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For our Triple-output Active Shifting RGB Matrix Bonnet (https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/02/28/triple-matrix-bonnet-makes-big-bright-displays/) design, we need to shift a lot of signals from 3V to 5V. Let's look for an 8-channel level shifter that takes 3V in, gives 5V out, and can handle 10 MHz signals. See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nexperia-usa-inc/74HCT541PW-118/1613521 ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #FruitJam #ElectronicsLab #Adafruit
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast June 11, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is a powerful pocket-sized 'puter - it's the new PocketBeagle 2 from beagleboard.org! (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/beagleboard/pocketbeagle-2) This is a nice update from the beagleboard team to replace the deprecated PocketBeagle (https://www.digikey.com/short/bcmnqt01) - this new version gives you a lot more processor power at a much lower price. It's perfect when you want a full-featured single-board computer with a ton of GPIO and analog inputs, in a very smol package for easy integration. The PocketBeagle 2 is built around a TI Sitara AM6232 (https://www.digikey.com/short/83md98qd) dual-core Cortex-A53 plus dual Cortex-M4 subprocessor, with 512MB of external DDR4 SRAM. There's 4 MB of onboard eMMC flash, plus a socket for external microSD cards. There's also essentials like USB C for the native device, and a picoprobe-compatible (https://www.digikey.com/short/fq4wmp2b) UART port. What's great about the PocketBeagle 2 (https://www.digikey.com/short/17jh4q7b) is that compared to many single-board computers, the design is fully open source (https://github.com/beagleboard/pocketbeagle-2) verified-and-tested, so if you want to design your own board to add or remove peripherals/components, you can just pick up an AM6232 (https://www.digikey.com/short/83md98qd) from DigiKey and route your own design. Of course, with the high density BGA chip design, it's for experts: many makers and small-scale designers will be better off just adding the 2x18 Cape Headers (https://docs.beagle.cc/boards/pocketbeagle-2/04-expansion.html) which give you a ton of power and GPIO. For example, if you want to connect an external USB device to the host peripheral, those pins plus power and ground are on P1. If you want to connect a TTL graphical display (https://www.digikey.com/short/z9mfvzr8), the HSYNC/VSYNC/DE/Data pins are all on the P1/P2 - they're called VOUT. There's also multiple I2C and SPI ports and analog inputs. The PocketBeagle 2 (https://www.digikey.com/short/17jh4q7b) is back compatible with older peripherals you can pick up to get started designing 'Capes' (the name used for plug-in peripherals). Since the boards use 0.1" socket headers, its easy to prototype with jumper wires or DIY a design with simple CAD software and hand soldering. You can check out the GamePup (https://www.digikey.com/short/n2pp834m)which shows how to connect USB host, external battery, TFT display and lots of buttons. Or the TechLab (https://www.digikey.com/short/852dqn2c) which has 7-segment display, buzzer, USB serial and host, PWM'able RGB LED and I2C accelerometer. (https://www.beagleboard.org/boards/techlab) There's open source design files that you can use to kickstart your own Pocket Cape design (https://github.com/beagleboard/capes/tree/master/pocketbeagle/TechLab) Best of all, the PocketBeagle 2 (https://www.digikey.com/short/17jh4q7b) from beagleboard.org is almost half the price of the original PocketBeagle...and DigiKey has them in stock right now for instant shipment! Book today and you'll have a tiny and powerful single board Linux computer in your pocket by tomorrow afternoon. And don't forget... next week, June 19 2025, there's a webinar you can join to learn more (https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4906084/A19039CF9E3C1ED0F430C14932B23630?partnerref=nph) about how to use the PocketBeagle 2 - it's free and run by the folks who designed the board, so register to get a reminder and watch!
This week's EYE ON NPI is a super connector - it's the Texas Instruments SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC33xx Family (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/texas-instruments/simplelink-wi-fi-cc33xx-family) with 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi 6 support, plus optional Bluetooth LE, in a low cost co-processor you can add to any microcontroller project you have to instantly IoT-ify it. This family of chips is a big upgrade in the CC3 family, and looks like a very competitive solution to existing market chips - we're excited to see how TI has adapted to the existing market to bring this compelling offering. Oh the TI CC3x series, how you've grown! We first met you back when it was the CC3000, a radical WiFi co-processor with the (at-the-time) astonishing price of ~$10 per module. At the time, we crafted an Arduino-compatible shield and a breakout board (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/overview) as well as an Arduino port of the TCP/IP mini-stack so that folks could do amazing things like get the time (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/internettime), read a web page (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/webclient) or even send a Tweet (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3000-wifi/sendtweet). The big thing was making it so you weren't spending the $50 it cost up-till-then to add a full-linux-system-as-peripheral (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1498). Since then, TI has released some updated versions, such as the CC3100 (https://www.digikey.com/short/9cp431pr), which added 802.11n and lower power draw - we saw it featured in a few micropython projects (https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/08/24/micropython-name-badge-from-emf-2016/) thanks to the core driver support (https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/drivers/cc3100). And after that, the CC3200 series (https://www.digikey.com/short/9289jcq3), which added TLS/SSL support and had an internal ARM Cortex-M4 that could run code on its own, like MicroPython! (https://github.com/micropython/micropython/blob/master/ports/cc3200/README.md) So it's no surprise that TI is continuing to press their WiFi family forward, to now the CC33xx! The new Texas Instruments SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC33xx Family (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/texas-instruments/simplelink-wi-fi-cc33xx-family) comes with 4 variants: the CC330x have 2.4GHz WiFi only, where-as the CC335x add 5GHz for an additional cost. Likewise, the CC33x0 have only WiFi, and the CC33x1 have WiFi+BLE. Since all the chips / modules are pin-compatible, you can develop with one and then change in production to whatever final setup suits your product. Like the earlier chips, these chips are expected to be connected to a main processor: either a microcontroller or microcomputer, over SPI or SDIO. SPI will work great for your smaller micros, SDIO is great when you have the speed and bandwidth to shift a lot more data around. When connecting over BLE, use the UART-with-flow control - that's the standard for a "BTLE Host Controller Interface" communications (https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specification/HTML/Core-60/out/en/host-controller-interface/uart-transport-layer.html). Of course, there's no way you'll want to write a driver for this kind of complex chip - so visit the CC33xx software download page (https://www.ti.com/tool/CC33XX-SOFTWARE) which has software in the form of Linux kernel patch/drivers for beefy chips, or an microcontroller with an RTOS - follow their porting guide to get it running on a non-TI chipset (https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=A__AEIJm0rwIeU.2P1OBWwlaA__CC33XX-RTOS-MCU__dzPVh4K__LATEST) Now you're probably saying "OK cool but I don't want to do a bunch of RF layout, I want a nice tinned module i can slap down and connect my RP-SMA or chip antenna" - and not surprisingly, it looks like there's a CC3301 module (https://www.ti.com/product/CC3301MOD) in pre-production with an optimistic budgetary price of $2.88 - that's for 2.4GHz + BLE. For the 5GHz CC3351MOD (https://www.ti.com/product/CC3351MOD) the price is $3.50. Sans BLE the CC3350MOD (https://www.ti.com/product/CC3350MOD) is $3.13. If you want a peek at what the CC3301 module might look like, the BoosterPack product page has a tantalizing glimpse (https://www.ti.com/tool/BP-CC3301MOD). You can sign up at TI's site for updates on the release schedule, or chat with your DigiKey sales rep and they'll let you know when the part makes it into general distribution. Until then, you can get plenty of TI CC3350 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3z7tqtrp) and CC3351 (https://www.digikey.com/short/hmqzwv5j) bare chips: they're both in stock at DigiKey for immediate shipment! Order today and you'll quickly add low-cost WiFi 6 + BLE support to your next design, with 2.4/5 GHz support so you're ready for any customer or configuration. With ready-to-go software, and great low prices, you can get your design set up with cutting-edge networking without breaking the BOM bank.
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast June 4, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast May 28, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is another onsemi device - this week we're looking at the NIV3071 4-Channel eFuse Solution (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/o/on-semi/niv3071-4-channel-efuse-solution) a power distribution manager that can lets you manage a product with a lot of power domains and supplies using just a couple GPIO pins. This week's product is an upgrade from the covered-earlier NIS5420 (https://blog.adafruit.com/2021/09/09/eye-on-npi-onsemi-efuse-porfolio-eyeonnpi-digikey-onsemi-digikey-adafruit/) - with a higher 8~60V input range, and 4 independently-controlled channels. When people first meet fuses, they usually see and think of classic 'wire' fuses (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bel-fuse-inc/5ST-200-R/1009012) with ceramic or glass or thermoplastic bodies, and a thin wire inside. When too much current goes through the fuse wire, it gets hotter and hotter and eventually melts, cutting off the load from the source voltage. These kinds of fuses are super cheap, very-very-low resistance, easy to find at any hardware store, and there's lots of suppliers with various current limits. However, they're one-shot usage only and only good for over-current, can't act as switches/sequencers. You need to have a way for customers to access the fuse in order to replace it. For those reasons, a lot of engineers prefer going with 'poly fuses' - fuses that are easy to mount into a circuit that auto-reset after a time (usually minutes) so that a temporary overload doesn't make the device a brick so quickly. For example, we have a chunky 24V 5A hold / 10 A trip polyfuse (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/littelfuse-inc/2016L260-24MR/6347052) on the Sparkle Motion board design (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6100), designed to protect folks who accidentally have a short in the output LED strings, and want to avoid damaging the power supply or main board. Poly-fuses are a great step-up from plain wire fuses: they're fairly inexpensive, available from lots of suppliers with various current limits, and best of all the fuse auto-resets after cooling down. However, like wire fuses, they're good for over-current, can't be reset, and have some variation depending on ambient temperature: you may trip 50% higher if its cold, or lower if its hot. Thus the next generation of fuses: eFuses (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/o/on-semi/efuse-automotive-circuit-protection)! As you could imagine, these are pure-silicon fuses, with a chunky N-FET that acts as the cut-off switch, and current limiting managed as an analog feedback loop that will cut the FET when too high. We get the resetability of a polyfuse, with additional control like sequence-able enable pins and under-voltage lockout. Note that some eFuses also can do over-voltage clamps and negative voltage protection, but the NIV3071 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3v0thr1p) doesn't contain these protections, so you may want to implement those protections separately. Especially designed for automotive power systems, which tend to be 12V/24V/36V/48V multiples, the NIV3071 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3v0thr1p) is AEC−Q100 qualified and PPAP capable (https://www.onsemi.com/pub/collateral/tnd6284-d.pdf). The use of eFuses is becoming popular as cars have become more computerized and electrified, with each 'zone' in a car (https://www.onsemi.com/solutions/automotive/zonal-architecture) - such as entertainment, communication, lighting, charging and sensors - all needing separate power management. If you don't need automotive qualifications, the functionally-compatible NIS3071 (https://www.digikey.com/short/9v2dmvhf) is a couple of cents cheaper. This family of eFuses is good for up to 60V and 2.5A per channel, but if you need more per channel you can just double or triple them up to add 2.5A per. If you want less per channel, to protect low-power devices from overheating or accidental shorts, the current limit can be reduced with an external resistor. And of course, you can turn on/off each channel with a GPIO enable pin: great for sequencing your power chain to reduce stress on the power supply from inrush current, or to allow each section to stabilize and go through self-test. For your next power supply design, the onsemi NIV3071 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3v0thr1p) and NIS3071 (https://www.digikey.com/short/9v2dmvhf) offer high-voltage, high-current control in a small package and a great price. Both are in stock right now at DigiKey for immediate shipment, so you can book today and start integration by tomorrow afternoon.
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast May 21, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is renowned world-wide, it's onsemi's ARX383CS 1/8-inch 0.3 Mp Global Shutter CMOS Digital Image Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr), a tiny pick-and-placeable vision sensor that is perfect for your next AI or robotics - or AI robotics - product! With the global shutter, you'll be able to get clear and complete photos each time, no matter your lighting and subject speed. We stock low-cost simple camera sensors like the OV5640 at the Adafruit shop (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5839) these cameras can do color, up to 720p or greater, and can even do internal JPEG compression before piping the image out of an 8-bit parallel interface. One thing that you'll quickly realized about these cameras is that they, like almost all cameras used for basic photography are rolling-shutter type. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter) That means the sensor reads each individual pixel in a row before moving to the next column, perfectly fine as long as the thing you're photographing is moving slowly compared to the speed of the sensor iterator. For robotics vision projects, this often gives smeared or blurry images, and since time = money and thus you need to run the motor as fast as possible. For example, our SM481 pick and place (https://www.hanwha-pm.com/en-mo/product/detail.asp?product_info_id=189&cate_id=50) can do up to 40,000 components per hour, each one with vision inspection: that's 10 a second! Whether you are building the fastest Rubik's-cube solver (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59qgzzSD1tk) or a license plate reader (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr) getting crisp-clear full-frame images is essential to make sure you get the best image. The ARX383CS (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr) is sold as a chip-scale-package, meant for pick and placing directly onto a PCB or FPC. It'll need various power supplies and clock signal, as well as configuration over I2C and of course a lens and lighting. Once set up, images can be captured and sent over DSI/MIPI single-lane, at VGA 640x480 up to 120 FPS or quarter-VGA 320x240 up to 245 FPS. The available datasheet doesn't have all the details, you'll need to contact onsemi to sign an NDA for the full specifications. onsemi has also developed a read-to-go plug-in camera module that you can quickly integrate called the PRISM1M-ARX383CSSM130110-GEVB (https://www.onsemi.com/design/evaluation-board/PRISM1M-ARX383CSSM130110-GEVB) which is not in stock right now at DigiKey yet (https://www.digikey.com/short/zfm5d7tj) but we're sure that if you need it you can try contacting DigiKey's sales reps and they'll be able to get you samples and quantity pricing. If you don't mind a bulkier eval board, the ARX383CSSM28SMKAH3-GEVB (https://www.digikey.com/short/78p2c3dq) is available immediately for purchase. If you've needed to add fast video or photography to your next product, the onsemi ARX383CS 1/8-inch 0.3 Mp Global Shutter CMOS Digital Image Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr) is an excellent way to add a VGA global-shutter sensor with 125 FPS VGA-resolution output and I2C control. Best of all DigiKey has tons in stock for immediate shipment, book today and they'll send you as many as you want in the blink of an eye so you can start getting high speed video integrated by tomorrow afternoon. See the onseemi video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne8O8NlyIas
This week's EYE ON NPI is a follow up to one we did a few years ago on the similarly-named BQ25792 (https://blog.adafruit.com/2021/05/06/eye-on-npi-ti-bq25792-i2c-controlled-1-4-cell-5a-buck-boost-battery-charger-eyeonnpi-adafruit-digikey-adafruit-digikey-txinstruments/). The BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) builds on the '92 by adding selectable dual inputs and true MPPT solar support. This chip is inexpensive, powerful and can handle almost any battery and power source matching you desire. Let's look at some specifications: High power density, high integration buck-boost charger for 1-4 cell batteries supporting USB PD 3.0 profile – Integrates four switching MOSFETs, BATFET – Integrates input and charging current sensing Highly efficient – 750-kHz or 1.5-MHz switching frequencies – 5-A charging current with 10-mA resolution 96.5% efficient: 16-V battery at 3A from 20V Supports a wide range of input sources Autonomously sampled open circuit voltage (VOC) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for charging from a photovoltaic panel – 3.6-V to 24-V wide input operating voltage range with 30-V absolute maximum rating – Detects USB BC1.2, HVDCP and non-standard adapters Dual-input power mux controller (optional) Narrow voltage DC (NVDC) power path Backup Mode with Ultra-fast switchover to adjustable voltage Powers USB port from battery (USB OTG) – 2.8-V to 22-V OTG output voltage with 10-mV resolution to support USB-PD PPS – OTG output current regulation up to 3.32 A with 40-mA resolution Flexible autonomous and I2C mode for optimal system performance Integrated 16-bit ADC for voltage, current, and temperature monitoring Like the '92, the BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) supports any size battery. We have lots of battery packs in the Adafruit shop, and in particular we use 1S batteries – if there are more batteries, they are wired in series. But there's lot of folks who are building robotics that require higher voltages, so they have 2S, 3S, or 4S batteries. This charger can handle any of 'em, and you can configure the battery pack size using a simple resistor on the PROG port. In this case it also allows the chip to run in 'standalone' mode without the use of I2C to configure. The biggest improvement you get with the BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) is true solar MPPT support. The BQ25792 had VINDPM and IINDPM – the ability to track the input voltage to make sure it is not drooping from overdraw. While this lets you get pretty-close-to-MPPT it isn't true power-point-tracking which requires perturbation around the voltage to adjust as light and temperature affect the solar panel's efficiency. The '98 does this 'right' and even has a K Factor adjustment register - you can tweak this to get the best results based on different weather/temperature (https://www.ti.com/video/6287049638001)- or stick to the default value for good results. Another new feature is 'selectable dual-inputs' what this means if you can set up two power inputs - say DC plug and Solar - and then have the chip switch between them. This is particularly useful because you can't just use two OR'ing diodes to select the power source: the solar panel might have a higher initial open-voltage but can't supply as much current as a DC plug. I2C lets you select which one is priority! The BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) also has many of the cool features we liked in the BQ25792: On-The-Go mode where you can turn the buck-boost around and have it generate a variable voltage output, say 5V for powering other USB devices. Another thing that works is powering over USB where you can have the BQ negotiate 'high voltage' support from USB 3 ports. Note that this isn't USB Type C power negotiation, for that you'll want to get a separate USB Type C PD negotiation chip like the TPS25750D (https://www.tij.co.jp/jp/lit/ml/slpp103/slpp103.pdf)...we're hoping there's a future version with PD built in! There's also a built in 16-bit ADC that you can use to monitor various voltages and current draw. While you can charge the battery in 'standalone' mode - you really do need I2C to get the best performance and capabilities. Thankfully there's not a huge number of registers, and SDA/SCL can be 3 or 5V logic signals so you should be able to get it working on anything from an ATmega328 to a Raspberry Pi. We like the high integration: you really only need a few passives and an inductor to get a fantastic all-in-one charger for any lithium ion battery pack. If you're intrigued and would like more information, you've come to the right place! DigiKey has the BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) in stock right now for immediate shipment. Order today and you can start designing your solar-powered products of the future by tomorrow afternoon.
We're phasing out the Cirrus WM8960 codec (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/cirrus-logic-inc/WM8960CGEFL-V/5036712) used in some Raspberry Pi boards to add two microphones, line-out, and stereo speaker. The codec is great—see our Voice Bonnet—but very obsolete now. Let's hunt for a modern alternative! See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/3jnw089v Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------
This week's EYE ON NPI features a new 'everything' sensor, the Sensirion SEN66 Environmental Sensor Node (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/sensirion/environmental-sensor-node-sen6x) . This is a highly-anticipated update to the SEN5x (https://www.digikey.com/en/videos/s/sensirion/eye-on-npi-sen54-environmental-sensor-node) goes hard on gas sensing, with VOC, NOx and CO2 sensors built in. You can even update to the SEN68 and get formaldehyde HCHO sensing! What we like about this series is the complete solution for all kinds of environmental sensing with a single cable. Sensirion is one of our fav sensor companies: from classics like the SHT45 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5665) to the popular SGP30 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3709) and the high quality SCD30 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4867) we have made breakouts for many-a-sensor from this company. Lately they've started to do fully integrated products - like the SEN5x series (https://www.digikey.com/en/videos/s/sensirion/eye-on-npi-sen54-environmental-sensor-node) that we covered earlier on EYE ON NPI. The SEN54 series has particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10) dust sensing, plus temperature, humidity, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with the SEN55 adding NOx. We saw this sensor often paired with an SCD30 (https://www.digikey.com/short/d1h3t1n4) or SCD4x (https://www.digikey.com/short/zmh2zjz3) to add CO2 sensing. Those folks will like the look of the SEN6x series as now we get CO2 sensing in all but the lowest-cost SEN60. One thing to note with CO2 sensing is that once a week it needs to 'self-calibrated' by letting it sense fresh outdoor air which will be ~400ppm. This isn't a bad idea for your health either. Another new sensor added in the upcoming SEN68 is formaldehyde, which integrates the SFA30 (https://www.digikey.com/short/2d5fb8rt). If you've used the SEN5x series, (https://www.digikey.com/en/videos/s/sensirion/eye-on-npi-sen54-environmental-sensor-node) you're probably familiar with their connection interface: a JST GH 6-pin cable is used to connect and provide power and I2C data connection. However, one thing to note is that the cable is the same but the pinout has changed. Power is now 3.3V instead of 5.0 and there's no UART interface, so the SEL pin is not available. For that reason, if you'd like to use the same cable, go for it - but the circuitry will need to change...for example we're revising our SEN5x breakout (https://www.digikey.com/short/h0jffnm2)! We like that, just as with the SEN5x series, the SEN6x (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/sensirion/environmental-sensor-node-sen6x) uses plain I2C to communicate. This makes it easy to integrate with any microcontroller or microcomputer, and the added CRC helps avoid accidental data corruption from EMI or loose cables. The interface is not just to each individual sensor - there's only one I2C address and command structure and once you initialize the sensor you can read all values at once for 'timestamped' consistency. The commands are easy to implement, but if you want a head-start, check out the Sensirion GitHub account (https://github.com/Sensirion?q=sen6&type=all&language=&sort=), they have code in C and Python for a 5-minute quick start. Excited to check this fancy new combo-sensor out? You're in luck because DigiKey has the Sensirion SEN66 Environmental Sensor Node (https://www.digikey.com/short/0d4jt424) in stock right now for immediate shipment! Order today and DigiKey will ship it you in an instant - you will be sensing up a storm by tomorrow afternoon! See at DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/0d4jt424 See Sensiron's video https://www.digikey.com/api/videos/videoplayer/smallplayer/6371044300112 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast May 7, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
For our solar-capable Feathers, we're going to design a FeatherWing helper board to assist with solar connection and monitoring. To do that, we will want to monitor two voltages (the LiPoly battery and the solar panel) and one current (the panel draw). Traditionally, we've liked using the INA219 and friends—let's see if we can find a voltage/current monitor chip with an I2C interface and at least two monitoring inputs. See the part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/tmc77hmn ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #Ladyada #FeatherWing #SolarProjects
With sunny days ahead, we're working on more solar projects. One thing that comes up often is we need is a diode to keep the PV panel current only flowing into a charging circuit. Often times folks use a Schottky diode (https://www.digikey.com/short/b5d8495f) for their low forward voltage. But as you get to an Amp or more, you're still looking at a loss of 0.5V, or 0.5W and that number only goes up with higher currents! Thus the need for an 'ideal diode': we've already got a breakout for an ideal diode but it's only 5V max (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5830). Let's look for one that can handle higher voltages and at least an Amp of current. See the part on Digikey https://www.digikey.com/short/vj2jzpj8 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast April 30, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is looking at itsy-bitsy-teensy-weensy little rechargeable batteries that can keep your micro-power electronics running for many years without needing any maintenance from your users: it's Panasonic's VL/ML Series Lithium Rechargeable Coin Batteries (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/p/panasonic/lithium-rechargeable-coin-batteries). These are small, solderable batteries much like the coin cell batteries you're used to replacing in watches, toys, and other gadgets..but this time they can be recharged in-circuit to make maintenance effortless. We've covered lots of batteries and battery holders on EYE ON NPI - from enormous lead acid batteries to tiny coin cells (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/batteries-non-rechargeable-primary/). These are an essential part of the engineer's repertoire as so many products need to work when not plugged into the wall. We use coin cells a lot in our design work: there's nothing as compact and they have great energy density. But they're typically 'primary cells' - not rechargeable. That might be fine if you're using them for something like a remote control (https://support.apple.com/en-us/101261) or a small toy. But they do eventually need to be replaced, which can be a user frustration. For that reason, many products that used to have primary cells like AA's or coin batteries have slowly transitioned to embedding lithium polymer pouches. You can get rechargeable lipoly batteries in 100 mAh or less! (https://www.digikey.com/short/7njnd057) However, there may be some cases where you still want something really really tiny, like say 9mm diameter and under 1mm thick - a size only achievable with a coin cell - but without dealing with removing and replacing a battery every few weeks or months. Especially if we're talking about something that is going to be plugged in once in a while, or where the coin cell is a fall-back. This comes up often with devices that have real time clocks (RTCs) - such as clocks, computers, laptops, tablets, watches, GPS units (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5440), etc. They might have a main battery or power system that can run a microcontroller/CPU and display plus peripherals, but you still want to keep time and maybe an alarm setting when the main power cuts off. Historically, folks have just used coin batteries - ideally replaceable ones - but sometimes not as in the case of the DS1287 (https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/ds1287-647b3602989d3299594321.pdf) which had the coin battery sealed inside! If you're designing a product today that needs an RTC battery, we'd say take a good look at the Panasonic's VL/ML Series Lithium Rechargeable Coin Batteries (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/p/panasonic/lithium-rechargeable-coin-batteries). No holder required: they come with tabs to solder directly onto a PCB in vertical or horizontal orientations. And they come in a variety of sizes from the 20mm / 45mAh to 12mm / 7mAh and even smaller. Note that as expected, you're going to get less capacity than a primary cell, so these are good when you think you'll get recharged every few days or weeks. Don't forget: you will absolutely need a proper lithium charger to recharge these batteries. We've got plenty of charger breakouts you can use, we particularly like the bq25185 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/6091/25805553) which you can easily configure for the 1C current charge rate to match your Panasonic Lithium Rechargeable Coin Batteries (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/p/panasonic/lithium-rechargeable-coin-batteries) They can all handle 1000+ cycles, we like the bq in particular because it has power-path which will help avoid unnecessary discharging/cycling. Ready for a tiny burst of power to keep your clocks a-tickin'? You can pick up a wide selection of Panasonic's VL/ML Series Lithium Rechargeable Coin Batteries (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/p/panasonic/lithium-rechargeable-coin-batteries) at DigiKey right now! They're in stock in a range of sizes and configurations for immediate shipment - don't forget that like all Lithium batteries you may need to ship ground, so order now and you'll get those bite-sized batteries shipped within the hour for immediate integration. See it on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/wb83dfff
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast April 23, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is for those who need easy-to-maintain battery power for quick field maintenance - it's Bulgin's Battery Holders for Diverse Applications (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bulgin/battery-holders-for-diverse-applications) a variety of battery enclosures and fixtures that will give your customers easy access to replace batteries no matter what size and configuration! If your product is going to be portable, or if you want battery back-up for timekeeping/configuration/sleep-modes, then you're going to need primary or secondary battery cells built into the design. Secondary cells (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/batteries-rechargeable-secondary/91) are fairly popular these days: those are rechargeable batteries like Li-Poly packs. These are lightweight and high energy-density, which is why you see them everywhere from EV cars (https://www.digikey.com/en/blog/safety-first-approach-to-ev-and-battery-storage) to your Bluetooth earbuds. But they are not very user-friendly to replace, and if damaged can cause fires. They're also more challenging to ship by air due to restrictions on declarations and packaging of bare and with-equipment lithium cells. (https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/shipping-support/shipping-special-care-regulated-items/hazardous-materials-guide/how-to-ship-batteries) and for some field-use devices that may be used for long periods without being near a power outlet, being able to carry extra cells, for quick replacement, is a boon. For those reasons, there's still lots of products that run on your standard-issue primary batteries (https://digikey.com/en/products/filter/batteries-non-rechargeable-primary/90) a.k.a. 1.5V AAA, AA, C, D and 9V batteries. Of course, these days lots of people also use rechargeable NiMH in the same package: they are lower voltage, only 1.3V instead of 1.5V nominal, and have about 30% less energy but can be recharged safely/externally very easily. You can buy them at any corner store anywhere in the world for a few dollars and they have low self-discharge rates so they can be stored for many years. If you decide to go with standard-size batteries, you'll also need a way to hold them securely inside an enclosure. We like the look of these Bulgin battery holders (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bulgin/battery-holders-for-diverse-applications) particularly the ones that mount to an enclosure wall and allow replacement without requiring a battery door that is custom molded. There's even options for IP67 hand-removable/replaceable covers for excellent waterproof-ness even in harsh environments while not sacrificing user-friendliness. On the inside of the enclosure you have solder lugs for easy attachment to your PCB by solder or spade connects. For many of the battery holders, a simple round drilled or punched hole is all that is needed. For your next battery-powered designs, take a look at Bulgin battery holders (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bulgin/battery-holders-for-diverse-applications) - DigiKey has dozens of options in stock for immediate shipment. Order today and you'll get any of the Bulgin varieties shipped immediately so you can power your prototype by tomorrow afternoon!
This week on EYE ON NPI we're looking at a bright and sunny new product, this week it's the Vishay VEML6046X00 RGBIR Color Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/t3jhhdt1) an inexpensive way to add RGB + IR sensing with I2C to your next product. This sensor is the latest from Vishay, well known for their light sensing expertise, and requires no lenses or filters to get started immediately. We've used lots of Vishay sensors in our breakout boards (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=vishay) so we know they are experts in light sensors, in our experience their products are reliable and easy to use with I2C interfaces that hew closely to the I2C/SMBus specifications without funkiness like clock-stretching or auto-sleep modes. This is the first time we're looking at an RGBIR sensor from them. Traditionally we've leaned on them for infrared or 'clear' light sensing. As expected, the chip contains 4 diode sensors, tuned for red, green, blue and IR light. The sensors are fairly well normalized and characterized, with red at 90% and blue at 70% spectral sensitivity compared to green. What we thought was particularly useful about the VEML6046X00 is it comes with a Lux conversion table - and the Lux ranges up to 176 klux! This is great because it means it won't saturate out even in direct sun, reflected or directed light that would normally be considered 'blinding'. This is the highest lux sensor we've seen since the discontinued MAX44009 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/MAX44009EDT-T/2606393) which was the previous max of 188 klux. This sensor would be a good alternative with minimal work required to 'port' the firmware over. Speaking of firmware, the sensor communicates over I2C, much like most light sensors that don't need high speed. There's also an IRQ pin out for automatically triggering when going over or under a light level. The I2C register map is blessedly short, and there's an ID register so you can be sure you have the right sensor connected. Otherwise it's fairly similar to the other sensors we've used: you can probably whip up a library to do readings in a day or two - check Vishay's app note for integration for extra tips on how to initialize and read sensor data (https://www.vishay.com/docs/80410/designingveml6046x00.pdf) Or you can use Vishay's VEML6046X00 software library (https://www.vishay.com/docs/80546/veml6046x00_software_libraries.zip). Intrigued? You can pick up the Vishay VEML6046X00 RGBIR Color Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/t3jhhdt1) from DigiKey right now! It's in stock and tariff-free which makes it a great deal for a quality RGBIR lux sensor. We're also going to be looking at turning this into a breakout board. Until then, order now for immediate delivery, so you can spend more time in the sunshine and less time adding lux and color sensing to your next product.
Since this is the topic of the day, we'll be looking at how to purchase an item from DigiKey with tariffs in mind. DigiKey is a free trade zone, which means that if you're not in the USA, you will not have to pay additional tariffs on goods that are re-exported. However, for USA destinations, the new tariffs can add a significant cost if the component has its last manufacturing step in China.
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast April 9, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
For our RP2350 Bones boards, we might not use the built-in DC/DC converter on some variants—and it's not required! We could use an external 1.1V regulator, if it can source 200mA. This affects low-power usage, but that might not be important in some cases. If we can source a tiny regulator, this could shave a bit of space off. See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/h95z024d ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------
Supply chain management looms over everything we do, but it has been more pronounced than ever over the past five years as the Covid pandemic steered so much attention to how we procure and inventory parts. About a month ago, DigiKey, one of the largest distributors of electronic components in the world, and EMA Design Automation announced the integration of DigiKey's myLists tool with EMA UItra Librarian's UltraBOM bill of materials management software. The benefit, they say, is that designers and engineers will have access to DigiKey's parts within their OrCAD Capture environment and can then seamlessly send a bill of materials to DigiKey. Gopu Achath, vice president of technology at EMA Design Automation, and Cody Walseth, digital product owner at DigiKey, join Mike Buetow to discuss the new collaboration.
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast April 2, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is Pretty Sweet Of Course! It's the Infineon Technologies PSOC Control C3 Microcontroller Line (https://www.digikey.com/short/8cw3wpp8) a souped-up microcontroller that is a perfect choice for engineers who need to do some motor control while also managing buttons, LEDs, displays, and other product requirements all on one chip. With a the high-speed ADCs on board, you can manage your BLDC motors and handle the feedback loop in firmware for dynamic tuning without the expense of a specialized co-processor. The PSOC Control C3 series comes in two flavors, the Entry and Main line chips (https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/microcontroller/32-bit-psoc-arm-cortex-microcontroller/32-bit-psoc-control-arm-cortex-m33-mcu/psoc-control-c3m/). Both are based on the Arm Cortex M33 which means you know that your CMSIS-based code will be an easy compile and you can use existing pre-compiled libraries. The M33 line is an upgrade to the M3 and M4, giving you the same or better clock speeds and FPU/DSP commands you get with the M4 plus TrustZone and better power efficiency. The Entry line runs at 100MHz, with max 256k Flash 64K SRAM, 10-bit DAC, a 6 MSPS 12-bit ADC, 16 x 16-bit + 4 x 32-bit TCPWMs and a "CORDIC math coprocessor". The Main line can run at 180MHz, same Flash/SRAM and TCPWMs, and has a 12 MSPS ADC plus 4-channel HRPWM with less than 100ps resolution. Both come in 48 and 64 pin TQFP/QFN varieties, the Main line also has an 80-pin version. (There will also apparently be a Performance line, so far un-announced, which may offer more memory / higher frequency). Both have FPU/DSP support, so you'll be able to process the 6 or 12-MSPS ADC data quickly. And the CORDIC processor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORDIC) optimizes trig functions like sin/cos/tan/ln so you don't need lookup tables for performing these floating point calculations. These are particularly useful when handling motor motion calculations since they are often sinusoidal and we need to convert to-and-from the ADC measurements to the precision PWM timers. There's a huge selection of Arm processors out there, but the PSOC Control C3 has the best peripherals for motor control: it's rare to see 12MSPS 12-Bit ADC plus so many 16-bit and 32-bit timers with high-speed PWM. The CORDIC co-processor especially will make managing BLDC or Stepper motors a breeze. Plus you still get all the peripherals you would expect of a microcontroller: I2C, UART, SPI, CAN bus, DAC, IRQs, and lots of GPIO. That means you can handle all the other stuff your product has to do while also managing the motor in the background, saving you lots of space and money in BOM costs and fewer integration woes when trying to communicate between a main processor and a motor-control co-processor. The KITPSC3M5EVK eval board (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/infineon-technologies/KITPSC3M5EVK/25880112) is in stock right now if you want a ready-to-go kit at a good price. It comes with 'Arduino shield compatible" pinouts plus a USB / debug interface, and MikroBus connector for expansion. You can also pick up just the bare chip - for example the PSC3M5FDS2ACQ1AQSA1 (https://www.digikey.com/short/8cw3wpp8) is a fancy version with 256K of flash, the 12 Msps ADC, and hall encoder in a TQFP-64 package. It's in stock now at DigiKey for immediate shipment! Order today and you can have a powerful microcontroller with excellent motor feedback control in your hands by tomorrow morning.
We've been putting a lot of I2S DACs in the shop, like the PCM5102 (https://www.digikey.com/short/fnf9t0b1) and TLV320DAC3100 (https://www.digikey.com/short/wj2d8w2h), and working on more like the PCM5122 (https://www.digikey.com/short/fnf9t0b1). What we'd really like is an I2S speaker amplifier that is preferably stereo and can do more than 5W—e.g., a cross between the MAX98357 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3006) and MAX9744 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1752). Let's see what we can find! See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/1v038d8z ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast March 26, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
For our next revision of Fruit Jam (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6200), we want to add an onboard speaker to provide some sound beeps and boops. The amplifier we're using can drive 4 or 8-ohm speakers, up to a couple watts—but we're not expecting hi-fi sound here. Most important is something that is solderable into the PCB so that it is an "all-in-one" setup. It also has to be less than 0.8" in diameter to fit into the unpopulated area left over on our design. Let's see what we can find at DigiKey! See the chosen part on DigiKey: https://www.digikey.com/short/tdj3h9jq ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast March 19, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is trendy and buzzy, it's Boréas Technologies' BOS1931 High-Efficiency Piezo Driver (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/boreas/bos1931-high-efficiency-piezo-driver). This chip is a compact way to add powerful high-voltage piezo drive to any product, combining three chips: power supply, waveform generator and driver. With a complete I2C/I3C interface that you can connect to any microcontroller/processor it's the most advanced all-in-one piezo driver we've seen! Piezo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity) discs are multi-use devices that convert mechanical movement to electrical signal, and vice-versa. They're most often seen as electrical-to-mechanical converters such as piezo beepers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric_speaker) where an AC signal, usually 3 to 6V peak-to-peak square wave, is applied across the disk. The frequency of the wave is translated into a sound frequency. It doesn't have the same fidelity as a magnetic speaker but its much thinner, less expensive for the component and driving circuitry, and for 2 to 4 KHz beeps it's just fine. Piezos can also be used the opposite way, where mechanical stress on the crystal is translated into an electrical signal. In this way it can be used as a switch or force sensor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric_sensor), again usually a few microamperes' worth of current is generated. For these basic uses, your standard microcontroller pin, or at best an H-Bridge will work just fine: you can drive piezo's differentially to get more Vpp across the disc but essentially we're still talking about only a few Volts. There are some times when you want to make a piezo really 'loud' - that is, putting 100+ Volts across the crystal to generate a big mechanical response. This is often not for audible use cases, after all if you wanted to do that you'd just use a magnetic speaker (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1732) that can get to many many Watts of output efficiently. FYI there's two variants of the chip: the BOS1931 (https://www.digikey.com/short/w9tz9tbj) and the BOS1921 (https://www.digikey.com/short/nnb0r29r). The '31 can only do piezo driving. The '21 can do sensing as well as driving, so it can be used for force-feedback products. In this particular EYE ON NPI we'll just be chatting about the driving capabilities of both. So, while we can do basic sensing/beeping with a few Volts - when we want to have significant motion for blasting sonar or moving fluid around we can only increase the movement by increasing the peak-to-peak voltage. Each piezo you buy will have a voltage rating - and you will need a boost converter to generate that peak-to-peak. For the BOS19 series of chips, you can get +-95V so 190Vpp max, which will drive any piezo you find, and you only need 3~5V input thanks to a built-in DC/DC boost converter. Boréas didn't stop there. Not only do you get a booster, but also a full waveform manager with I2C/I3C control. You can can fill up a FIFO buffer with waveform bytes to generate different shapes. There's a sine generator you can control with an envelope creator. Or, you can piece together waveform shapes for different pump/haptic behavior, giving you the customizability of a byte-wise waveform generator with the simplicity of a sine generator. They even have a Haptics Studio' to help you craft the waveform you want (https://www.boreas.ca/pages/haptic-studio). The BOS1931 (https://www.digikey.com/short/w9tz9tbj) and the BOS1921 (https://www.digikey.com/short/nnb0r29r) come in two packages: an easy-to-layout-and-solder QFN and a tiny-and-advanced BGA. Both have the same core so just pick whether you need simplicity or small size. Since its a pretty serious boost converter and driver - the piezo connects directly to the output pins - you'll need to watch your layout. Check the datasheet for their recommended setup to make sure you don't have excessive power loss or EMI. IF you want to get started quickly, the BOS1921-KIT-B01 (https://www.digikey.com/short/v9hn8mcd) evaluation board will let you use their configuration software to quickly determine how your piezo actuator or sensor response to the waveform generator and booster before you start laying out the components on a prototype PCB. If you have some serious piezo-ing you need to get moving, the Boréas Technologies' BOS1931 High-Efficiency Piezo Driver (https://www.digikey.com/short/w9tz9tbj) can do everything from voltage generation, waveform shaping, and differential driving. And best of all it's in stock right now at Digi-Key for immediate shipment! Order today and DigiKey will pick and pack your order in an instant so that you can be vibin' with your fancy new piezo controller by tomorrow afternoon.
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast March 12, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast March 5, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is a NAND in the HAND, it's ISSI Serial NAND Flash chips (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/i/issi/serial-nand-flash) available in a variety of sizes and footprints. These are great options for folks that need more data storage on their PCBs, but don't necessarily want an SD card. DigiKey has a selection of 1Gbit and 2Gbit chips, so you have tons of storage for data logs, images, recordings, or even filesystems. And the price is great, you'll pay much less per byte when buying NAND flash There's plenty of times you'll need to access non-volatile memory on your microcontroller: graphics or audio files for a user interface, maps or almanac data for telemetry, sensor or usage logs, interpreted code scripts, firmware updates, security certificates, etc. these files are too big to be stored in simple EEPROM chips (https://www.digikey.com/short/0rf9t7qb) that max out at a few kB. The next step up is to use NOR Flash (https://www.digikey.com/short/jfp3bvph) - you can get up to 256 Megabytes in size! (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/issi-integrated-silicon-solution-inc/IS25LP02GJ-RHLE/24617385) Compared to EEPROM which comes in 1-Wire, I2C or SPI, you definitely have to use an SPI interface for NOR Flash. It's also possible on many chips to have 4-bit-at-a-time QSPI or even 8-bit OSPI interfacing for fast reads. And that's the thing that's really nice about NOR: instant reads of any byte anywhere in memory just like EEPROM. Unlike EEPROM you can't write just one byte at a time anywhere in the storage, you have to write 'page' and erase a 'sector' at a time - each page tends to be about 256 bytes, a sector is often 4KB. That means if you want to update a file, you'll need to read the whole 4K block into a memory cache, change the bytes you want to, then erase and re-write the block out. The good news though is once you write out a page, you can pretty much assume it will stay for many years: there's rarely corrupted data in NOR flash. And, although erasing and writing is a bit of a pain, the instant-access means NOR is great for 'XIP' or other dynamic memory access. If NOR is so great, why bother with NAND? One is cost: a 2MB NOR chip isn't too bad about 45 cents in quantity (https://www.digikey.com/short/zff49fb7) but once you get to the biggest 256 MB ones (https://www.digikey.com/short/vffmp583) the pricing gets high pretty quickly: $15 in tray quantities. Considering you can get a 64G SD card for that price, NOR isn't very cost effective. Second is sizing: if you want 1GB for large files, it just isn't available. For that kind of density you need NOR flash. NAND flash is the kind of flash you get when you buy a USB key or microSD card, although those have USB or SDIO interface chips (https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2013/where-usb-memory-sticks-are-born/) that are wire bonded to the NAND flash chips. You get a lot more for the price: instead of $15 for 256MB NOR, its $3 (https://www.digikey.com/short/r77p0922). You also don't need more pins! We always thought that NAND flash required a lot of pins since it comes in 48-TSSOP (https://www.digikey.com/short/8zqbmw31) but turns out that you can get it in a QSPI 8-pin format. That makes it easy to integrate without needing an 8-bit wide memory controller. However, the architectural decisions that give ISSI NAND (https://www.digikey.com/short/jtp8ppdb) the massive size & low cost that we love also make it more complex to use than NOR flash. For one, you can no longer get random access to any byte you like. Instead, an entire page must be read at once into a 2176-byte cache, and then can be accessed. This is fine for most uses except we can't use XIP anymore and there are probably some memory access use cases that don't work nearly as nicely. Also that high density means that bits are more likely to go 'bad' and flip. While you can sorta-kinda get away with not doing error correction or wear leveling on NOR, you absolutely must do error correction and wear leveling on NAND! ISSI includes a simple multi-bit ECC system that can handle repairing up to 8 bits per 2176-byte page. And, every time there's ECC errors, you will need to 'refresh/rewrite' the data to clean it up. That refresh counts against the 60K or 100K write cycle - you are more likely to need wear-level management, even if you don't expect to write that often. Basically, check if your microcontroller SDK has a NAND controller library (https://github.com/D-Buckingham/NAND_flash) that can manage this all for you. So, if you need to level up your storage, with easy-to-use SPI or QSPI-interface, ISSI has many NAND (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/i/issi/serial-nand-flash) options to let you quickly and inexpensively add 1 or 2 gigabits of non-volatile memory with built in ECC support and block cache. DigiKey will be stocking them shortly, sign up (https://www.digikey.com/short/jtp8ppdb) to be notified when they drop into stock mid-next month!
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast February 26, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week, we could have saved ourselves some time by pulling out a pocket multimeter a little earlier in our project. We have tons of meters but always come back to our favorite, the Amprobe PM51A (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/amprobe/PM51A/1540507), which has been discontinued. Let's look at what other mini-multimeters are available at DigiKey and some of the options you can choose from. See the chosen part on DigiKey: https://www.digikey.com/short/7tp2pm04 ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast February 19, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
Timon is designing a backpack for the Pi Compute Module, and we're stuffing it full of fun features. We need a lot of clearance for the Pi Compute module so we can put parts underneath. Let's look up the matching connectors for the CM4/CM5, what clearances you'll get, pricing, and the availability from DigiKey. See the chosen part on DigiKey: https://www.digikey.com/short/bhj2r04p ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast February 12, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is neither-here-nor-there - it's STMicroelectronics' ST25R200 NFC/HF RFID Reader IC (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/stmicroelectronics/st25r200-nfc-hf-rfid-reader-ic) a simple but powerful NFC/RFID reader and writer chip that will let you add a contactless interface to your next design. Thanks to the high power RF stage and dual antenna support, you can avoid the frustration of "where do I tap??" by giving you plenty of surface area for successful transactions. We're big fans of intuitive RFID/NFC interfaces using tags, they come in all sorts of sizes and shapes (https://www.adafruit.com/product/365) from standard business cards to microtags that can fit in a manicure (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2800). They don't require a battery, and can store up to a few KB of data, including encrypted/secured data sections so as to make the tag 'trustworthy'. They're often used for small-money transactions like copy shops, laundromats and public transport, where speed is important and we can store value on the card. Or for identification like access cards. With proper design, they'll work up to 4 inches away from a reader, don't suffer from corrosion or contact wear or affected by water/humidity. Reading and writing RFID/NFC tags, which use 13.56MHz as a carrier frequency, requires a proper chip that can handle the requirements of blasting enough RF signal to 'power' the tag, then transmit a command and receive the response before the quiescent power runs out. If you have a big antenna, this isn't too hard - but the real challenge is to manage it with a small antenna. That's the nice thing about the ST25R200 (https://www.digikey.com/short/5ttf9ptj) - it has powerful output drivers so even mini wearable-sized antennas work well. You can configure the outputs to be one differential or two single-ended antenna coils. If you want to design your PCB antenna, we recommend ST's website for NFC inductance calculations (https://eds.st.com/antenna/#/) it will let you determine the inductance based on width, height, copper thickness and trace width so you get maximum power transfer. The ST25R200's connection to the controller is over standard 4-pin SPI, so you can use any microcontroller or microcomputer with 4 pins available. An IRQ line is also handy to 'wake on card detect'. Other than that, the interface is fairly low level: registers are used to configure the RF section and encoding but otherwise, data is transmitted or received via two FIFO buffers. This makes the chip easy to adapt to the various sub-protocols and standards (https://nfc-forum.org/build/specifications) designed by competing RFID companies: ISFO14443A/NFC-A, ISO14443B/NFC-B, ISO15693/NFC-V, NFC Forum T1T, T2T, T4T, and T5T tag types, and proprietary protocols, such as Kovio, CTS, and B'. In order to make your life easier when it comes to implementation, ST has released RFAL an RF/NFC abstraction layer (https://www.st.com/en/embedded-software/stsw-st25rfal004.html) that is written in pure C so that it can be ported to any platform or compiler. To get started quickly we recommend the STEVAL-25R200SA evaluation board (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/STEVAL-25R200SA/25701817) which comes with a USB debug STLink interface, SMTable module, 4 pluggable antenna options including one flex PCB printed antenna, and two micro-tags for testing. If you want to integrate RFID/NFC 'touchless' support to your next design, the ST ST25R200 NFC/HF RFID Reader IC (https://www.digikey.com/short/5ttf9ptj) is small, inexpensive, and fast to get started with minimal external components, and ready-to-go drivers. And best of all the chips are in stock right now at DigiKey for immediate shipment. Order the ST25R200 (https://www.digikey.com/short/5ttf9ptj) and an eval board today and you can tap your way to contactless communication by tomorrow afternoon!
This week on EYE ON NPI we're eatin' our Wheaties (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvyInWTLM8s) - it's the Analog Devices MAX96714 Single GMSL2/GMSL1 to CSI-2 Deserializer (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/base-product/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/175/MAX96714/737256) a way to send high resolution digital video over a co-ax wire without losing quality. These advanced serial-deserial sets - we'll call them SerDes for short - let you minimize cabling, for reduced weight and complexity when passing high speed video from cameras or to displays over single flexible RG coax. It's easier than ever these days to add high quality video or camera sensing to your products: boards like the Raspberry Pi can do dual 4K HDMI and up to two DSI / CSI ports on the Compute Modules (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/single-board-computers-sbcs/933?s=N4IgTCBcDaIMYHsC2AHArgFwKYAIkIBM0AbLEAXQF8g) but the cables that they come with tend to be short, maxing out at 500mm long. (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/SC1130/21658263) That's because the MIPI protocol used for data transfer is designed for ultra high speeds over low cost flex PCBs, from say a laptop motherboard to the laptop monitor or webcam. Now, we do sell looooong cables (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2144) that are 2 meters long but with the caveat that they are well outside the expected spec. They do work! But we wouldn't put it in a product that goes to customers. So what do you do if you have a car, where the seats and dashboard have monitors but the main processor is probably in the back of the car, far from the hot engine? That's where Analog Devices got inspired from the Cable TV of our youth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television) that would let kids of the 90's watch dozens of channels using...only one cable! The cable, in this case, is a coaxial cable: one copper wire surrounded by a plastic dielectric, then a braided metal ground return. Coax cables are flexible but rugged, and DigiKey stocks thousands of different types (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/coaxial-cables-rf/475) by the foot or reel. So they make an excellent physical transport layer for video in aggressive environments because they are shielded yet flexible. With GMSL you need two chips: a serializer like the MAX96717 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3pcv09pn) and a de-serializer like the MAX96714 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3jqw8tj8). Between the two, connect said coax, then configure both sides for the data format you want and boom, you have a transparent video link! The serializer will take the digital data, then turn it into a serialized-packetized-data-packet on a single wire. That thin wire can fit into spaces that would normally be a challenge such as cars / aerospace where weight is at a premium, robotics where the shielding will protect the signal integrity, and medical where high rez cameras have to fit in tiny spaces. GMSL even supports 'power over coax' where a DC signal can be used as a carrier for the high frequency data - so you really can have one thin cable for everything. Depending on which generation of GMSL you choose, you will get either 3 Gbps or 6. A small portion of that is 'upstream' communication, thats used for IRQs, video/camera control and extra I2C or GPIO. If you need stereo or quad camera/video , you can use a quad deserializer: you will still get 4 coax cables in but it'll be smaller and perhaps better synchronized than having four separate deserializers. To get started, we recommend picking up the MAX96714-BAK-EVK eval board (https://www.digikey.com/short/nh82vrbc), which is not inexpensive but does have everything you need to get started with the MAX96714 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3jqw8tj8). Note you'll also need the serializer! One thing that's nice is that if you want to get set up with a Raspberry Pi to start, you can order the Pi Cam Eval board (https://wiki.analog.com/resources/eval/user-guides/ad-gmslcamrpi-adp) which is an adapter for the eval to use off-the-shelf Pi camera modules, pick up at DigiKey (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc/AD-GMSLCAMRPI-ADP/21678785). Then to set up the configuration you can use the Linux driver to have automatic setup (https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/media/i2c/max96714.c) without a separate configuration program. If you'd like to try out GSML for your next long-distance video product, you can pick up the Analog Devices MAX96714 Single GMSL2/GMSL1 to CSI-2 Deserializer (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/base-product/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/175/MAX96714/737256) today from DigiKey because it's in stock for immediate shipment! Book now and you can be zipping along MIPI CSI data at 6Gbps by tomorrow afternoon.
We'd like high-quality I2S digital audio generation for our Fruit Jam board, and both 16-ohm headphone/line level out and a mono 8-ohm speaker driver. Ideally, we wouldn't need two or three chips to achieve this: the DAC would have headphone drivers and a class D speaker driver. We'll need I2C control, 3.3V logic, and up to 5V for speaker power. When you need a very specific setup for audio converters, sometimes it's easiest to go to the semiconductor website and search for the exact setup. (https://www.ti.com/audio-ic/converters/dac/overview.html) .Then you can book your order from DigiKey. See the chosen part on DigiKey: https://www.digikey.com/short/hjw02vdt ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast February 5, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
This week's EYE ON NPI is a Texas-two-steppin' motion controller that takes your 2-axis motion control to the next level: it's ADI/Maxim/Trinamic's TMC5272 Dual-Axis Stepper Motor Controller and Driver IC. We've been checking out many of Trinamic's great stepper motor driver chips lately and this one is the latest generation, with 2 drivers, plus motion control, for advanced usage even on boards that don't need real-time GPIO toggling for steps. Trinamic is definitely not a group that 'rests on their laurels': every year they are coming out with even more improvements to their awesome stepper motor drivers. This chip has 250 pages of datasheet and each page details yet another improvement or setting that will make your mechatronics fast, silent, and efficient. What sets the TMC5272 (https://www.digikey.com/short/0mq250r7) apart? Well, the first big thing is you get double the fun with two full stepper drivers for X and Y axis support. The voltage range is 2-20V, so good for low to medium voltage motors. The tradeoff is you can only get 1.5A max peak current, 1.1A sine wave, but for most users that don't have massive steppers that is perfectly fine. There's also a lot more 'smarts' in this stepper than the ones even from a couple years ago: 8-point motion control, no-loss/no-sense-resistor current management, 2D trajectory management over two axes, encoder or reference switch inputs, sensorless standstill motion detection. Of course all the fixin's you expect from the previous generations are there: silent stepping, UART and SPI and step/dir interface, stallguard, 1 to 256 microstepping, and diagnostic output But, it's in a 3x3mm WLCSP package: this means you'll need at least a 4 layer board and plugged vias. It also means heat dissipation might be more challenging than the drivers with the big ground pads. However, a nice tradeoff is that there is internal 'lossless' current sensing, so no chunky resistors are required. The upside of a WLCSP is that we have lots more pins for tons of interfaces. Each driver can run one bipolar stepper motor, and has multiple interfaces for control. As usual there's the STEP/DIR interface. This is great for usage with older designs that expect to toggle GPIO on each step. However, the S/D pins are shared with some of the cool sensors/encoders/switches. Plus all the really cool things the chip can do are too complex to adjust with just a few GPIO, so to really get the most use you'll need to use one of the packetized interfaces: UART or SPI. UART is great if you happen to only have USB for your computer: you can always just use a USB-serial converter, and the controller can be daisy-chained for multiple drivers per UART. If you have extra GPIO and/or a dedicated SPI port, we would recommend that since it's much faster and you can easily add more chips with one chip-select per. Some of the cool things you can do via the interface include a 8-point ramp controller: instead of stepping each motor and dynamically adjusting the micro-steps for speed/precision, the TMC5272 can do it all on its own. It can also handle knowing 'where' it is on an axis bar, by using the built in homing support. Homing can be done either by using the sensorless 'StallGuard' (https://www.analog.com/en/lp/001/building-better-stepper-motor-system.html) or with reference switches. You can wire the switches directly to the TMC5272 - good if you want to have slow motion homing since you don't have to whack into the end of the axis - and then let the chip manage where it is. Then you can tell it you want to move and when you want to get there, and the TMC will take care of the rest. For ultra-accurate motion control, you can connect an external optical or magnetic encoder to the motor shaft that will tell you exactly when a step has occurred. There's also a neat back-EMF sensor that can tell when the motor has moved while 'disabled' - good to know when you will need to do another homing step after re-enabling the motor. There's also an TMC5272-EVAL-KIT eval board that you can plug-n-play for instant stepper motor usage (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/TMC5272-EVAL-KIT/22107596), it works instantly with the TMCL IDE for trying out the various programmable settings (https://www.analog.com/en/resources/evaluation-hardware-and-software/motor-motion-control-software/tmcl-ide.html) and turn the motor via the TMCL IDE which sends UART/SPI commands over their USB driver board, so it's perfect for verifying the performance with your desired motors. If you want double the pleasure, double the fun of double-motor driving, you can pick up the ADI/Maxim/Trinamic's TMC5272 Dual-Axis Stepper Motor Controller and Driver IC (https://www.digikey.com/short/0mq250r7) from DigiKey today - it's in stock & ready to ship immediately! Place your order now & by tomorrow morning you can be step-step-stepping to the most advanced 2-axis motor controller design you've ever seen.
While debugging a non-working bumper car toy for BabyAda, we determined that the vendor, for some reason, provided a 24V DC power adapter when the battery is 12V and should be charged only up to 15V max! Uh-oh, it's time to fix it up. Let's head over to DigiKey to get a new 12V lead-acid battery that is the same size and shape so we can swap it in and recycle the old one. See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/hhbnn97m ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
BabyAda's bumper car toy stopped working after overnight charging - turns out 24V charger + 12V battery = problems. Quick fix: replaced battery with correct one from DigiKey. Pro tip -Always check voltage compatibility!
This week's EYE ON NPI is as ethereal as it is magical: it's Bel Fuse's 1xN port MagJack and specialty ICMs (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bel-fuse/1xn-port-magjack-and-specialty-icms). These are specially made Ethernet and Ethernet-USB combo jacks that have magnetic transformers inside to make integration with your Ethernet PHY (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_physical_layer) in order to communicate on the network. MagJacks make designs smaller, and less noisy - they're a great way to simplify your next Ethernet design and get it to market faster! Wireless this, 5G that - what we sometimes need are WIRES! Wired networking is much reliable than wireless, and can go far distances with no loss of signal strength. Particularly as you can also put power over the same wires for nodes that need no other cabling, Ethernet is a reliable networking standard - don't discount it just because of its age! One nice benefit of it is you don't have to do SSID/password setup, it's truly plug and play. Three things are required to add Ethernet. First is a microcontroller or microcomputer that has built in Ethernet Medium Access Control (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_access_control), the low level packet forming technology. Some chips have this built in, such as the ESP32 (https://www.digikey.com/short/dz5pv22m) - or you can use a companion chip like the WIZ5xxx series (https://www.digikey.com/en/supplier-centers/wiznet) that can be controlled over SPI. Then, to get onto a network, you'll want the ubiquitous mechanical RJ-45 connector (https://www.digikey.com/short/t28834zr) that will lead to Cat-5 or Cat-6 cable (https://www.digikey.com/short/pnjh3t8d). In between, the signal levels need to be isolated and converted to the +-2.5V differential signal. To do that we need what is colloquially referred to as the 'magnetics': a cluster of transformers and chokes that will make the signal differential, isolate the PHY from the outside world and also reduce the risk of outside spikes and shocks. Both the Wiznet and ESP32 datasheets, for example, have example wiring to help you identify the right configuration. Note that not all chips have the same magnetics impedances / configurations: it depends on the output signal and impedance. Second, this is separate than PoE magnetics (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3847) which are separate from the data transfer. If you don't care about optimizing board size and complexity, you can always use external magnetics with a plain jack. Bel has a full selection of dozens of magnetics for any configuration you may need (https://www.belfuse.com/product-detail/icm-s-discrete-lan-magnetics). For example the Seeed Ethernet shield (https://www.digikey.com/short/70cvntbm) uses this technique because the PCBA is so big they have space to spare. However, when you want to keep your board compact, you can upgrade your design to use one of Bel Fuse's 1xN port MagJacks. (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bel-fuse/1xn-port-magjack-and-specialty-icms) MagJacks provide two big benefits (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bel-fuse/1xn-port-magjack-and-specialty-icms): one they're smaller than separate magnetics/jacks and second, the magnetics get enclosed in the metal shell of the jack which provides some EMI shielding. For example, we used a combo-jack on the Ethernet Featherwing (https://www.digikey.com/short/9w49r80j) to keep the design single-sided. Which is why we were excited to see the Bel Fuse MagJacks pop up on https://www.digikey.com/new - they're a trusted component we've used before. For this week's EYE ON NPI, DigiKey is highlighting a selection of the new Bel Fuse MagJacks, with dozens of options available (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bel-fuse/1xn-port-magjack-and-specialty-icms). There's classic horizontal ones with LEDs (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bel-fuse-inc/P01-0002-01/25588398). Vertical ones! (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bel-fuse-inc/P01-1AF2-01/25588382) Countersunken for low clearances (https://www.digikey.com/short/5b9mb454) As well as some nifty combo-units that contain both USB type A and Ethernet. (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bel-fuse-inc/P01-3CG3-01/25588395) Just make sure that the internal magnetics match your chipset's needs before selecting it for integration. DigiKey is in the process of stocking all the varieties, but if you want to get started, the P01-1AA2-01 (https://www.digikey.com/short/pw02p9m9) is in stock now for immediate delivery. Order today and you can get this part in your hands by tomorrow morning to help optimize your next Ethernet design!
The hush-hush news from Adafruit in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York. Broadcast January 29, 2025 These are items or concept products that may/might/could be introduced into the Adafruit store in the future (or not)! It's not out yet, so please don't ask questions or ask when it'll be available.... Check out the Adafruit store for all the great products that are available and for coming soon products you can sign up to be notified when they are in stock. https://www.adafruit.com/new Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Also visit DigiKey for Adafruit products at http://www.digikey.com/ ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
Testing ESP programmer board, working on 3.5" Captouch TFT with new ST7796S display & FT6236 touch chips. Board needs redesign for new FPC. Got exciting screen samples round/bar/rect. Also found great ultra-fine tweezers on DigiKey, for both engineers & entomologists!
This week, we saw a social media post asking for ultra-fine tip tweezers for entomology (https://bsky.app/profile/jammyness.bsky.social/post/3lfs3ftb6h22x), and hey, we love bugs, too! And just cause DigiKey specializes to the engineer does not mean it can't support our fellow scientists either. So, let's visit DigiKey to see what tweezers are in stock that are inexpensive, stainless steel, and have an ultra-fine tip. See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/r8hnmqzw ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
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