SparkFun, Arduino, Retro, and Raspberry Pi

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 31, 2023

• SparkFun Reflects on 20 Years

  As SparkFun reaches a significant milestone - its 20th anniversary - we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the journey that brought us here. We owe our success not only to the remarkable products and services we offer but also to the dedicated employees who have been with us through it all.

• Upgrade your sewing machine for CNC embroidery

  For this to work, the machine needs to be able to move an embroidery hoop in two axes on a plane perpendicular to the sewing needle. To do that, SpaceForOne used hardware similar to what you’d see on a 3D printer. The structure is aluminum extrusion and the axes ride on linear rails. Stepper motors move the axes and an Arduino Uno board controls those using a GRBL-compatible CNC shield that accepts standard G-code created in whatever software the user prefers.

• This stretchable wearable sensor provides accurate knee tracking

  Health tracking is a vital component to recovering after an injury or simply trying to improve one’s own fitness, and although accelerometer-based devices are decent at tracking general activity, they fail to accurately monitor specific areas of the body such as joint movement.

• Retro Restoration: Acorn JP150 Bubble Jet Printer

  A couple of years ago I acquired an Acorn A3010 which I restored in this blog. Along with the machine came an Acorn branded monitor (which I have donated) and an Acorn JP150 printer. Today I have finally turned my attention to this printer.

• Refurbished vending machine

  If you can think of it, “you can probably do it on a Raspberry Pi,” believes 17-year-old Fady Faheem, who saw a broken vending machine for sale online and decided to give it a tech upgrade. Fady wanted to use his tech chops to benefit his community in Fort Worth, Texas, and the refurbished vending machine seemed an ideal gift to his local church – “the best place I knew” – which could do some micro fundraising too. The project has kick-started his career: “If I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be where I am today, working as a software engineer at 17.”