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In the last blog entry we introduced the new Remote Switch Bricklet 2.0, Motion Detector Bricklet 2.0, Analog In Bricklet 3.0 and NFC Bricklet.

In todays part we want to present the Outdoor Weather, Temperature IR Bricklet 2.0, Rotary Encoder Bricklet 2.0 and the Solid State Bricklet 2.0.

As mentioned in the previous blog entry, all of the new Bricklets have a 7 pole Bricklet connector.

Outdoor Weather Bricklet

In the past we discovered that it is pretty hard to make a water proof enclosure that can be used for environment measurements with Bricks and Bricklets. To circumvent this problem we now offer the Outdoor Weather Bricklet. The Bricklet serves as a receiver for the Outdoor Weather Station WS-6147 and the Temperature/Humidity Sensor TH-6148.

With a 433MHz receiver the Bricklet is able to receive measurements from up to 255 outdoor weather stations as well as up to 255 sensors. Every sensor gets a unique ID at the first startup that can be used to match measurements to specific sensors/stations.

The Outdoor Weather Station WS-6147 is easy to build up and it measures temperature, wind speed, wind direction, rain as well as humidity. The measurments are transferred wirelesly with a frequency of 45 seconds. Additionally we add the Temperature/Humidity Sensor TH-6148 to our product line. The sensor measures temperature in °C as well as humidity in %RH.

The Outdoor Weather Brickelt in combination with the Outdoor Weather Station or the Temperature/Humidity Sensor is the perfect solution to add outdoor weather data to  the Starter Kit: Weather Station.

Temperature IR, Solid State Relay und Rotary Encoder Bricklet 2.0

The Temperature IR Bricklet, Solid State Relay Bricklet and Rotary Encoder Bricklet got an update to hardware version 2.0. All of the three Bricklets have a user configurable status LED as well as the new 7 pole connector. The Temperature IR Bricklet 2.0 and the Rotary Encoder Bricklet 2.0 additionally got the new and improved callback API. With the utilization of a co-processor we were able to increase the sampling rate of the Rotary Encoder. It is now practically impossible to ever loose any steps.

The technical specification of the three Bricklets stays essentially the same. The Temperature IR Bricklet 2.0 contactlessly measures temperature in the range of -70°C up to 380°C, the Solid State Relay Bricklet 2.0 can switch solid state relays with up to 380V/25A AC or 50V/80A DC and the Rotary Encoder Bricklet 2.0 is rotatable by 360° and it has 24 single steps in sum.

It is time again to introduce new Bricklets! Since yesterday we got eight new Bricklets in our shop. Some of them are improved versions of existing Bricklets, but we also released some completely new developed Bricklets.

The following Bricklets are new in our product range:

• Remote Switch 2.0
• Motion Detector 2.0
• Analog In 3.0
• NFC
• Temperature IR 2.0
• Rotary Encoder 2.0
• Solid State 2.0
• Outdoor Weather

To be able to introduce all eight new Bricklets in detail we will start with four in this blog entry and introduce the next four in a second part. In the first part we will introduce Remote Switch 2.0, Motion Detector 2.0, Analog In 3.0 and NFC Bricklet. The second part will deal with Temperature IR 2.0, Rotary Encoder 2.0, Solid State Relay 2.0 and the new Outdoor Weather Bricklet.

As we already wrote, the new Bricklets will replace the old counterparts. All of the new Bricklets have a co-processor and thus a 7-pole connector, as we already announced in the Outlook for 2017.

Since we have some of the predecessors still in stock, we will sell them off with a discount of 30%. Of course only as long the the stocks last!

Remote Switch Bricklet 2.0

The Remote Switch Bricklet 2.0 will replace the old Remote Switch Bricklet. The new Bricklet has all of the features that the old Bricklet has. You can still use it for home automation and it come with a 433MHz radio module including a corresponding SMA antenna. You can use the Bricklet together with the standard (PT2262 or HX2262) remote mains switches, as the predecessor. Additionally the new Remote Switch Bricklet 2.0 can now also receive data from a remote!

Motion Detector Bricklet 2.0

The Motion Detector Bricklet will be replaced by the Motion Detector Bricklet 2.0. The new Bricklet has many improvements. We don't use a ready-made module anymore, instead we developed our own PIR solution. The Bricklet is more compact and it has a detection angle of 120°, compared to 100° of the old Bricklet. The PIR sensitivity of the new bricklet can be controlled via API. So you can change the detection range depending on your application. A special gimmick of the Bricklet is the blue backlight. The backlight is dimmable and can be controlled via the API (for example during a motion detection). Since the backlight consists of three individually dimmable LEDs, you can also use it to show small animations!

Backlight in action:

Analog In Bricklet 3.0

The Analog In Bricklet 3.0 replaces the Analog In Bricklet 2.0. The specification is comparable to the predecessor, but it has the advantage that the analogue signal is measured directly on the Bricklet, it is not transferred through the Bricklet cable anymore. The voltage measurement is done on the Bricklet by the processor and the measurement is transferred digitally. Additionally the API more averaging possibilities.

NFC Bricklet

The successor of the NFC/RFID Bricklet has the name NFC Bricklet. For the old Bricklet we put "RFID" in the name, since technically the 13.56MHz NFC frequency is part of RFID. Unfortunately some customers falsely believed that the Bricklet is also compatible to the 125-134kHz RFID frequency. To make sure that there can't be any confusion we just removed "RFID" from the name. Because of that the Bricklet does not need the "2.0" at the end.

Like the old Bricklet, the new Bricklet can read and write NFC Forum Type 1 and 2 as well as Mifare Classic tags. Additionally it supports NFC Forum Type 3 and 4 including the necessary encryption. It also supports NFC P2P as well as card emulation. The API now has support for reading and writing NDEF directly. In sum the new features are a huge improvement and it is easier to use too.

While i am writing this blog entry we have already sold 41 of the new NFC Bricklets (they are available in the shop since yesterday) although there has not yet been any announcement. So this Bricklet obviously attracts a large interest! We are very sorry for the long waiting time. The transition from the old NFC/RFID Bricklet to the new Bricklet unfortunatly took way longer then we expected.