to show off. The
Nunchucky! It's a cool little breakout board for the Nintendo
Wii’s Nunchuck controller. It features:
Two sets of interface pads
Includes both 4 Pin male and 4 pin female headers
Lock notches so your Nunchuck “clicks”
in and won’t let loose!
Tie-down Holes for securing ribbon-cable extensions
Try putting it to work with your favourite flavour of Arduino
- we’d love to see what you come up with!
Posted June 5th, 2009 by Chris
In the infamous words of our own tech Jerome Demers:
"ARDUINO ARDUINO ARDUINO!"
It's
sort of a
mantra to him. He'll wander around the offices chanting, and we can see
why he'd excited. We've have lots of fun with our
own version,
the Freeduino
SB, and it was about time we brought in some of the
fully-assembed reference Duemilanovesand the super-coolArduino
Mega. And there's more coming!
And you
now what fits nicely
with Arduinos? BlinkM
Max units!
These are bright. Well, the regular BlinkM is
bright, but these
are stupid bright. Like "Aw c'mon, how brigh...OW
OW OW! I'm BLIND!"
sort of bright.. Don't say I didn't warn you!
And if you're just interested in the (huge!) 10mm LED board
itself, we also carry separate daughterboards.
Posted
May 12 2009 by Dave (Wishing
it was June)
New PICAxe, XBee and Propellers
More cool things from Revolution Technology Education lead us off
today!
Let's start with the big news - the X2
series has finally been released, specifically, the PICAxe-28x2
(regular), PICAxe-28x2
(3V), PICAxe-40x2
(regular), and PICAxe-40x2
(3V). These chips offer a substantial increase in speed, RAM and I/O
control. The big difference between the regular and low-voltage
versions are that they really need to be run at the specified voltages.
The low voltage version run between 1.8V to 3.6V, the regular versions
run 4.5V to 5.5V. Mix them up at your own peril!
Also
new from Revolution Tech. Ed. is the PICAxe-08M
SMD project board. Take a SMD PICAxe08M, put it on a cleverly
designed carrier board, and offer it at a great price! Good formula,
methinks...
XBee!
We've got XBee! (Finally...) It's taken us a bit longer to
get these than we hoped, but now we finally have the host modules to
fit all the XBee accessory boards we carry. Say "Hello" (with) to the:
Last
on the list
is a bit of a fun thing. We got another type of propeller. Nothing too
special, but it's impressive to see what thrust you can generate from a
tiny motor when you totally over-amp it...
Posted
May 1st 2009 by Dave
ATmega328P-20PU w/ Arduino Firmware, Sparkfun Wireless
Data
Transmission Goodies
We have a few new n' neat toys to show you today. First
and
foremost is this ATmega328P-20PU
- but it ain't no ordinary microcontroller. We've programmed (and
tested) it with the Arduino Firmware
v15, making the chip ready to drop into any
standard DIP-mount
Arduino-compatible board, like our own Freeduino
or Boarduino
kits.
We've also added a small handful of items to our Wireless
Data Transmission category, in particular the four following
items from Sparkfun:
Sparkfun
RF Link 2400bps Receiver - 315MHz This
wireless data is the easiest to use, lowest cost RF link
we
have ever seen! Use these components to transmit position data,
temperature data, even current program register values wirelessly to
the receiver. These modules have up to 500 ft range
in open
space, and the receiver is operated at 5V.
Sparkfun
RF Link Transmitter - 315MHz This
will work with the RF
Links at 315MHz at either baud rate. These modules have been used
extensively and have been very impressed
with their ease of use and direct interface to an MCU.
Sparkfun
Transceiver nRF2401A with Trace Antenna The
SparkFun nRF2401A module is a great replacement for the RF-24G
if needed. Same IC, same commands, the difference is the MiRF v1 has a
0.1" connector.
Sparkfun
Breakout Board for RF-24G Transceiver It's
pretty difficult to attach to the tiny header on
this great little wireless module. So Sparkfun laid out a PCB to
convert the
1.25mm 10 pin header to an in-line .1" standard breadboard interface!
Posted
April 22nd
2009by Chris
BlinkM Smart LED Video
Remember that BlinkM
Smart LED we mentioned a few weeks
back? Well, we knew that it was just so cool that we simply had to make
a video for it. Check out our snazzy embedded YouTube video below - I
shows of 360 degrees of rotation goodness as well as some pretty n'
colourful blinky...ness.
Posted
April 20th
2009 by Chris
Itty Bitty stuff, by Didel
If
you are
familiar with R/C aircraft and the like, you may have of Didel - they
are known as a great supplier of indoor R/C aircraft stuff. Tiny
motors, gears, things like that. Now they've started engineering stuff
that works with our stuff, like the GM17
motor driver/encoder unit, and the
upgrade gear sets for faster speed. And they must really
like the GM17, as they even made a nice
aluminum mount for them too!
I'd tell you about the their gears we're carrying too, but somebody
found out already, and most are already gone. Sorry, more are coming! Posted April 2nd
2009
by Dave
Recession? Think of it more as "Quality Indoor
Time"
Ok, maybe that's a little glib - we're all tightening our belts a bit,
but generally, we're seeing that when times get tight, people will
trade their luxeries for some quality "indoor" time. When times get
tough, people get innovating, which means digging out that broken VCR
and turning it into a cat
feeder.
HVW Technologies & Solarbotics Ltd. are here to help you with
those lofty goals. So with that in mind, lets talk about some new stuff
BlinkM - Smart LEDs
Don't
get these mixed up with the little candies that don't melt in your
hands (although these are somewhat crunchier...). These Smart
LEDs are cool little
RGB LEDs - mulitcolour lights that don't sound that
innovative... until you realize you can hook up 127 of these in a
chain, connect them to a microcontroller
and make them do all sorts of funky stuff. Did I mention they're
bright? Ouch, they're bright... Don't trust the picture - this is the
"off" state. When on, they leave little pixie lights in the back of
your eyeballs...
SparkFun - BlueSMiRF Modems
These
guys just have waaay too much fun. Find stuff, make it really
easy to use, then sell it. So we buy it. Then accounting says
"STOP PLAYING, and GET TO WORK", so then we have to let you guys see it.
The latest thing we've brought in from SparkFun is their BlueSMiRF
Gold Modem. You want to wirelessly connect your device to
your PC in a really easy way? S'nice...
Adafruit - Lots of stuff
Limor
over at Adafruit has a real nack of making useful stuff. Besides the
cool Mintyboost
recharger, and USBtinyISP
AVR programmer, we're carrying her Arduino / Freeduino Wave
Shield and Motor Shields. We've also got her Ethernet Shields
too (we're working on bringing in the mating XPort
modules)
Atmel AVR ATmega328
Now,
why should you care about the ATmega328
AVR microcontroller? The simplest reason is this:
It's an upgrade to the ATmega168. Yup, the same IC used in the Arduino
/ Freeduino SB. We're working on soon providing you with an
Arduino-bootloader preloaded on this. Until then, feel free to raid our
stock and hack the firmware in yourself!
Parallax - Propeller Accessory Kits
Parallax
has been
busy churning out all sorts of handy items, especially around their
Propeller chips. We're now carrying the Propeller
Accessory Kit that supplies you with a mouse (!), keyboard
(!!),
and a monitor (!!!) for your propeller. Pretty amazing what
this
IC can handle.
As usual, stay tuned for more product updates. My "new items" shelf
still has a few trinkets left, and as soon as I can get them pried
loose from our winter intern, I'll be introducing them!
Posted March 13
by Dave
Politics, Products, and ...Porcupines (I needed another
"P"
word)
It's been an exciting week in the world, hasn't it? Regardless of your
impressions of the Canadian or American political scene, things are
definitely happening! Oh, to be glued to CNN/CSPAN to follow what
adventures are coming, but there is work to do.
Like...
Sale on the MAKE Controller
These are really nice development
boards, and they are presently under-appreciated. And a bit
pricey,
but that is not to say that you're not giving your money's worth out of
these. At $94.95, these are a great way to get involved in ARM
processors.
PICAxe Development Kits Article
Here's a
neat
little article on the PICAxe microcontroller by Clive
Maxfield. It
looks like he's diving into microcontrollers using the PICAxe and
blogging his experiences as he goes.
New Product!
Yes, I have been able to sneak more purchases through the accounting
department in the last month. Shhh, don't tell...
Jumper Wires
Have
you ever
worked with really crappy jumper wires on a breadboard? You know, the
kind that snapped after using them for five times? Or the end of it
breaks off inside the breadboard so you have to dig it out? These
quality jumpers from Sparkfun Electronics are truly what you need to
play with. With male-to-male
and
female-to-female versions, these are just as useful on a
breadboard
as they are on an Arduino.
Freeduino SB / Arduino Protoshield
Speaking
of
Freeduino's and Arduino's, we now carry the Arduino Protoshield. It's
quite handy for portable breadboarding and prototyping circuits. If you
are doing more than making just the "pin13" LED blink, a couple of
these Protoshields will come in very handy.
These
guys keep
coming up with better and better motor drivers. The Sabertooth
2x10 and a Sabertooth
2x25 are both very powerful units (two channels of 10 and 25
amperes, respectively) that use their very hand multiple-method
communication interface.
MAKE Publications
We
love MAKE
publishing. "Getting
started with Arduino" is proving to be an excellent
companion
to the Arduino and Freeduino microcontroller. As it is written by
Massimo Banzi (cofounder of the Arduino project), he should know what
he's talking about. It's a great little introduction to this
microcontroller project.
The "Best
of Instructables, Volume 1" is a very time wasting book. But
in a
good way. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
And as usual, there is more to come. Stayed tuned!
HVWTechnologies
now is under
new management!
Mr. Mark
Hillier has a major new priority in his life (the type that crawls
around and drools on things), and approached us at Solarbotics to take
over the care and feeding of HVWTech.com! The transition has gone
smoothly, and now your orders are being processed and supported by the
fine staff at Solarbotics.
Online Specials
Pololu Dual Serial Motor Controller
Traditionally, you need at least 2 I/O lines to control a motor (enable
/ direction, or OutputA / OutputB), which would mean you'd have to ...
$22.95
$20.66 USD
LK204-24-USB-GW USB LCD Module
A true performer, this USB interface LCD module lets you connect up to four fans and up to six individual temperature probes. It also features ...
$79.95
$71.16 USD
Phidgets 50Amp Current Sensor AC&DC
The 33325 measures AC current up to 50Amps and DC Current from
-50Amps
to +50Amps. Dual outputs allow the user to measure both the AC and DC ...
$54.17
$41.71 USD
MX-212 USB Drive Bay Kit USB-WB-BK
The MX212 - USB Driver Bay kit features everything you need to mount a 20 character x 2 line Blue USB LCD with a 24 key keypad interface, into a ...
And you
now what fits nicely
with Arduinos? 
