FoxyTronics News

FoxyTronics is closing down (for now..)

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 21:26:00 +0000

All too often in life, joy is accompanied by sadness. Three years after starting my small hobby electronics business, FoxyTronics, I’ve decided to shut it down. I’ve enjoyed building the business and inspiring people to learn about electronics and robotics, but the time has come to move on. After selling off all of my inventory, I plan to go on a road trip around the U.S.

I’ll start by driving from Lynchburg Virginia to the East Coast (Virginia Beach), from there to the West Coast (location TBD), and then (maybe) up to Alaska!

Wish me luck!

-Nate

New Products

Sat, 22 Feb 2014 04:06:00 +0000

Checkout the new products we've added recently!

Rotary Encoder Board (KY-040)

This is a simple and easy to use rotary encoder that works in both directions. It is often used with Arduino projects and many guides for it can be found online

Super Heavy Duty Double Sided Tape

This is a 1x8" strip of super heavy duty double sided tape with a holding strength of 5 lbs.

Stomp Switch (DPDT)

These are durable, high quality stomp switches that are perfect for guitar pedals.

10kΩ Audio Knob Potentiometer

These are 10kΩ audio knob potentiometers.

100kΩ Linear Knob Potentiometer

These are 10kΩ audio knob potentiometers.

2-Way 2.1mm/5.5mm DC Barrel Jack Splitter

This is a 2-way power jack splitter that allows you to split one 2.1mm/5.5mm DC barrel jack into two. This cable makes it easy to power two separate devices from one power supply.

Prototyping board (2"x2.75")

These prototyping PCBs are perfect for prototyping circuits, hence their name. They are somewhat of an intermediary between solderless breadboards and making a real PCB. They are cheap and work great!

2.4GHz Wireless Transceiver

This board has a 2.4GHz wireless transceiver. In order to establish a communication link, you will need to buy two boards. NRF24L01+ based boards are very popular and many tutorials and libraries can be found online.

New Products

Tue, 24 Dec 2013 02:01:00 +0000

Checkout the new products we've added over the past few weeks!

USBasp USBISP 3.3V / 5V AVR Programmer

This is an inexpensive AVR programmer that can program 51 different AVR parts.

4-Digit 7-Segment Display (Common Anode)

This is a standard 4-Digit 7-Segment Display. To simplify your interface to a 7-segment display with multiple digits, consider using an LED Display Driver.

ATMEGA8-16PU

The ATMEGA8-16PU is a popular ATMEL microcontroller commonly used for Arduino projects. The ATMEGA8-16PU can operate up to 16MHz, has a 10-bit ADC, 8 KB of program memory, 1 KB of data RAM, and supports SPI and USART.

DS18B20 Waterproof Temperature Probe

This is a waterproof temperature probe with the DS18B20 temperature sensor inside it and can be used to precisely and accurately measure temperature. This sensor can be easily integrated with Arduino by using the OneWire library. The red wire is VCC, black is GND, and yellow is data.

We also have a breakout board with the DS18B20 if you don't need a waterproof version.

MAX7219CNG LED Display Driver

The MAX7219CNG is a compact, serial input/output common-cathode display driver used to interface microprocessors to 7-segment numeric LED displays of up to 8 digits, bar-graph displays, or 64 individual LEDs. Included on-chip are a BCD code-B decoder, multiplex scan circuitry, segment and digit drivers, and an 8x8 static RAM that stores each digit. Only one external resistor is required to set the segment current for all LEDs.

Pro Mini

The Pro Mini is a great little Arduino-Compatible board. The small form factor makes it perfect for use in projects where space is a concern.

The Pro Micro is similar to the Pro Mini, but uses the ATmega32U4, which allows USB connectivity to be added on-board. The Pro Micro is considered to be the replacement for the Pro Mini, but costs slightly more.

Sharp IR Sensor (GP2Y0A02YK0F)

The GP2Y0A02YK0F is Sharp's top of the line IR distance sensor. It has a range of 20-150cm (~8in-5ft) and an easy to use analog output. Unlike many stores that sell this sensor, we include a cable with it!

4-Digit 7-Segment Display Board (Common Anode)

This is a standard 4-Digit 7-Segment Display, but on a breakout board for ease of use. The LED segments are red and are 0.36" tall. The board has current limiting resistors built-in, so no external resistors are necessary - just connect pins from your microcontroller to the board and you're ready to go!

TCS230 Color Sensor Module

This board uses the TCS230 sensor to detect the color of objects. The board outputs a 0-5V analog signal corresponding to the measured color and can be directly interfaced with a microcontroller.

HR202 Humidity Sensor Module

This module detects the humidity of the surrounding environment and outputs both analog and digital signals. The board has a potentiometer which allows the sensitivity to be adjusted.

OV7670 CMOS Camera

The OV7670 is a popular and inexpensive CMOS Camera. It has high sensitivity, allowing it to work well in low light environments, a low operating voltage, and a standard SCCB interface (compatible with I2C).

PIR Motion Sensor

This is an easy to use motion sensor. PIR sensors are used to detect motion caused by humans or pets and are great for determining whether people have entered or left a room.

5mm RGB Tri-Color LED (Common Anode)

This is a 5mm common anode RGB LED. An RGB LED is like a regular LED, but with three different colors (red, green, and blue) all in a single package. This makes it easy to not only change the color of an LED, but also to create intermediate colors by "blending" the three colors together.

We also added common cathode RGB LEDs.

TCRT5000 Reflective Optical Sensor

The TCRT5000 is a popular IR sensor that combines an IR LED and IR receiver in one easy to use package. This sensor is often used for line follower robots.

Hall effect sensor - US5881LUA

The US5881LUA is a hall effect sensor, which is used to detect whether a magnet is near. Hall effect sensors are often used on rotary encoders and position sensors for things like switches.

DC Barrel Breadboard Power Jack

This barrel power jack is extremely nice as it will fit into both PCBs and breadboards. The jack is designed for plugs that have a 2.1mm inner diameter and 5.5mm outer diameter (by far the most commonly used size for power connectors).

USB A to B Cable - 2ft

This is the same USB cable that comes with our Funduino UNO and Funduino Mega boards. It's about 2ft long and work great!

New Products

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 18:39:48 +0000

Check out our new products below!

FTDI USB-TTL Breakout For Arduino

This breakout board is an easy-to-use USB-TTL converter. A jumper on the board allows it to be configured to operate at either 3.3V or 5V (both power output and I/O level). The board has a standard USB connector on one end and a 6-pin female header on the other.

Small Stepper Motor

This is a small but powerful bipolar stepper motor, great for CNC and robotics applications.

2-5/8" Plastic Black Wheel

Pololu's 2-5/8" Plastic Black Wheel is made to fit servos with Futaba splines, such as the SpringRC SM-S4303R Continuous Rotation Servo. The wheels come with two rubber bands (one is a spare) that can be wrapped around the wheel to give it high friction.

Caster with 3/8" Plastic Ball

This small, light ball caster from Pololu uses a 3/8" diameter plastic ball. The height of the assembled kit ranges from 0.4" to 0.6".

This ball caster kit includes a black ABS housing, a 3/8" diameter plastic ball, two spacers (1/16" and 1/8" thick), and two #2 screw sets. The total height of the ball caster, 0.4", can be increased to about 0.6" using the included spacers. The two included #2 screws can be used to mount the ball caster to your chassis (the distance between the screw holes is 0.53").

Note that our ball casters are designed for small robots; they are not intended to bear more than a few pounds. With more weight than this, friction between the ball and the housing will probably keep it from rolling well.

Caster with 1/2" Plastic Ball

This light ball caster from Pololu uses a 1/2" diameter plastic ball. The height of the assembled kit ranges from 0.5" to 0.8".

This ball caster kit includes a black ABS housing, a 1/2" diameter plastic ball, two spacers (1/16" and 1/8" thick), and two #2 screw sets. The total height of the ball caster, 0.53", can be increased to about 0.7" using the included spacers. The two included #2 screws can be used to mount the ball caster to your chassis (the distance between the screw holes is 0.58").

Note that our ball casters are designed for small robots; they are not intended to bear more than a few pounds. With more weight than this, friction between the ball and the housing will probably keep it from rolling well.

Delivery Times

Sat, 24 Aug 2013 14:45:00 +0000

We're proud to offer same day shipping for all orders placed before 2PM EST. And as you can see below, USPS does a great job of getting packages places very quickly!

No bad, eh?

Tutorial authors and editors needed

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 23:35:00 +0000

FoxyTronics is all about education. One of my biggest motivations in starting FoxyTronics was to provide students and hobbyists with parts more inexpensively than other hobby stores, most of which dramatically mark up product prices. Another goal was to provide free tutorials to help people learn about electronics and robotics. Writing tutorials was something that I did long before starting FoxyTronics, back when my website was at www.roboticsguy.com, but now that I have a store selling components and kits I'm trying doubly hard to write tutorials that show how to use them.

If you have any interest in writing tutorials for the website, please shoot me an email at nathan.house at foxytronics.com. I would be happy to have your help!

Thanks!

New Products

Sun, 21 Jul 2013 19:54:00 +0000

Once again, a new products post long overdue! We've added a lot of new products the last few weeks. Check them out!

USB to Serial Adaptor

This USB to Serial Adapter has a standard USB A connector on one end and three wires with female connectors (making them easy to plug into header pins) on the other.

Barometric Pressure Sensor (BMP180)

This breakout board is for the Bosch BMP180 (replaces the BMP085) high-precision digital pressure sensor. The BMP180 measures a pressure range of 300 - 1100hPa.

The BMP180 is the function compatible successor of the BMP085, a new generation of high precision digital pressure sensors for consumer applications. The ultra-low power, low voltage electronics of the BMP180 is optimized for use in mobile phones, PDAs, GPS navigation devices and outdoor equipment.

With a low altitude noise of merely 0.25m at fast conversion time, the BMP180 offers superior performance. The I2C interface allows for easy system integration with a microcontroller. The BMP180 is based on piezo-resistive technology for EMC robustness, high accuracy and linearity as well as long term stability.

5A Current Sensor (ACS712)

This current sensor board is based on the popular ACS712 current sensor IC. A current sensor is a great way to measure the power consumption of a system, or to detect line activity. This analog current sensor can measure up to 5A of current at a resolution of 185 mV/A.

30A Current Sensor (ACS712)

This current sensor board is based on the popular ACS712 current sensor IC. A current sensor is a great way to measure the power consumption of a system, or to detect line activity. This analog current sensor can measure up to 30A of current at a resolution of 100 mV/A.

Motor Shield for Arduino (L293D)

This motor driver shield allows you to easily control DC motors and servos from your Arduino. The shield has 2 connections for 5V servos and can drive 4 bi-directional DC motors or 2 stepper motors (unipolar or bipolar). The 4 H-Bridges are capable of providing 0.6A continuous current (1.2A peak current) at 4.5V to 25V.

This shield was originally designed by Adafruit Industries. Details and tutorials for the shield can be found on the Adafruit website, but they will not provide support for this shield as it was not manufactured by them.

Breadboard Jumper Wire Kit

This jumper wire contains 140 pre-formed wires ready for use in your next prototyping project! The wires come in a variety of colors and lengths and are already formed and stripped.

Sensor Shield for Arduino

The Sensor Shield makes it easy to connect sensors, servos, relays, buttons, potentiometers and more to your Arduino.

Leonardo Pro Micro

The Leonardo Pro Micro is a great little Arduino-Compatible board.

10A Two Channel Power Relay

A relay allows a low power device, such as a microcontroller, to control a high power device. This relay board makes it possible to control a high-current device that draws up to 10A through a 5V signal pin.

Digital Calipers

These digital calipers are extremely handy. They can measure object up to 6" long with a resolution of 0.001". The digital calipers can measure in inches or millimeters, with a button that allows toggling between the two easy. A hard shell, padded carrying case and extra battery are included.

Safety Glasses

These are just your standard safety glasses. There isn't really anything special about them, but they're comfortable and get the job done.

Funduino Uno

The Funduino Uno R3 is functionally identical to the the latest version of the extremely popular and easy-to-use open source Arduino Uno. The Arduino Uno R3 uses the ATmega328 microcontroller and features 14 digital I/O pins (6 may be used as PWM outputs) and 6 analog input pins. The Arduino Uno R3 can be powered through a USB connection, battery, or a wall power adaptor. This package comes with comes with a 3ft USB cable.

Funduino Mega 2560

The Funduino Mega 2560 is functionally identical to the extremely popular and easy-to-use open source Arduino Mega. The board is based on the ATmega2560 wich runs at 16MHz. It has 54 digital I/O pins (of which 15 provide PWM output) and 16 analog inputs. This package comes with comes with a 3ft USB cable.

Business Monday - Starting a Small Business

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 22:22:00 +0000

Starting and running a small business is a challenging prospect. I started FoxyTronics with my minuscule personal savings and the money I made from a summer internship, so I wasn't able to hire anyone to help me with anything -- I've literally had to do everything myself. While this has made it difficult to get my business up and running, it also means that I've learned an absolutely tremendous amount.

Much of what I know today I learned through trial and error, but I also learned a lot by reading articles and blog posts written by other business owners. In the spirit of helping others get their business started, as well as to give anyone who is interested an idea of how this business got started and operates today, I'm going to try to have a blog post every Monday about business. So I guess I might as well start at the beginning:

Forming a Company

I started FoxyTronics in Virginia, which is great because Virginia is really friendly to small businesses. There are many companies out there that will form an LLC for you for a price (I've heard great things about LegalZoom, who charges $99 + the state filing fee), but if you don't mind doing the paperwork yourself, forming an LLC is actually pretty easy to do (at least in Virginia). The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has a fantastic website that makes forming and managing a company very easy.

There are several different types of entities that you can choose for your business:

Sole Proprietorships
Limited Liability Companies (LLC's)
C-Corporations
S-Corportaions

There may be more, but those are the ones I'm familiar with.

Sole Proprietorships are businesses that are run by one person, or by a person and their spouse. The business is not a separate entity from the owner, which makes it easier and cheaper to get started than the other entity types, but it also can be bad because if the business has legal or financial trouble there is no separation between the owner and business.

If an LLC is owned by a single member, then it is very similar to a Sole Proprietorship with a few key differences, the main one being that the business is separate from the owner in the eyes of the law, which can be useful for legal and financial reasons. For example, if the business were to go bankrupt, or be sued, the owners would have "limited liability," ideally meaning that the owner's assets would not be at risk.

Another advantage of an LLC is that the record keeping should be completely separate from the owner's personal records, which is a very good business practice for a plethora of reasons. I say should because many small business owners make the mistake of not isolating their business records from their personal records (I made this mistake early on, too).

The Virginia SCC website defines Corporations and LLCs on the Entity Types and Categories page:

Corporation

A corporation is an artificial person or legal entity managed by a board of directors, consisting of one or more individuals, who collectively elect officers to run the corporation’s day-to-day business activities. There are two types of corporations in Virginia, stock corporations, which are authorized to issue shares to persons who become shareholders, the owners of the corporation, and nonstock corporations, which may have members, but not owners. Stock corporations are usually formed to generate a profit for the shareholders. Nonstock corporations are usually organized for not-for-profit purposes, such as a tax-exempt, charitable organization or a property owners’ association. Generally, officers, directors, shareholders and members are not liable for the obligations of the corporation.

Limited Liability Company

A limited liability company is an unincorporated association of one or more members (the owners) who share in the profits and losses of the company’s business. It is managed in accordance with an operating agreement by one or more members (member-managed) or by one or more managers (manager-managed). A limited liability company is a separate legal entity and, generally, the members and managers are not liable for the obligations of the limited liability company.

Here are some websites that go over the differences between a Sole Proprietorship and LLC in more detail:

A corporation is what a large business would register as. It's more expensive to register and maintain a corporation and the requirements are much more strict. A small business, whether comprised of of single person or several members, most likely should not be formed as a corporation.

Here are a few more really good articles about LLC's:

Taxes

In addition to being less expensive and less complicated than a corporation, another huge advantage of a LLC is that it is a pass-through tax entity, which means that the business expenses and revenue are simply "passed through" to the owner of the LLC and reported on the individual's personal tax return. This greatly simplifies taxes for the business. NOLO has a good article on the subject: How LLC Members Are Taxed

I felt that a LLC was the best choice for FoxyTronics because it is inexpensive to register and renew, has lax requirements compared to a corporation, is easy to form, provides some measure of limited liability, and because taxes are simple.

Choosing a Name

One of the most important decisions to be made when starting a business is the name of the business. Coming up with a name not being used by another business is challenging, but what's even more difficult is coming up with a name not being used by another business and where the domain name is available. It's absolutely amazing how many domain names are taken. People referred to as "domainers" buy up domain names comprised of common initials, words, or phrases in huge bulk hoping that some day an individual or business will pay them an exorbitant amount of money for it; until someone does, they "park" the page, putting ads on it. Domainers compare this practice to real estate investments, but to me it seems more like blackmail.

In any case, it is very difficult to find a good business name where the domain name is available. It probably took me a good six months of consistently thinking of business names, checking if another business was using it, if it was trademarked, and if a relevant domain name was available, before I came up with FoxyTronics.

Conclusion

Hopefully that gives you an idea of what it takes to start a small business. Next time I'll talk about separation of personal and business assets, bank accounts, credit cards, book keeping, and more.

New Products

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:30:00 +0000

This new products post is waaay overdue! We've added a lot of new products over the past few weeks and you can see all of them below:

Stranded Hookup Wire
We've offered solid hookup wire for a long time, but now we also offer stranded hookup wire!

Stranded 22 Gauge Black Hookup Wire

Stranded 22 Gauge Red Hookup Wire

Stranded 22 Gauge White Hookup Wire

VC830L Digital Multimeter

The VC830L is a great introductory multimeter for those who can't afford an expensive Fluke. It is currently our favorite inexpensive multimeter.

1/4" Stereo Jack

This is a standard 1/4" jack that can be used for guitar amps and other types of projects requiring a female connector with solder lugs.

3V to 5V Logic Level Converter (2 lines)

This is an easy to use 3V to 5V bidirectional logic level converter. The converter allows you to easily convert signals from 3V to 5V and vice versa. It comes with header pins that can optionally be soldered onto the board.

3V to 5V Logic Level Converter (4 lines)

This is an easy to use 3V to 5V bidirectional logic level converter. The converter allows you to easily convert signals from 3V to 5V and vice versa. It comes with header pins that can optionally be soldered onto the board.

RS232 to TTL Converter - MAX3232

This board allows you to easily convert RS232 to TTL signals and vice versa.

USB to Serial Converter

This board uses the Silicon Labs CP2102 to generate a virtual serial port on your computer, allowing you to easily send and receive data over RS232. The board can be integrated with both 3.3V and 5V systems and supports baud rates from 300bps to 1Mbps.

New Tutorial: How to Make an Arduino Robot

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:01:00 +0000

We have a new comprehensive tutorial on how to make an inexpensive Arduino based robot. Check it out!