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New products in Botland mean new ideas for projects and interesting gadgets. It is time to present you another – 49 news review. In this issue we present a lot of PCBs – smaller and larger and with different sensors, as well as something about the latest accessories. We would like to invite you to read it – surely something will catch your eye.
DFRobot sensors
Recently, the topic of environmental protection and, directly related to it, improvement of air quality has become very popular. Experts are constantly monitoring the state of the air, and further European institutions and governments are putting new ideas into practice to improve its quality. Polluted air is very harmful, and unfortunately, the aforementioned changes happen very slowly. Here, too, electronics come to the rescue – new sensors from DFRobot have been added to Botland’s product range. They enable accurate measurement of air quality, and thanks to the variety of parameters of individual models, they can be used in many projects.
The 20 x 15 mm DFRobot SEN0515 sensor module is powered by 3.3V and has a current consumption of 29mA. The module is based on ENS160 chip and uses I2C and SPI interfaces for communication. It processes IAQ data such as TVOC, eCO2 and AQI. The product is compatible with Arduino and Raspberry Pi 4B.
The DFRobot SEN0514 is a 30 x 22 mm module. The sensor requires a power supply ranging from 3.3 – 5.5 V. It consumes an equally small amount of current as its brother, the smaller SEN0515. It also processes the same data, and is also compatible with popular minicomputers. However, it uses only the I2C interface for communication.
An advanced module able to measure PM1, PM2.5 and PM10. The DFRobot SEN0460 is equipped with a laser sensor capable of detecting particles larger than 0.3 μm in diameter. It communicates via an I2C interface and requires 5 V to power. Along with increased capabilities, it also features a higher current draw of 100mA.
However, if you have a little more ambition than just monitoring air quality, we’d like to introduce you to a multifunctional environmental sensor – the DFRobot SEN0500.
This module consists in fact of many sensors with different purpose and these are: temperature and humidity sensor SHTC3, pressure sensor BMP280, ambient light sensor VEML8511 and UV radiation sensor ML8511. All data acquired from the module are sent via UART or I2C interfaces. Thanks to its versatility, it can be used in weather stations or intelligent building systems, among others. With such possibilities of application, only our imagination and skills limit us.
Pololu – step-up and step-down converters
Still sticking to the topic of diversity and possible applications of devices in electronics, it is worth bearing in mind different working conditions of all elements. Probably, as exemplary constructors and electronics engineers you know, that every, even the smallest electronic element should be approached individually, because it often requires different current and power supply parameters than the rest of the circuit components e.g. placed on the PCB surface.
In order not to complicate projects unnecessarily by introducing a separate voltage source for small modules, it is worth using an inverter suitable for its purpose, which will convert the input voltage to the desired higher or lower level. Let’s see what is new in our shop from Pololu.
CHECK AT STORE
CHECK AT STORE
CHECK AT STORE
Another novelty on our shelves – Pololu 4083, 4084 and 4085 compact inverters can be supplied with voltage from 2.8V to 22V and generate output voltage of 5V (with 3% accuracy) and current capacity of 1, 1.5 and 2A respectively. They feature compact dimensions: 8.9 x 12.1 x 5.6 mm. The typical efficiency of these tiny modules ranges from 85% to 95%, depending on input voltage and load.
ItsyBitsy nRF52840 Express
For many people designing and constructing devices on their own can be difficult, especially that the voltage example described earlier is just a drop in the ocean of knowledge you need to possess to build such an advanced circuit. Fortunately, this stage can be omitted, because everyone can easily buy ready-made equipment and immediately start realising their dream projects.
Minicomputers such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi are a good example, but the world of electronics does not end here. As add-ons to these devices, we can find a countless number of newer and more advanced modules, which can often also be used as standalone and self-sufficient equipment, giving a thimbleful of the capabilities of advanced platforms, but enough to satisfy the needs for a given project.
An interesting entry in the series of such boards is the ItsyBitsy nRF52840 Express from Adafruit. It is an Arduino compatible, small platform based on nRF52840 chip. It has 1 MB of Flash memory and 256 kB of SRAM, as well as 2 MB of QSPI FLASH memory for storing CircuitPython code, but the device can also be used in an Arduino IDE environment. It has Bleutooth LE 2.4 GHz communication and a number of interfaces at our disposal i.e. 21 x GPIO, 6 x 12-bit ADC and 12 x PWM.
Adafruit NeoTrellis RGB
In addition to modules with microcontrollers, microprocessors and those armed with various sensors, a large branch of electronics are accessories. It is thanks to them that we are able to fully exploit the potential of all these platforms, to which not a single programming fan sighs with desire. They enable human interaction with the system, and with the right programming background, the effects can be truly surprising.
The basic tool for interaction with embedded systems are buttons – it is thanks to their action that an appropriate reaction of the hardware is triggered. What is the most alarming – this concerns literally everyone who has typed something on the keyboard of their computer at least once, which means everyone in total.
And what is new about this? Such that with the development of electronics, more and more fancy matrices appear, with different button layouts, different sizes and different applications. An example here is the NeoTrellis RGB Driver PCB keyboard. In the board from the Adafruit stable, each button is illuminated with a separate RGB LED, so the keys can shine in different colours, which allows to achieve an amazing visual effect. The board has a shape of a square with a side of 6 cm and is built in a key layout of 4 columns by 4 rows.
The keypad can also be combined into larger panels, up to a maximum of 32 tiles, giving almost unlimited adaptability. It has a Grove and JST-PH compatible connector. It uses I2C bus for communication and supported programming environments are Arduino / C++ and CircuitPython / Python.
What may also come as a surprise is that there is also an actual accessory available for this accessory, which is a keyboard overlay from Adafruit made of flexible silicone. Silicone Elastomer 4×4 perfectly complements it, completely covering its surface and combined with the possibility of changing the colour of the LED lights on the board, it gives an amazing, almost organic effect.
Something ends, something begins
This is the last review with the number 4 on the front, but certainly not the last on our blog. Next time we’ll be greeted by number 5, with more news. And while you are waiting for the next episode of news, we invite you to have a look at the news section on our website, as well as on our social media. There, you can often find glimpses of the new releases that come to us regularly. I wonder what the next news review will bring…
