Well, almost 1000–certainly 900+. The image above is just a small fraction of the set of new parts available in Fritzing 0.8.1. The parts all come originally from the open source SparkFun Eagle Library (thank you SparkFun!) and the conversion was carried out partly by program, and partly by hand. You can thank our illustrator Fabian for so many beautiful breadboard view images. This new heatsink is one of my favorites:

Originally we intended to ship these parts with a new Parts Bin UI to make it easier to navigate through them all. Alas, the Fritzing project being perpetually undermanned–and the demand for these parts being so high–we decided to put off the UI work until later. So the new parts simply arrive in nine shiny new Parts Bin containers, with nine new tabs to click in the Parts Bin window. Another shortcoming is that the new parts have not been completely integrated (from a database point-of-view), so part-swapping is mostly not possible between core parts and the new parts.

But we have a good workaround for these missing features. The Parts Bin search function (the topmost tab in the Parts Bin window) is quite effective for finding parts, especially since we have added a new ‘and’ search. Just separate the terms with spaces; the image below shows an ‘and’ search for parts matching both ‘db’ and ‘25’.

The other goal we didn’t reach in this release was to enforce a single schematic-view image standard (based on a 0.1 inch grid), instead of the current hodge-podge (the majority based on a 7.5mm grid). The new parts all use the new standard, and we plan to convert the rest of the core parts in the next release or so. In the image below, examples from the old ‘standard’ are on the left, examples of the the new standard are on the right (the image is zoomed to 200%).

Despite the work we left unfinished, the addition of a thousand new parts is quite a big step forward for Fritzing. We hope you find these parts as useful as we already have.

Enjoy,

– Your Fritzing Team

Leaving the big stage with 88 years is not the worst scenario I could think of, even not, if you influenced the modern life like Douglas Engelbart. You don’t know the name? Maybe not, but your right hand is probably resting on his invention, the computer mouse.

For us it is pretty normal to navigate through graphical user interfaces but back in time when a screen was filled with 25 lines by 80 columns of fine ASCII characters was a pretty cool invention to have a coordinate based pointer – controlled by the human hand.

Thank you, Douglas! You are the hero of physical computing and an inspiring example to us all.

Read on my dear: NewYork Times.

(Foto by: Alex de Carvalho)

Update:

Many many of you loving Fritzing fans asked us to extend the deadline because holidays didn’t leave a lot of time to work on your submission, so the new deadline is July 29th at noon, Central European time.

We are very eagerly looking forward to discover your submissions.

(Deutsch - English version below)

Entwickle ein Giveaway-Projekt für unsere Fritzing-Kits und gewinne 500 Euro!

Es soll ein:

• interessantes
• nützliches
• unkompliziert
• überlichtschnelles Dreh-Blink-Sound-Krach-Dings-Bums entstehen, dass wir dann in unseren Kits verschicken.

Benutzt werden können:

• Basiskomponenten wie LEDs, Button, Batterieclips, Piezos, ICs, die nicht programmiert werden müssen (z.B. NE-555)
• Platine mit bis zu 8cm2 Größe

Um am Contest teil zu nehmen lade Deine Projektidee als Fritzing-Datei bis zum 11. July  29. July(12 Uhr CET) in die Fritzing Projektgalerie. Es muss unter Creative Commons Lizenz – Share Alike veröffentlicht werden und in den Tags muss das Schlüsselwort »PCBgoodie« eingetragen werden.

Wichtig ist die Vollständigkeit der Fritzing-Ansichten (Breadboard-, Schematische und Platinen-Ansicht) Das gesamte Fritzing-Team wird als Jury den Gewinner von 500 Euro küren.

Kriterien sind:

• Originality
• Simplicity
• Fun factor
• Usefulness

English version:

Create a give away PCB for our  Fritzing-Kits and win 500 Euros cash !

It should be:

• interesting
• useful
• uncomplicated
• hyper-lightspeed Turn-Blink-Sound-Noise-Thing’a’Bob which we can ship with our kits.

You can use:

• basic components like LEDs, button, battery clips, piezos, non- programmable ICs (e.G. NE-555)
• PCB up to 8 cm2

To participate upload your project as Fritzing file into the Fritzing project gallery till the 11  29 of July (12 o’clock CET). It must be published under Creative Commons License – Share Alike and the tags should contaion the tag »PCBgoodie«.

The completeness of the Fritzing-Views (breadboard, schematic and PCB view) is importand. The whole Fritzing team will elect the winner of 500 Euros!

Criteria are:

• Originality
• Simplicity
• Fun factor
• Usefulness

We just got a note from Mark Lukas about the release of their book Prototyping Interfaces that teaches and showcases how to build interactive things with vvvv and Arduino. They used lots of Fritzing sketches to illustrate their examples. A really nice idea is that they turned the book cover into a capacitive sensor. It’s all in German, but I assume an English version will follow soon.

Find out more at https://prototypinginterfaces.com

Thanks to the team of authors: Jan Barth, Roman Stefan Grasy, Jochen Leinberger, Mark Lukas, Markus Lorenz Schilling

DE: Nach Wochen des Reinigens unseres Servers von Bergen von Altlasten funktioniert unser Fab-Login endlich wieder. Vielen Dank für Eure Geduld.

EN: After weeks of cleaning the old server heritage the Fab login is finally working again. Please feel free to test it and send some feedback. Thank you for your patience.