Latest News
As we celebrate our 12th anniversary in August 2024, we reflect on our journey, the challenges we've overcome, and the milestones we've achieved along the way.
We are excited to announce some fantastic updates to our Electronic Toolbox! Whether you're a seasoned electronics professional, a hobbyist, or just starting your journey into the world of electronics, our toolbox is designed to make your projects easier and more efficient. We've listened to your feedback and made significant improvements to our calculators, ensuring they are optimised for both mobile and desktop use.
Changes to our programming libraries for the Node.js JavaScript runtime environment. Since 2016, we have integrated the Node.js JavaScript runtime environment with our products. However, we recently identified an issue with our I2C-based expansion boards, where the I2C bus would not free up after the program closed. This issue was not noticeable when a single expansion board was used, but it became a problem when multiple devices were connected to the I2C bus, as accessing one device would prevent access to the others.
At AB Electronics UK, we have always focused on the Raspberry Pi when developing our expansion boards. However that does not mean we ignore all the other great small board computers available today.
We test our boards on a wide range of computer platforms from companies like Orange Pi, Odroid and Asus, and if they work together, we add them to the compatibility list on each of our product pages.
One computer that recently caught our eye is the Radxa X2L. Radxa are best known for their Rock series of ARM based computers that share many characteristics of the Raspberry Pi. For the X2L, Radxa took a different approach.
We launched our first Python library in 2013 to provide software support for our first two Raspberry Pi expansion boards, the ADC Pi, and Servo Pi. Since then, we have made over 300 changes to the Python library adding new expansion boards and demo files and improving the performance of the code. There were also a few bug fixes as well.
Today we have made another update to the library, adding support for Python Build and Installer. This replaces the setup.py script which was previously used for installing the library.
We have added a new tutorial to our Knowledge Base for Home Assistant.
Our new tutorial goes through the steps needed to integrate 1-Wire sensors with Home Assistant using our popular 1 Wire Pi Plus and 1 Wire Pi Zero expansion boards. Using a Raspberry Pi or other compatible small board computer you can connect a wide range of sensors and devices to Home Assistant over a 1-Wire network.
On the 28th of September, 2023, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced the highly anticipated Raspberry Pi 5.
The Raspberry Pi 5 comes with a powerful Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Arm Cortex A76 processor, running at an impressive 2.4GHz. This represents a substantial advancement over its predecessor, the Raspberry Pi 4, with a processing speed that is up to three times faster. The enhanced processing capabilities of the Cortex A76 promise a smoother and more responsive experience, opening up new possibilities for a wide range of applications.
At AB Electronics UK, we're thrilled to announce the launch of our latest series of tutorials catered specifically to the Home Assistant community.
We've written comprehensive guides to help you integrate our Raspberry Pi expansion boards, ADC Pi, ADC Differential Pi, and IO Pi Plus, into the versatile Home Assistant platform.
At AB Electronics UK, we've been hard at work behind the scenes over the past few months, ensuring our knowledge base aligns seamlessly with the latest updates to the Raspberry Pi and other small board computer platforms. We've updated all our knowledge base articles to ensure compatibility with the newest version of Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and other leading distributions on platforms like Orange Pi, Odroid, and Asus Tinkerboard.
We're excited to unveil the brand-new AB Electronics UK website!
Our website has been completely redesigned, incorporating the latest technologies to deliver a seamless and visually appealing browsing experience on the desktop and mobile. We have updated the navigation and layout to create a clean and intuitive interface making it easier to find the products and information you need.
Optimized for Mobile, Lightning-Fast Performance
Following the cyber incident at Royal Mail, who we use for all our parcels, we are pleased to announce that Royal Mail is now accepting packages for all international destinations again.
Due to the tracked-only price change, our postage charges have been changed back to the lower prices following the changes earlier in February.
On 11 January 2023, Royal Mail reported experiencing “severe service disruption” following a cyber incident.
Royal Mail posted, “We have asked customers temporarily to stop submitting any export items into the network while we work hard to resolve the issue.”
We regret that due to price increases from the UK Royal Mail postage service we have increased the prices for the tracked and signed delivery options for sending orders.
Royal Mail have increased the prices every year and we have tried to absorb the costs for the past few years, but we are afraid that we can no longer afford to cover the large difference in prices.