science

SparkFun Electronics

SparkFun Electronics is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SparkFun Electronics rather than just read about it. In short: SparkFun Electronics (sometimes known by its abbreviation, SFE) is an electronics retailer in Niwot, Colorado, United States. It manufactures and sells microcontroller development boards and breakout boards.

Key takeaways

SparkFun Electronics belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SparkFun Electronics to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SparkFun Electronics from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SparkFun Electronics (sometimes known by its abbreviation, SFE) is an electronics retailer in Niwot, Colorado, United States. It manufactures and sells microcontroller development boards and breakout boards.

History SparkFun Electronics was founded in 2003 by Nathan Seidle when he was a Junior at University of Colorado Boulder. Its first products were Olimex printed circuit boards. The name 'SparkFun' came about because one of the founders of SparkFun was testing a development board, and sparks flew out; Fun was chosen because the company's self-stated aim is to educate people about electronics. In January 2011, an education department was formed to outreach to local schools, hackerspaces, and events.

Open-source hardware

All products designed and produced by SparkFun are released as open-source hardware (OSHW), with schematics, EAGLE files, and datasheets posted on each product page. Product images are licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 During the Open Source Hardware summit in October 2010, SparkFun was one of the contributors in drafting the first OSHW definition.

Contests

Antimov This contest was based upon violating the 2nd and 3rd laws of robotics, where a fully automated robot would destroy itself after interacting with props and objects in a performance. The competition was retired in 2011.

AVC

The Autonomous Vehicle Challenge was a recurring contest held annually by SparkFun. The objective is to build an automated vehicle that can circumnavigate a course without human interaction. As of 2015, aerial vehicles are not allowed. The challenge was retired in 2018.

Projects

SparkFun has become one of the favored suppliers for those without mainstream suppliers as well as the "Maker" community, particularly for the Arduino and related devices. Whilst many of the non-component products sold by SFE are from other manufacturers, it does manufacture and sell some of its own complete products:

The Port-o-Rotary phone Picture Frame Tetris Giant NES controller

Legal disputes

Trademark dispute with SPARC International On October 16, 2009, SPARC International sent a cease and desist letter demanding SparkFun stop using the "SparkFun" name and immediately transfer ownership of SparkFun.com to SPARC International. The letter claimed the SparkFun trademark was too visually and phonetically similar for companies in the same industry. The two companies signed a trademark coexistence agreement on April 2, 2010.

Fluke trademark infringement

On March 7, 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed SparkFun that a shipment of multimeters meant for sale on SparkFun's website had been seized. The Port of Denver deemed that the yellow protective jackets on the imported multimeters too closely resembled the trade dress of Fluke Corporation's competing multimeters. Rather than pay the cost of shipping the imported multimeters back, SparkFun chose to have them destroyed. In a letter to SparkFun, Fluke announced that they would be supplying the company with a shipment of genuine Fluke products and equipment as a gesture of goodwill and support for the maker movement, which SparkFun accepted.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SparkFun Electronics

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SparkFun Electronics claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SparkFun Electronics before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SparkFun Electronics ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SparkFun Electronics

In research: SparkFun Electronics appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SparkFun Electronics in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SparkFun Electronics is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American companies established in 2003, Companies based in Boulder, Colorado, Companies based in Colorado, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SparkFun Electronics outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SparkFun Electronics in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SparkFun Electronics means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SparkFun Electronics out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SparkFun Electronics in simple terms?

Why does SparkFun Electronics matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SparkFun Electronics?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SparkFun Electronics.