New Product Friday: Tiny Things with Leg...

Electronic things come in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of different appendages. This week we have a few itty-bitty components that have legs/leads. They're like bugs, except made of metal. And, you know, completely inanimate. (Inanimate bugs? Those are the best kind...)

	LM1084 5V 5A LDO Voltage Regulator $3.94 The LM1084IT-5.0 is a beast of a +5V voltage regulator! Spawning from the same family as the LM317 (sharing the same pinout) this regulator takes current limitations to a whole new level. Perfect for powering servos and handling the load they generate up to 5A!!!
	74HC165N Parallel to Serial Shift Register $1.45 What's a 74HC165N do? Think of it as the reverse of the venerable 75HC595 - it's 8 bits in, serial out!
	PICAXE-18M2+ IC $3.87 The original PICAXE-18M2 was a great advancement, but the IC now offers even more capability in its traditional low-cost / small size package.
	TSOP4038 Infrared Receiver $0.70 We have finally found a drop-in replacement for the venerable, but obsolete, PNA4602! This IR receiver not only can detect your standard 38Khz pulsed signals but can also detect the carrier frequency. What does this all mean? A cheap analog 38kHz signal strength/data detector for robots, secret triggers, and other electronic projects that's what it means!

Each week, I struggle to find something interesting to say at the end of these posts. But does anyone actually read all the way to here? Who knows. But this week I have absolutely no idea how to wrap this up. So instead I will, wait, what's that? RABID ZOMBIE ARMADILLOS! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! OH, AND HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND, TOO!