SparkFun Electronics

Flushed from the success of their first autonomous vehicle competition, SparkFun Electronics (SFE) is now reaching out to wannabe bot builders. Whether you couldn't travel to Colorado and participate in the big event, or you've just always wanted to build your own robot, this bot building tutorial will fill the bill.

I/O, I/O, it's off to develop I go!

Sure, it might sound cheesy, but the new UBW32 is a low-cost development board that sports 78 I/O pins! Roughly the size of a big stick of gum, the UBW32 is literally ringed with I/O pins.

What's better than RFID tags? Your own fingerprints, of course. No batteries needed, no electronic eavesdropping devices, and no storage problems. They're always convenient and, well, they're always at your fingertips. The only problem with using fingerprint biometric controls is finding a suitable fingerprint reader. And, no, we're not talking about that archaic monstrosity used at the local cop shop, either. We're talking about an small, inexpensive fingerprint reader that just needs a swipe of your precious digit for unleashing a torrent of programming power.

SparkFun Electronics is showcasing a recent class project from Alex Dow at the University of Colorado. Derived from a box full of SparkFun widgets, Mr. Dow was able to concoct a digitally controlled Etch-a-Sketch.

Remember the flurry of discussion generated by our original article about prodding a bashful credit card into making a good swipe? Well, those creative minds at SparkFun Electronics (SFE) have now entered the fray.

Imagine being able to track anyone, anywhere in the world almost instantly. Scary, eh? Well, not if youre looking for a low-cost turnkey system for managing your small fleet of trucks, planes, trains, boats, kids—you get the picture. The $450 UberTracker from SparkFun Electronics is a complete cellular/GPS/e-mail hardware package that can continuously email its GPS coordinates from anywhere in the world via a cellular data connection, and it's a snap to set up.