New Product Roundup – March 16th

Happy Saturday -Time for another weekly New Product Roundup! This week it is starting to feel a lot like spring out here on the coast – the perfect time to start thinking about outdoor projects. One of the most popular requests we get is for an irrigation controller project tutorial. Well, this week we released our Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board – the centerpiece of an upcoming project based tutorial – along with a couple other parts.

New Products
We have two versions of our Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board in the catalogue this week. These are designed and manufactured here at BC Robotics and feature drivers for 6 inductive loads (solenoids, pumps, relays, ect), a 4 channel 12-bit Analog to Digital Converter, and handy connectors temperature and flow sensors. The Irrigation Board is offered in a fully assembled, no soldering required, version and a bare-bones version for you to add your own connectors. For those going the bare-bones route, we have also added nice 3.5mm screw terminals to the catalogue. Finally, we have a completely un-related (and kinda weird) dual 20 tooth GT2 Pulley with a 5mm bore.

Product Of The Week
Product of the week is our Plato 170 Flush Cutters. These are an economical choice for flush cutters and work very well for trimming the leads off through hole components, cutting wire, and even thin plastics! 15% Off until Friday at Midnight!

GT2 Timing Pulley Double Head – 20 Tooth 5mm Bore

This GT2 timing pulley is a bit interesting – it has two separate pullies for two separate GT2 belts. Synchronously drive two separate shafts in different locations, use it to couple two belts together to make a tight bend, or whatever creative use you come up with! The pulley has 20 teeth and a 5mm bore so it will fit with most stepper motors.

Terminal Block – 2-Pin 3.5mm

These 3.50mm (~0.137″) Terminal blocks are a great way to make semi permanent connections between PCB and loose wiring. These are not breadboard compatible, but are often found on many add-on boards for the Raspberry Pi and Arduino so they are good to have around. The screw terminals are rated for 200V and 17.5A and can accept 26-16 AWG wires.

Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board

The Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board is designed to handle just about anything you could need in a basic garden irrigation system. The board has 6 independent driver circuits, perfect for controlling 12V solenoid valves or other inductive loads, a 12-bit analog to digital converter, and several convenient connection points for sensors. This version ships “bare bones” so some soldering is required.

Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board – Assembled

This version of the Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board ships fully assembled – no soldering required! The board features high quality screw terminals for input power and solenoid connections. Screw terminals are also provided for the optional DS18B20 Temperature Sensor. Each of the analog inputs is broken out to a 3 pin male 2.54mm pitch header compatible with most pre-built female square connectors. Simply plug it into your Pi, and away you go!

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Product Of The Week – 15% Off


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New Tutorial!


Getting Started With Blynk On The Raspberry Pi 3+
Blynk is a powerful Internet of Things (IoT) app for iOS and Android that allows you to control your Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or ESP8266 from your mobile phone. In this tutorial we are going to look at the basics of setting up Blynk for the Raspberry Pi. Unlike the Arduino platform, setting it up on the Raspberry Pi is a little more involved so we have made this handy tutorial to get you up and running in no time. Interested? Head on over to the tutorial!

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