While playing with solar cells and MSP430 Launchpad I needed to check if MCU’s power supply level is high enough to switch to higher clock speed and do some power-hungry stuff. As MSP430G2553 comes with built-in 10-bit analog-to-digital converter and precise 1.5V and 2.5V internal voltage references, the task was quite easy.
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After a few weeks of waiting, I’ve finally received two breakout boards with BMP085 barometric pressure sensors.
These little chips can run from as low as 1.8V to 3.6V, and measure atmospheric pressure within a 300-1100hPa range, as well as temperature within -40 – 85C range.
They provide a standard I2C interface, so connecting them to Raspberry Pi, Arduino, MSP430 Launchpad etc. is quite easy.
You can get these sensors from Sparkfun, Adafruit (~$20) or (like I did) from Dealextreme (~$8).
One of my first hardware projects for RPi were Serial Shield expansion boards. They provide easily accessible serial interfaces with voltage level conversion for interfacing with 5V logic and a battery backed-up RTC clock which enables hardware clock support in Raspbian.