Utilities

Northern Widget utility boards

Instrumentation-Amp

Variable-gain instrumentation amplifier, used by us with thermopile pyranometers.

Maxbotix-Helper

Breaks out the pins on a MaxBotix ultrasonic rangefinder into easy-connect screw terminals for the data logger and temperature correction.

Top	Bottom

Skunkworks utility boards

These boards are in active development.

Longbow

Convert a RS-485 signal from a sensor (can travel up to 1 km) to an I2C signal that a standard logger or Arduino can read.

Tally

Counter that can debounce noisy signals (e.g., from reed switches) in analog circuitry. Good for anemometers and tipping-bucket rain gauges. Hardware  |  Library

Raven

High-gain current amplifier.

Heptapod

Screw terminals to connect additional sensors to the same bus.

Connect 1 I2C connection, half-duplex RS-485 connection, or (with a design variant) full-duplex RS-485 connection to up to four connections. Turns one connection into four connections, and 1+4 = Heptapod.

Libraries for off-the-shelf hardware

We write and maintain Arduino libraries for sensors and chips we use in our designs. These work independently of Northern Widget hardware too.

Northern Widget libraries

Stable libraries in the main NorthernWidget organization.

Library	What it’s for
T9602	Temperature and relative humidity sensor
MaxBotix	Ultrasonic rangefinder with temperature correction
BME	Bosch BME280 temperature, pressure, and humidity
DS3231	Real-time clock (used in NW data loggers)
MS5803	High-resolution pressure sensor
MCP3421	18-bit I2C ADC

Skunkworks libraries

In active development.

Library	What it’s for
ADS1115	16-bit I2C ADC
MCP3221	12-bit I2C ADC
MCP4725	12-bit I2C DAC

Open-source licenses

All designs and documentation are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike v4.0.

All code is licensed under the GNU GPL v3.0.