The Adafruit L3GD20 3-axis Gyro Breakout Board has an adjustable full scale of ±250, ±500 or ±2000 degrees per second. It's simple to interface to a microcontroller with both I2C and SPI connectivity. Then add 3.3 to 5V logic and power compatibility and you have a very useful and versatile little board.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested gyro board plus a strip of 0.1in. header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide a free library as an example to help get you started.

• ±250 to ±2000 degree per second full scale (42 to 333rpm)
• On-chip temperature sensor
• 3.3 to 5V logic and power compatible
• I2C and SPI connectivity
• Dimensions 30.7 x 19.1 x 3mm (1.2 x 0.75 x 0.12in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 1032

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit INA169 Analogue DC Current Sensor Breakout sits between a load and the positive supply terminal to measure the current flowing through the load. This is referred to as high side current measuring. Suitable for measuring currents up to 5A and with supply voltages up to 60V DC, it uses a 0.1Ω shunt resistor and an internal 10kΩ to provide a voltage output of 1V per Amp. It's up to you how you use this output, you could simply connect a multimeter and read it directly or attach a microcontroller's analogue input and broadcast it across the Internet.

Supplied as an assembled and tested current sensor board plus a strip of 0.1in. header pins and a 2-way screw terminal block for you to solder on as required. If you want to change the measurement ratio, it's possible to cut the tracks to the load resistor and add your own. Please see Figure 1, "Basic Circuit Connections" in the datasheet for a handy table of values, or the supporting text for the formula.

• Measure currents of up to 5A at 60V DC
• Output sensitivity of 1V per A as standard
• Adjustable sensitivity by replacing the load resistor
• Adafruit part no.: 1164

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit ADXL345 Triple-Axis Accelerometer is a neat 3-axis accelerometer with adjustable sensitivity and a choice of either I2C or SPI bus connectivity. Select from ±2, 4, 8 or 16g sensitivity; ±2g gives a higher resolution for slow movements while ±16g is best for high speed tracking. It can be configured to detect a single tap, a double tap and free-fall.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested accelerometer board plus a strip of 0.1in. pitch header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide a free tutorial and an open source Arduino library to help get you started. If you aren't familiar with installing libraries into the Arduino IDE, follow Adafruit's simple guide. The library is well structured and it should be possible to port to other microcontrollers without too much effort.

• ADXL345 3-axis 13-bit accelerometer with optional 10-bit mode
• Tap, double tap and free-fall detection
• I2C and SPI compatible
• On board 3.3V regulator, 5V DC input
• 2 x mounting holes
• Dimensions 25 x 19 x 3.14mm (0.95 x 0.75 x 0.12in)
• Adafruit part no.: 1231

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit 5-pad Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout is a handy standalone board providing a digital output for each touch sensor which could be used as a replacement for a tact switch, for example. The AT42QT1070 chip handles the triggering and filtering of the capacitive touch sensors so that you don't need a microcontroller. Each touch channel has an LED attached that lights up when its sensor is touched, which is a nice feature when you are debugging your project. The touch pads can be as simple as a piece of copper foil attached to the board by a single wire. The chip operates in standalone mode which means that its I2C is disabled and a number of internal parameters are set to defaults. In particular, pad 0 is configured as a guard channel which means that it gets priority over all the other pads.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested board plus strips of 0.1in. header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide a free tutorial to help get you started.

• 5-channel touch sensor
• Per channel LEDs show activity
• Channel 0 is a guard channel with priority over the others
• Use as a tact switch replacement for example
• Single channel switched at any one time.
• Adafruit part no.: 1362

Note: Breadboards are available separately.

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit Standalone Momentary Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout boards operate without the need for a microcontroller using an AT42QT1010 sensor chip. When a touch is sensed, an on-board LED lights and the output pin goes high (logic 1), it goes low (logic 0) again when the touch is removed. You can save power by isolating the LED by cutting a trace on the board. It's OK, the trace was specifically placed for just this reason and if you change your mind a small blob of solder will re-enable the LED. The chip is set to fast response mode which requires 0.5mA or you can set it to a slower mode that only uses 50µA by the same trace cutting trick used for the LED. You can also use your own touch pad by connecting it to a solder pad on the board. These are neat little boards with some interesting customisation options. Supplied as an assembled board plus a strip of 0.1in. header pins for you to solder on as required.

Please note that these are logic level switches and not power switches.

• Electronic momentary switch
• 1.8 to 5.5V DC supply
• Low power mode down to 50µA
• Option to add your own touch plate
• Adafruit part no.: 1374

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit 8-Key Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout gives any microcontroller with I2C the power of touch. Using the CAP1188 chip to handle the triggering and filtering of the capacitive touch sensors means the MCU can get on with more important tasks. This is a very capable chip with configurable sensitivity, automatic recalibration and individual thresholds for each touch pad. All very useful features which would be time consuming to implement yourself. Each touch channel has an LED attached that lights up when its sensor is touched, which is a nice feature when you are debugging your project. You can set the board to one of 5 x I2C addresses and attach up to 40 x sensors to one I2C bus. The touch pads can be as simple as a piece of copper foil attached to the board by a single wire.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested board plus strips of 0.1in. header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide a free tutorial and software library to help get you started. The library is aimed at the Arduino but it's well laid out and should be simple to port to other microcontrollers.

• 8 x touch channels each with its own feedback LED
• Multi-touch support
• Press and hold feature for volume controls
• Consumes 5µA in sleep mode and 50µA in standby mode
• Communicate via I2C or SPI
• Dimensions: 42 x 18mm (1.6 x 0.7in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 1602

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit K-Type Thermocouple Amplifier offers a quick and easy way of hooking up a thermocouple to your next project. Thermocouples need a cold-compensation reference and a good amplifier which is where the AD8495 chip comes in. It handles all the electrical complications and presents you with a single analogue output which you can feed into your microcontroller or other circuitry if you are going old school. In fact, this amplifier is so simple that Adafruit have silk-screened everything you need to know on the back of the board, including the formula for calculating the temperature.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested thermocouple amplifier board plus a strip of 0.1in header pins and a 2-way screw terminal block for you to solder on as required. Adafruit only recommend this amplifier for K-type thermocouples although the datasheet mentions J-type. Feel free to experiment, but we only support its use with K-type thermocouples. We supply the thermocouples separately.

• Accuracy ±1°C at 25°C, ±2°C from -25 to +400°C
• Sensor temperature range -25 to +400°C
• Input voltage 3 to 18V DC
• Dimensions 20 x 16 x 2mm (0.8 x 0.6 x 0.08in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 1778

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit TSL2591 High Dynamic Range Digital Light Sensors can be re-configured to detect illuminance from 188 µLux to 88,000 Lux on the fly. Containing two sensors, a full spectrum sensor which includes the human visible and infra-red wavelengths, and an infra-red sensor, the boards allow you to calculate the illuminance in Lux. This is handy for controlling LCD brightness according to ambient conditions or controlling exposure in photographic applications. They have a fixed I2C address so you can only have 1 x sensor attached to your microcontroller. They have 3.3V regulators and level shifters making them 3 to 5V compatible. Ideal for low power or battery powered applications, they have a very low current draw, only 0.4mA when actively sensing and 5µA in sleep mode.The board also features STEMMA QT connector on either side, to allow solderless connections between the TSL2591 and development boards or to chain it with a range of other sensors and accessories using a compatible QT cable.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested board plus a strip of 01.in. header pins for you to solder on as required.

• Approximates human eye response
• Extremely wide dynamic range: 1 to 600,000,000 counts
• Lux range: 188 µLux to 88,000 Lux
• 3 to 5V DC power supply
• Dimensions 19 x 16 x 1mm (0.75 x 0.63 x 0.04in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 1980

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit BMP280 I2C or SPI Barometric Pressure / Altitude / Temperature Sensors use the next generation BMP280 sensor with an improved accuracy of ±1 hPa. They use only 2 x GPIO pins and provide you with precision air pressure measurements. Each board contains a 3.3V regulator, an I2C level shifter and pull-up resistors on the I2C bus making it 5V ready. The boards also support SPI which is handy if you want to use several sensors on the same bus. You can set the pressure sampling rate up to 128 samples per second to obtain a good averaged result whilst it's probably sufficient to sample temperature once per second. The board also features STEMMA QT connector on either side, to allow solderless connections between the BMP280 and development boards or to chain it with a range of other sensors and accessories using a compatible QT cable.

Adafruit supply a tutorial and library to get you started. The library also provides a subroutine to calculate the altitude given the air pressure with a resolution of ±1m and a range of -500 to +9000m above sea-level. Though, if you're 500m below sea-level, you may want to use a different sensor. Supplied with a fully assembled and tested sensor board plus a strip of 0.1in. header pins for you to solder on as required.

• Measure temperature and pressure, calculate altitude
• 3 to 5V logic compatible
• Pressure range: 300 to 1100hPa (9000m to -500m above sea level)
• Absolute pressure accuracy ±1 hPa
• Temperature range: -40 to +85°C ±1°C
• Dimensions 19.2 x 17.9 x 2.9mm (0.8 x 0.7 x 0.1in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 2651

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit BME280 Temperature, Humidity, Pressure Sensor is an excellent choice for your next environmental/weather project with the advantage of I2C and SPI connectivity. See below for details about its measurement accuracy, in particular the pressure sensor is accurate enough to reliably measure altitude to within 1m. The board has an onboard regulator and level shifting to make it 3.3 and 5V compatible for logic and power.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested sensor board plus a strip of 01.in. header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide a free tutorial and software library to help get you started.

• Humidity accuracy ±3%
• Temperature accuracy ±1.0°C
• Barometric pressure accuracy ±1hPa
• Altitude accuracy ±1m
• 3.3 to 5V logic and power compatible
• Dimensions: 19.0 x 18.0 x 3.0mm (0.7 x 0.7 x 0.1in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 2652

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit MAX31855K Thermocouple Amplifier offers a quick and easy way of hooking up a thermocouple to your next microcontroller project. Thermocouples need a cold-compensation reference and a good amplifier which is where the MAX31855K chip comes in. It handles all the electrical complications and provides you with an SPI channel you can interrogate as needed. This board has been improved over time and now has ferrite beads and a filter capacitor to improve the stability, plus an onboard regulator, and level shifting circuitry for 5V compatibility. A very useful, mature gadget.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested thermocouple amplifier board plus a strip of 0.1in header pins and a 2-way screw terminal block for you to solder on as required. Adafruit only recommend this amplifier for K-type thermocouples although the datasheet mentions several other types. Feel free to experiment, but we only support its use with K-type thermocouples.

• Measurement range -200 to +1350°C in 0.25°C steps
• SPI uses 3 x GPIOs
• 3.3 to 5V power and logic compatible
• Dimensions 20 x 20 x 3.3mm (0.8 x 0.8 x 0.12in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 269

We supply the thermocouples separately.

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit LIS3DH Triple-Axis Accelerometer is a neat 3-axis accelerometer with adjustable sensitivity and a choice of either I2C or SPI bus connectivity. Select from ±2, 4, 8 or 16g sensitivity; ±2g gives a higher resolution for slow movements while ±16g is best for high speed tracking. It can be configured to detect a single tap and free-fall, either of which can be configured to toggle an external interrupt pin to signal your microcontroller. As a bonus the board has 3 x analogue inputs with 10-bit resolution and you can read the values from the chip's on board registers.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested accelerometer board plus a strip of 0.1in. pitch header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide a free tutorial to help get you started.

• LIS3DH 3-axis 16-bit accelerometer
• Tap, double tap and free-fall detection
• Configurable data rate from 1Hz to 5kHz
• I2C and SPI compatible
• 3 x additional 10-bit analogue inputs
• 3.3 to 5V DC logic and power compatible
• 2 x mounting holes
• Dimensions 20.6 x 20.3 x 2.6mm (0.8 x 0.8 x 0.1in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 2809

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit Sensiron Temperature and Humidity Sensor Breakout is highly accurate with ±2% relative humidity and ±0.3°C thanks to the SHT31-D sensor at its core. This versatile chip is factory calibrated, and linearised and has on-chip temperature and supply voltage compensation. Add I2C operation up to1MHz with 2 x user selectable addresses and 3 to 5V logic and power compatibility and you can see why Adafruit chose to make a breakout board with it.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested sensor board plus a strip of 0.1in. header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide a free tutorial to help get you started.

• Accurate, factory calibrated temperature and humidity sensor
• 3.3 to 5V logic and power compatible
• I2C up to 1MHz
• Dimensions 12.7 x 18 x 2.6mm (0.5 x 0.7 x 0.1in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 2857

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit VCNL4010 Proximity / Light sensor is a useful board for measuring proximity from 10 to 150mm. Proximity sensing is always handy for robotics applications, but this sensor could also be used for touchless switching etc. It has built-in I2C connectivity making it compatible with most microcontrollers. Adafruit have also added a voltage regulator and level shifters to make it 3.3 to 5V logic and power compatible. Depending on your application, it's worth powering the board with 5V DC as this provides more power to its infra-red emitter for better illumination of nearby objects. Additional features include a visible light sensor and an interrupt output so that your microcontroller doesn't have to keep polling the sensor.

Supplied as a fully assembled and tested proximity sensor board plus a strip of 0.1in. header pins for you to solder on as required. Adafruit provide working example code to help get you started.

• Measure proximity between 10 and 150mm using infra-red
• Additional visible light sensor approximates human eye response
• I2C connectivity
• 3.3 to 5V DC logic and power compatible
• Dimensions: 23 x 23 x 3.2mm (0.9 x 0.9 x 0.125in.)
• Adafruit part no.: 466

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

The Adafruit MPL115A2 I2C Barometric Pressure/Temperature sensor is a useful, low-cost sensor for measuring atmospheric pressure with a resolution of 1.5hPa. Adafruit supply a free library and example code you can download. Once you have the board wired up and the Arduino (or other microcontroller) programmed it will display temperature, pressure and approximate altitude on the serial console.

Supplied as a fully assembled board plus 1 x 6-pin 0.1in. pitch male header for you to solder on as required.

• Power supply from 2.4 to 5.5 V DC
• Logic: 3 to 5V compliant
• Pressure sensing range: 500 to 1150 hPa (up to 10Km altitude)
• 1.5 hPa / 50 m altitude resolution
• Uses I2C address 0x60
• Adafruit part no. 992

This chip is not to be confused with the MPL3115A2, the MPL115A2 is designed for barometric sensing only.

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.

*Customers looking to resell on eBay or Amazon should contact Adafruit directly.