News from Cool Components

New Year : New Products

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:26:15 GMT

There are some fantastic new products to talk about, all fresh for the new year! First up - the new mbed.

It uses NXP's Cortex-M0 LPC11U24 chip and is expressly designed to get you up and running *quickly* with USB and low power applications. It's cheaper than the original mbed, and comes in a natty shade of yellow (!!). The online compiler used to write the mbed code has been updated as well to work with the new processor.

You may have seen the Fez Spider '.Net Gadgeteer' kit - now say hello to the Spider's big sister, the Hydra. It's a 100% open-source (hardware and software) .NET Gadgeteer compatible mainboard running .NET Micro Framework. It incorporates a 240Mhz AT91SAMRL ARM9 processor. With 16MB of SDRAM an 4MB of FLASH. Whoooaa!

Arduino have released some new goodies - first up, the Uno has been reworked and released as 'Revision 3'. There's really not much difference, but a couple of extra signals are broken out to new pins. All of the old shields are still compatible. We're now *only* selling revision 3 Unos.

Also released from Arduino, their official motor driver shield. Capable of driving two DC motors at varying speed and directions, the shield uses the L298P chip and can cope with 4 Amps per channel!

Finally, lets talk displays! The uLCD43 is a lovely, glossy touch screen from those folk at 4D Systems. It's 4.3" in size, 480 x 272 QVGA resolution, RGB 65,000 colours, with a touch overlay. Like most of 4D systems displays, this screen uses the '4DGL' display language to draw primitives and display images and video. As an added extra, the board also has an onboard sound output with built in amplifier! And that's just the tip of the features iceberg!

.Net Gadgeteer, the PhoneDrone and More!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:11:52 GMT

*Loads* of you have been asking for it - and finally, the Fez Spider 'Net Gadgeteer' system has arrived. The kit boasts a powerful board that runs .NET micro framework with code written in C#. The top side of the main CPU board is filled with connector sockets, so that complex peripheral components can be easily attached and detached without soldering.

We're initially selling the Fez Spider board as part of a kit including a display, a camera, and lots of other cool peripherals, however over time, you'll start to see more and more of the components being listed on their own. We're already listing the camera, serial USB module and mainboards separately.

New from the US, this fantastic Arduino shield. The Gameduino is based around a powerful chip that can handle basic, but high quality 2D sprite based computer graphics. The chip can also pump out good quality stereo sound effects. To top it all there's a full size VGA monitor connector so you can hook up your 152" plasma. All of this means that it's easy to create very cool computer games.

Already the Gameduino's creator has ported Manic Miner, Asteroids, and many others...

Next - if you're using kit with an Xbee socket on it, why not make the move to WiFi? We're now selling these impressive modules from Roving Networks. They're a standard RN131 WiFly module in an Xbee form factor. The pins and power supplies are similar, so you can pull out your Xbee and plop in one of these.

Finally, for the UAV or RC fanatics out there a new board that allows you to control your aircraft from your Android enabled phone. The 'phoneDrone' board gives the phone a number of essential hardware resources including 8 servo channels and 3 serial ports. On the phone, software to control the board can be quickly written using Google's ADK (Accessory Development Kit).

Last but not least, if you're flying a quad (or hex or octo) copter, we now stock 10" and 12" propeller blades. They come in matched push/pull pairs with hub rings to match to your favourite brushless motor.

Arduino Release New Boards

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:38:07 GMT

New from Arduino, a couple of boards that could really have a big impact on your projects!

First up, the Arduino Ethernet. It's worth saying that this is actually a board with a processor on it, rather than a shield. The Arduino Ethernet effectively combines onto one PCB, the Arduino Uno and the Arduino Ethernet shield. Also - the version we're selling has an additional PoE module. 'PoE' stands for 'Power Over Ethernet' and means that DC power can be provided down your LAN cable.

So why do we care about the Arduino Ethernet being PoE enabled? Really it's because now, there's an affordable, compact, network portable device that can be plonked (the posh word is 'deployed') onto your home/work/university network anywhere where there's a PoE enabled LAN cable. In business and lots of educational institutions, that's most places these days. Your Arduino can then sit quietly, reporting sensor readings to a central server, or maybe turn things on and off by remote request.

One final note on PoE - be careful, not all LAN cables have power running through them - this very much depends on your router. If your router doesn't supplier PoE power into your LAN, you can buy add on modules that will do roughly the same thing. We supply several types.

Next up is the new Mega ADK for Android.

This board has been designed with the world of Android enabled phones / tablets in mind. It's essentially the same Mega 2560 board but with a hardware interface that can be written to directly and easily by a new add-on to the Android programming language. There's a USB host chip that talks to the phone, and a power supply that is able to recharge the phone. Because of the way that ADK software is written, it's possible to plug in a few sensors, and have your phone run a complex, 'real world' application with just a few minutes worth of programming. Crazy!

Forgetting the ADK software side of things - because this board has a USB host interface all sorts of possibilities open up - just like the mbed, the board theoretically should be able to talk to various USB dongles - flash drives, GPRS dongles - all sorts!

New Products

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:29:50 GMT

It's been a bit of time since our last new product post, and there's loads and loads and loads of really exciting new stuff.

First up - these 1 metre long strips of RGB leds. Each led can be controlled individually via a 2 wire bus, and separate strips can be daisy chained together to form message displays or even basic 'jumbo' sized TV screens. Interfacing is pretty simple and can easily be handled by an Arduino, mbed, or Fez.

Olimex has been busy recently! They've updated their range of PIC based web servers to cover the PIC32 family of microprocessors. Most impressive is the PIC32-MAXI-WEB, with a lovely on-board 320x240 colour touch screen, 3 axis accelerometer, 2 relays, CAN drivers and a whole lot more!

Also new from Olimex is an updated range of MP3 players. The MOD-MP3-X appears to your PC as a mass storage device, but can play and record stereo audio in a variety of formats. Power is supplied from just one AA battery due to an on-board voltage converter.

On the RF side of things, we're stocking these neat WiFi / MCU 'all in one' modules. The FlyPort is a WiFi module, PIC microcontroller and antenna on one board. The device has its own dedicated IDE that allows fast tracked code creation and deployment to the device. Have a look at our getting started tutorial to get an idea of how quickly you can be up and running.

Finally - don't forget the .NET side of things - ideal if you're a software guy looking to move into embedded hardware because you can write all of your embedded code in C# using Visual Studio. New on the block is the Fez Panda II - an enhanced and bang up-to-date version of its little brother the Fez Panda. What's cool about this board (and many other .NET boards) is that it offers real time, on-device debugging, all from within your normal VS IDE. Nice....

A Technology to Change the World

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:46:13 GMT

The Economist magazine this month calls 3D printing (or rapid prototyping) a technology that "will change the world". 3D printers work by laying down layer after layer of a given material until a real, 3 dimensional object has been created. Printers differ in the materials that they use, and the methods that they use to print, but all share the same concept. The Economist talks about the technology's ability to "undermine economies of scale". In short this means that you can have a machine on your desktop churning out widgets and gizmos, without having to make thousands of them. It means that anyone can make physical, real, solid things without sinking their life savings into having plastic moulds created and tooling carried out.

3D printing is a dream come true for students, academics, product designers, hobbyists, engineers, architects, teachers, or anyone who has a brilliant idea that they need to be able to see and touch.

So all of this is important for us (and hopefully you!) because we're thrilled to be bringing a fantastic, affordable 3D printer to the market. It's not a kit (lots of people have told us about their frustration with 3D printer kits) and takes about 15 minutes to assemble from box to 1st print. It uses ABS plastic filament but can be adapted to use other materials. Don't get us wrong - our printer won't be able to create Stradivarius violins, but it can make some pretty complex and exciting parts. We've been using the free and amazing Google Sketchup to make our parts, but any 3D package that can produce standard STL files is good.

We've seen people make working water pumps, produce anatomic prints from real medical topography data or even just produce a custom enclosure for their latest Arduino project. Using the printer is very easy - similar to printing a 2D print!

Privacy and Net Curtains

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:39:40 GMT

Whilst powerful governments attempt to prise user details from the like of Twitter, Swiss artist and 'inventor of useless things' Niklas Roy has come up with his own very clever solution to stop people being nosey.

We love it! Unfortunately, as Niklas admits, the moving curtain serves to attract more people to have a look through the window, thus defeating the object of the project. But as we know, the projects with no practical use are usually the most fun....!

Check out the simple but effective robot vision system. Interestingly, we don't see in the video what happens when two separate groups of people appear. Which one does the curtain track? How does it work out which group of people are the nosiest?

Happy New Year + A Big Thank You!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:39:01 GMT

From everyone at Cool Components, best wishes to all of our customers and their families as we enter 2011!

It's been an incredible year for us, and all thanks to you. During 2010 we've dealt with more than double the number of orders than we had during 2009. We've been working very hard to ship orders as quickly as possible, and we're pleased to say that for orders placed before 3.30pm, 93% of in stock items have shipped the same day. We know that we have a way to go before we're perfect(!) so we'll be trying our hardest during the coming year to make things even faster and more reliable.

We've started trialling a new helpdesk and support system that will allow us to improve our customer service and respond in a better way to sales inquiries. Customer service and support is our number one priority in 2011 so it's important we have the right tools for the job!

During 2010 we've led the market by introducing many exciting new products, including mbed, Netduino, the Seeeduino Film and Hackvision - In 2011 we'll be sourcing more exciting things, including more books and a fantasic, no fuss, 3D printer capable of turning your desktop into your own personal factory.

As always, we're thrilled to be offering some of the most exciting electronic gizmos and components on the market. 2011 is going to be really exciting - we hope you'll share it with us!

Happy New Year from Cool Components

Extra Things

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:51:36 GMT

Okay - we've just added a load of fun new products to the site. Here's a quick run-down of some of the stuff :

First up is a new revision to the mbed Workshop Break-out board. Version 2, like version 1 is a handy board with a range of interface sockets to make prototyping with the mbed even faster and easier! V2 has mounting holes, selectable USB signalling resistors, current limiting resistors for the magjack LEDs and a good sized prototyping area. In addition, we've replaced the full size USB-B socket with a mini USB-B. Finally, there's a '1' on the silkscreen showing how the mbed unit is orientated to fit into the socket.

Something kinda space-age now! The Seeeduino film is an ATMEGA168 chip with Arduino bootloader, but instead of being fabbed onto a normal PCB, this product sits on a flexible plastic PCB. There are 3 distinct sections that can be cut, then re-attached to other boards. This device weighs an incredible 1.1g, with its rechargeable battery weighing 2.2g! A perfect solution when space and weight are limited or for wearable technology.

There are two side to everything. On these Peltier thermo-electric coolers, apply an electric current and one side gets cold, and the other gets hot. How how/cold it gets depends on the current/voltage applied.

Want your micro-controller to have access to, or to be able to store LARGE amounts of data on a card? We've just started making these micro SD card break-out boards. Signals are broken out on a 0.1" pitch, ideal for breadboard use.

Finally - something really fun for the holiday season! The Hackvision board is an Arduino based game controller with all of the bits and bobs you need to plug and play with your TVs video and sound connections. The board comes as a kit, but is programmed with 2 games. Of course more fun than playing the games is writing your own, which, thanks to the Arduino bootloader, can be done in the standard Arduino IDE. Xbox? Nah, we'd rather have one of these... A prize for the first person to program Jetset Willy complete with wiggly rope!

More Arduino Goodness

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:33:55 GMT

Arduino have released replacements for its two main boards, the Duemilanove, and the Mega and we're stocking both, right now.

The Uno (much easier to say!) replaces the Duemilanove, with the Mega 2560 (below) replacing the Mega. The physical dimensions of both boards are exactly the same, with all the same features and capabilities intact.

Interestingly, both boards now use an Atmega8U2 chip to interface with USB connections. For advanced users, the chip is reprogrammable, and means that when plugged into a computer, your Arduino can be recognised as a keyboard, joystick, mouse, or any other of the standard HID types. This chip doesn't require drivers for Linux or Mac computers, and also means faster USB data transfer rates. Apart from that, there aren't too many changes, although, to get the most out of your Uno, you may wish to upgrade your IDE to version 0021.

New Products

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:29:49 GMT

First of all - meet the new 'Netduino' - this is an extremely affordable Arduino form factor board. Code is written using the free Microsoft .NET framework 'Visual Express' editor. The board's ideal for a .NET software programmer wanting to take their fist steps into the wonderful world of hardware. Because of the Arduino form factor, many of the Arduino shields we sell are compatible and can be slotted on-top, assuming you've written the correct code to use them of course!

If you've completed your Arduino (or Netduino) project and you need a box - look no further. This neat plastic case is modelled to fit the Arduino Duemilanove or the Arduino Mega sizes. Posts inside make mounting the boards extremely easy. There's enough room to mount an Ethernet shield and possibly a 9V battery. Cut out slots for the power, USB and Ethernet ports mean there's no need to get your saw out!

Power is important - that's why we're selling this simple, value for money 'wall-wart' style PSU. It's a switch mode supply, so better at keeping a steady 9V voltage as the current (up to 500mA) increases. These are CE marked, with UK plugs, and a simple, centre positive barrel plug at the DC end.

Finally... The Seeeduino Stalker - This is an interesting ATMEGA328 based Arduino style board that has a range of sensor based / logging functions. Onboard there's an Xbee module slot, a battery backed up real time clock, an SD card slot and an I2C connector. The board can take Arduino style shields, or work as a shield over a master board itself. The board (or several of them!) lend themselves to tracking, RFID logging, wireless sensor development and many other things!

Concurrency and Other Issues

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:07:38 GMT

A new way of programming the Arduino has caught our eye - The language, called occam-pi and a plug-in called 'plumbing' allow you to write code for the Arduino that is parallel or 'concurrent'.

This means that instead of doing task A then task B, the Arduino carries out task A and task B at the same time (sort of). Multiple servo control (where you need to constantly send pulses) is one example of where parallel or concurrent code could be used to great effect. Interestingly, the language works for the Duemilanove, the Mega, the Ardupilot (!!) and many other boards programmable through the original Arduino IDE. Oh - If you want to learn more, there's a free downloadable book.

Since our last post we're now listing a whole load of new stuff. Top of the bill is the Mondomatrix range of boards. They allow connection of a frankly silly number of servos or leds to one controlling displayduino unit. All extremely useful for art installations, museums, or people who wish to control the world like Dr.Evil.

Need to measure stuff like voltages or current, or maybe test that something is happily soldered to something else? Why not splash out on a super cheap multimeter. These babies have a turny knob selector thing, probes and a good sized display.

Bought an mbed, but frustrated by fiddling around with wires trying to connect USB or Ethernet sockets? Our new home made breakout board provides a rock steady base for mbed experimentation. It has USB B, USB A, a micro SD slot, and an ethernet port with LEDs and magnetics. Bonza!

New from Olimex is a range of boards using Energy Micro processors. Rather grandly, Energy Micro says that their MCUs are "...the world's most energy friendly microcontrollers". They also say that their 32bit processors have only 8-bit power consumption. Nice...

dot NET dot IS dot HERE

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:19:27 GMT

Once upon a time, people were happy programming microprocessors with assembly code. Thousands of statements like "MOVLW 0xFF,0x2" were written a second by users across the world forming complex and working programs. Then, things got more complicated, and today you can write code for microprocessors in C/C++, wiring language and a handful of other 'higher' languages. The latest code family to join the throng is Microsoft's .NET framework, and with it languages like C#. So what can you program to make LEDs flash blinky style with C#? Try the FEZ Domino....

In a charming turn of phrase from our friends in the US, 'FEZ' stands for "Freakin' Easy" - a reference to the speed and simplicity of writing code for the Domino. The board's hardware specs are impressive, with a 72Mhz ARM processor and advanced capabilities like FAT, USB device and USB host. Helpfully, it is shaped like an Arduino and is compatible with many of the Arduino's add-on shields.

Just like the Arduino, all you need to get going is a USB cable (supplied with the board) and the C# programming environment, which is free to download from Microsoft. Many people already write C# for PCs, so changing the hardware over to a FEZ Domino shouldn't be a problem! The manufacturers expect the board to support Visual Basic code at some point in the future.

The mbed has arrived!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:48:39 GMT

After months (really!) of fraught and tense negotiations, we've finally got our hands on some mbeds. What is the mbed? It's a very cool rapid prototyping ARM processor based board. Based on a LPC1768 chip from the Cortex M3 family, the mbed has a BIG range of peripherals available in its hardware/firmware and ready to go (see above). All you need to do is wire up some connectors and get writing some code.

The mbed is programmed and powered via a mini-USB cable. Code is written in C/C++ and compiled using an online compiler, then dragged and dropped (or saved directly) onto the mbed's flash memory which conveniently appears on your computer as a flash/USB drive. The online compiler means that so long as your machine has internet and a USB port, you're good to go without software/hardware installation woes.

In our opinion, this little device has the power to do a LOT. Its storage, accessibility and computing power open up a lot of previously tricky applications. The choice of near standard C/C++ gives coders the ability to write efficient, fast programs. This is not a modular system like Arduino, but despite that, lots of add-ons are planned. A few, like this EA board already exist. We're proud to be stocking mbed, and thrilled at the prospect of seeing what people do with it - now it's over to you!

New Stuff

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:23:43 GMT

Lots of exciting new products now online. First up, one of the most gorgeously presented development tools we've seen for a long time.

Embedded Artist's LPXPresso Baseboard comes in a lovely metal tin, and looks a bit like there should be cake inside. Instead of cake - a highly featured base board designed to accept either the NXP processor based MBED (we're stocking this soon fingers crossed) or one of the native LPC Embedded Artists target boards.

The baseboard has tons of features including an onboard RGB-LED, a 5-key joystick switch, a rotary switch with quadrature encoding, a speaker and a 96x64 pixel white OLED. Full specs are here.

From Sparkfun the new sensor 9 degrees of freedom motion sensor board features. If you're interested in autonomous vehicles, this board has the ability for AHRS. This makes the board a powerful platform for UAV control, autonomous vehicles, and image stabilization. The board uses three axis of gyro, accelerometer, and magneto along with a direction cosine matrix (in software) to obtain a stable heading reference in almost all environments. Wowser!

Also from Sparkfun a more humble, but no less useful offering. The TMP102 is a simple digital temperature sensor with 0.0625�C resolution, I2C interface, and all accurate to 0.5�C. A doddle to use along with an Arduino or any other I2C enabled MCU.

Finally - a new breed of Ultrasonic range sensors from our chums at Maxbotix. The XL-MaxSonar-EZ0 sensor features 1cm resolution and continuous recalibration to counter the effects of changing temperature, humidity and voltage. With a measurable range from 20cm to 765cm this sensor will no doubt find a large amount of applications.

We've Moved!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:09:46 GMT

We have a new office. It's brand spanking new, and very shiny. You can now find us at 250 York Road, London, SW11 3SJ. For folk who live in London, unlike the old office, we're happy to allow customer collections of orders placed online. Please remember that you need to arrange this with us first, and you can't just turn up without letting us know. We're thrilled to be expanding enough to need a new office, and that's all thanks to you guys and your loyal support over the years. We're confident that our new HQ will mean faster, more reliable order dispatch, and happier customers all round. Huzzah!

Augmented Life

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:58:19 GMT

First, from everyone at Cool Components, we wish all of our customers and suppliers a very happy new year. Thank you for your business and support in '09. 2010's shaping up to be a brilliant year, with lots of exciting stuff happening. More to be revealed soon. In the mean time, a big shout out to the guys at Parrot ARDrone. They've launched a very cool augmented reality helicopter game system. Not quite sure what we mean? Have a look at this :

The ARDrone is really just a collection of the technologies we sell here at Cool Components, and is really an inspiration that amazing things can be done with just a few microprocessors, accelerometers and a wifi link or two. The project is open source with an SDK available, so the applications (entertainment based and otherwise) for this are limited only by your imagination and computer graphics prowess, oh... and whether you can fly a helicopter with your iPhone!

New Products Galore

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:28:55 GMT

As things gear up for Christmas, we're stocking a range of exciting new products. First up is a fantastic Arduino shield.

The GPRS 'Playground' slots over your Duemilanove, and gives it the power to send voice or data via the world's cellular phone networks. Email, web, twitter, ftp, SMS - what ever you want to send or receive really. Onboard features include a microphone, reset switch, and SIM card holder.

This powerline modem allows data to be sent or received over your home/office mains cable. With speeds of up to 5Mbs, this is a great solution for when LAN cables and WiFi can't cover the distance (or get through the walls!)

The powerline range includes handy 'daughter' modules that fit onto the modem's expansion port. Ethernet, usb and Xbee are all supported. Happy days!

Serial LCD displays are all the rage, but this one is a little different. Small, light and easy to use, the TextStar even has four on-board buttons. If you need to show a bargraph display, this display makes it very easy. For RC fans, there's a ready made servo diagnostic mode.

This cable has to win the prize for the most useful thing ever. It's a USB-serial converter, with all the gubbins built in to the USB plug housing. Signals are both 5 and 3.3 V tolerant, and the breakout connector at the TTL end also provides a handy 5V supply. Don't leave home without one!

The LPC-1766-Stk is a powerful development board for the excellent LPC1766 ARM processor from NXP. It has an onboard 128x128 x12bit colour TFT display, a 3-axis digital accelerometer with 11 bit accuracy, a temperature sensor, USB device and host connectors, a joystick and much more.

Finally, if you need your project to know exactly what time it is, you'll need a real time clock module. We've programmed these with the precise GMT (Zulu) time, and they can be easily interrogated via I2C from an Arduino or other suitable platform. A battery means the time is never lost (until the battery runs out)

Roving Networks

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:45:12 GMT

We're thrilled to announce that we're now an official reseller for Roving Networks. They're a cracker of a company from the US who make several fantastically exciting wireless products. The first we're featuring opens the world of WiFi up to anyone who's able to send a serial command, and allows your projects to talk to the world via the internet.

The WiFly GSX module is a complete ultra low power embedded TCP/IP solution - a stand alone, embedded wireless 802.11b/g networking module. The combination of ultra low power and the ability to wake up, connect to a wireless network, send data and return to sleep mode in less than 100 milliseconds, allows the WiFly GSX to run for years (yes years!!!) on two standard AAA batteries. Another principal product from RN is the RN-41 bluetooth module.

Designed to replace serial cables this module totally encapsulates the troublesome Bluetooth stack�. The end user just sees serial characters being transmitted back and forth. Press the 'A' character from a terminal program on your computer and an 'A' will be pushed out the TX pin of the Bluetooth� module. With over air data rates of 721kbps to 2.0Mbps and support for most of the popular profiles this module really opens up the world of bluetooth.

Also now in stock - have you ever tried to use a cheap bluetooth dongle with your PC, but been plagued by badly written drivers, or pairing problems? These two roving network dongles add Bluetooth functionality to legacy laptops of PCs, but without the myriad of bugs and problems that seem to affect lesser, poorer quality products. We especially like the DIP swtches on each device that allow the pairing ID to be set via hardware!

Rubik's Solved (Again)

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:59:43 GMT

They were the 'must have' toy of the 80's. Now this nifty project from a chap called Andrius Sutas in Lithuania makes light work of even the most scambled cube.

As far as we can work out from the opening sequence of the movie, the project doesn't go as far as recognising colours itself, which is a shame, given there's already a camera feed into the controlling PC. Andrius says that it's an ATMega16 controlling four servos in total, two for the rotating arms, and two for the cube 'jaws'. Software for the AVR was written entirely in C.

Getting onto the Telly

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:51:21 GMT

Liquid crystal displays are great for displaying text and graphics, but they're often not very big, and can sometimes be a little expensive. What better then, to just plug your latest project into a normal TV or monitor, and display information that way?

We're now stocking 3 different types of device that make this option extremely easy to implement. All of are controlled by simple serial commands, the meat and drink of any micro-processor. All of them have their own pluses and minuses, so here's a quick run-through...

The uVGA-PICASO controller (on the left) and baseboard (on the right) from 4D Systems plugs straight into a normal analogue (or digital with an adaptor) computer monitor port. As soon as you power it up, it runs a demo sequence that shows you clearly that everything is working. The control set includes a powerful set of commands including page swapping, and bitmap based graphics. The module even has its own uSD card slot so that you can easily load icons and the like. Resolution is a healthy 640x480 with 256 colours. Yeehaa!

The Micro uVGA Text Module is a different type of beast. It has a 16 colour resolution of 80 x 25 text characters. This can be used to produce blocky graphics, or very large text. The effect is a bit like the old 'Teletext' service that used to run on UK TV. The neat thing about this module is that, in addition to the VGA output, it also offers a direct-to-TV PAL/NTSC signal. To cap it all, the unit has a keyboard input, and uses convenient ANSI terminal commands.

Finally, for the Arduino hordes, the TellyMate fits neatly over your Duemilanova. It outputs video as black and white PAL/NTSC only, but may be all some people are looking for. Once again, blocky graphics are all that are really possible here, but hey - blocky is kinda nice from time to time.

Okay - so three devices - lots of differences, lots of features. Here's a nice table to compare everything at once! Happy telly-boxing!

Device	Resolution	Colours	Output	Inputs	Arduino Form Factor
uVGA-PICASO	640 x 480	256	VGA	uSD Card	No
Micro VGA	80 x 25	16	VGA+PAL/NTSC	Keyboard	No
TellyMate	38 x 25	2	PAL/NTSC	None	Yes

We Like This Robot a Lot

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:59:40 GMT

From French company Aldebaran Robotics, meet 'Nao'. He's humanoid, autonomous and runs Linux as his OS. He's powered by LiPo batteries, and has cute flashing LEDs for eyes. His arms and legs use loads of servos to produce 25 degrees of freedom movement. Unfortunately, he's not available to buy because he's a 'concept'. Probably a good thing, because if Nao was available, we have a hunch that he'd be very expensive. Obviously Nao has nothing to do with Cool Components, but we'd love to think that some of the development tools and components we supply could one day help someone reading this post to create the next generation of Naos. If you haven't already - check out the video. Cute, touching, but a little bit spooky. Rubber duck theft is a crime dontcha know!

Exciting New Things

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:52:56 GMT

It's been a while since our last post. During the last few weeks we've added a lot to our catalog. First off the block - Xbee modules.

The 50mW Xbee Pro has a range of about a mile line-of-sight and are extremely easy to configure for seamless point to point data communications. We like them so much, we're offering this Flight Telemetry Pack featuring two Xbee modules.

The telemetry pack also contains two breakout boards that allow easy connection to a PC and GPS unit, or other datastream. One of the options in the kit is the ArduPilot from DIYDrones.com.

The ArduPilot allows advanced autonomous flight control of unmanned aerial vehicles. You can hook it up to a GPS and other in-flight sensors.

It's tiny, very light, but could form the basis of your first light sabre. This miniscule, value for money, laser projects its photons at the speed of light. Amazing!

Finally - they're sharp, blue, and excellent for picking up tiny things. Tweezers from Weitus - Nice!

New Displays

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:38:52 GMT

The guys over at Liquidware have come up with this : The Touch Shield Slide for the Arduino. It's rather nice.

Rather bigger than it's little brother, the plain old 'Touch Shield', the Slide has a slick 320�240 OLED screen, resistive touch sensing, and its own bolt-on graphics API. The display only uses a couple of data pins, and sits squarely on top of a Duemilanove. Just to be clear - this photo shows a lithium pack underneath the Duemilanove.

Introducing the Mega

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:42:59 GMT

More power, more IOs, more memory, more everything. The long awaited Arduino Mega has now been released worldwide, and Cool Components is amongst the first to offer these meaty units to customers.

Ouch! The Blinking Bright MaxM

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:12:05 GMT

It's blinding bright and really rather painful to look at! BlinkMs new MaxM module uses 3 superbright LEDS to pump out huge amounts of light. It's all MCU controlled of course, and some beautiful lighting effects are easily achievable.

Making things move

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:11:41 GMT

Solid state electronics are great, but what about when you actually want things to move? We've created a new category for robotics related kits and components, including a mega-cool tank style robot chasis, built especially for the Arduino Duemilanove. Also now available in this category is a popular servo motor from HiTech. Now there is no excuse not to have Wall-E type devices zooming around your office or home.

Now Stocking Pololu Motor Controllers

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:11:05 GMT

They're one of the best suppliers of motor controllers, digital servo controllers, geared motors and other associated control and robotic modules. We're now stocking a carefully selected range of top-notch Pololu products for your latest UAV, robotics or RC project.

5 Hz GPS Module

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:10:42 GMT

We're now stocking this rather nice GPS module. 5Hz output, up to 5Hz update rate, on-board patch antenna, 3.3V @ 41mA and all at a smidge over 13 grams. Treat your UAV to an upgrade with this delight of a unit.

Feeding Demand

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:09:46 GMT

We've launched a series of RSS feeds to let you all know about new products, fresh stock and news. To subscribe, please copy the link next to the RSS icon at the top left of the page into your reader. Then, every time we update our product range or stock levels, you'll be amongst the first to know. A very simple, easy to use reader is�this one�provided by Google.

Sponsoring SuperToys

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:09:01 GMT

We're proud to be sponsoring an art exhibition at Bristol's Arnolfini gallery. The exhibition is called�'SuperToys'�and uses�Arduino USB boards�to allow visitors to add interactivity to old toys.

Amazing, yet sinister

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:08:24 GMT

Bizarre, and yet stunning pictures from Switzerland have been released showing the cognitive and physical power of so called 'swarm-bots'. From the land of cuckoo clocks and chocolate, we present.... robot aided child pulling! Go Jade!

Give your Arduino a Display

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:07:53 GMT

Why not give your Arduino the ability to interact with the world in a really special way? This LCD display from Liquidware is also touch sensitive and has been designed to fit directly onto your Arduino like a normal shield extension. Used with some clever code, it's capable of doing some pretty amazing stuff.

Introducing the PIC MAXI Web!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:07:16 GMT

Take a look at the new PIC Maxi Web board, now in stock. It's the biggest of the Olimex web server development boards and includes an amazing range of features including power relays, an LCD display, temperature sensors and much much more. With a little bit of software, this board will allow the devlopment of complex over-the-internet control and monitoring systems. The possibilities with this dev board are endless, and it's great value for money.

Glossy, colourful displays

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:06:51 GMT

Now in stock - several fantastic models of colour LCD displays. Most of the devices allow access to their functions via a simple serial interface, meaning that even the smallest MCU can generate some pretty impressive on screen displays. We've seen these units being used for all sorts of things, from medical displays, to purpose built hand held games. With 256k colours and good resolutions, these devices are fast enough to display video. Some even have their own on-board storage and sound!

Self controlling, programmable blinky ThingMs

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:06:02 GMT

Now in stock, the BlinkM Smart LED from ThingM. A fully networkable and programmable RGB light source for designers, experimenters - or anyone who needs a controllable colour light source. Because the unit is controlled by an on-board micro, once it's programmed, you just need to power it up and it'll run continually. The BlinkM is programmed via an I2C bus via free sequencer software.Multiple BlinkMs can be stranded together on an I2C bus allowing for some amazing light displays.

Tiny Webserver!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:05:11 GMT

Tiny, low cost and flexible - Measuring just 50mm x 30 mm the PIC-MICRO-WEB is one of the smallest web servers available in the world. Mounted in a DB25 connector shell, it's the perfect way to add internet access to an existing project quickly and without fuss. The server comes programmed with the easy to use Microchip TCP/IP stack but is easily reprogrammable. Try one and never look back!

Hello Spark Fun!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:04:51 GMT

They're one of the first, and one of the best - Now Cool Components is proud to announce that we're stocking a selected range of great products from Sparkfun. Their breakout boards allow easy access to the most fiddly of components and help reduce development time by cutting short all of the messy soldering. In addition the guys in Colorado produce a number of ready made units that are easy to integrate into your current project. Their products are great - the only problem is - they're in the US and postage sure ain't cheap. Thankfully now we're stocking select items that's not a problem.

ARMed to the Hilt!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:04:01 GMT

Cool Components is proud to announce that we're now stocking a range of carefully selected development boards and programmers for the popular ARM processor. ARM microcontrollers are High-Performance, 16/32-Bit RISC Core devices and their market is one of the most fastest growing in the sector. ARM processors are available from number of vendors including Analog Devices, Atmel, Cirrus Logic, OKI, Philips Semiconductors, ST Microelectronics and Texas Instruments. Experts predict that in the next 5 years ARM MCUs will replace the industry standard 8051 architecture in most applications. If you're looking for an easy to use hardware development environment, try the LPC-P2106 prototyping board together with the flexible ARM-JTAG programmer.

Pigeon Tracking With GPS

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:03:22 GMT

Since the dawn of time, their unique sense of direction has been a mystery, now scientists are unravelling the natural navigational talents of pigeons by the use of GPS modules. Researchers at Oxford's Merton College are using�EM406 GPS modules�fixed to the back of common pigeons to follow and log their flight paths. The tiny modules, weighing virtually nothing, mean that the pigeons fly in a natural manner from the release point to their destination.

GPS MADNESS!

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:02:27 GMT

Take a look at our range of Sirf Star III GPS Modules. These lovely units have the sensitivity to get satellite lock in areas where other, lesser units do not. In some situations these units will even get lock indoors. We're selling them at seriously silly prices, so please take a look before they're all gone! Please note : the 50p piece is not included!

Welcome Olimex

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:45:37 GMT

Cool Components is proud to announce that we're now a distributor for Olimex products. We can now offer some of their fantastic and affordable PIC, ARM, MSP-430 programmer and development boards.

We Are Cool Components

info@coolcomponents.co.uk (Cool Components) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:05:52 GMT

Cool Components is a dynamic electronic components supply company based in South London. We were set up in 2004 and have grown dramatically over the past few years. Our mission is to supply everyone from academics to hobbiests with the latest prototyping and development components at cutting edge prices. We use cheap, fast shipping and only operate via the internet, keeping costs down.�� So far we have supplied some of the biggest universities in the UK, NHS trusts, and thousands of inventors, engineers, hobbiests and modellers. Our aim is to take on some of the 'big boys' at their own game, whilst offering value for money, and not charging extortionate shipping fees. We hope you like what you see on Cool Components, and would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions about what we should be stocking, or how we should be improving our service.