Engineering & Technology

To celebrate its 45th anniversary, Collider took a look back at the behind the scenes hoopla on the set of Alien.

It all began 45 years ago, with the eerie premise of an interstellar cargo ship in the void of space with a crew encountering a dangerous creature. Alien was the disturbing flip side to the space opera fun of Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977). There were no lightsabers and no poetic words on “the force,” instead, the world in Alien was dank and brutal, and the behind-the-scenes stress was almost as bad as getting attacked by a facehugger. The crew, cast, writer, and director might have wished they could have gone up against the nearly indestructible Xenomorph and be done with it, as the making of this sci-fi horror classic was an intense ordeal.

Celebrate literacy with the children in your life with NYPL Sings!

Through this album, we focus on singing as a wonderful way for parents, caregivers, and librarians to bond with children and help them become self-confident, curious, and intrepid learners with a lifelong love of reading. Use this webpage to learn about the important developmental skill each song represents and how easily you can reinforce these skills every day with your child.

Have you ever heard of an icequake? Icequakes occur when groundwater freezes, causing the ground to tremble similar to a small earthquake. The phenomenon is somewhat rare, but recent cold blasts through the Midwest have folks feeling the freeze in more ways than one.

Because the Midwest isn’t a tectonic hotspot, detection relies on citizen scientists – primarily through the Raspberry Shake! u/dulce1021 has a great post on Reddit on how Raspberry Shake confirmed icequakes in Madison, WI.

TLDR: Icequake confirmed!

This is going to get nerdy, so strap in and prepare to be underwhelmed.

You won’t be surprised to learn that there aren’t a ton of professional high-grade seismometers installed in Wisconsin and streaming real-time data. However, there is a decent network of low-cost citizen science seismometers that we can use. These devices are called Raspberry Shakes and you can buy one yourself for a couple hundred bucks and stream live data to their site, which is where I went looking for data. Wouldn’t you know, in a city as nerdy as Madison, there were a handful of Raspberry Shakes with data to look at.

Read more!

See more about the Raspberry Shake from the Adafruit Blog:

• Raspberry Shake Detects Quakes #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi
• Build a seismograph with Raspberry Shake @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi
• Oklahoma State Uses 100 Earthquake-Monitoring Raspberry Pis with Raspberry Shake @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

ICYMI (In case you missed it) – the IoT Monthly Newsletter from AdafruitDaily.com went out this morning!

If you missed it, subscribe now! – You’ll get one newsletter each month.

The next newsletter goes out in a month and being subscribed is the best way to keep up with all the Internet of Things. No spam, no selling lists, leave any time. Over 6,300+ subscribers worldwide!

Here’s a peek at the February 2025 issue…

IoT Projects Holiday IoT Switch

Even though we are past the holidays, you can build this project for next year! This switch uses a massive 10mm diameter arcade button to wirelessly send a message to a smart outlet to turn on the holiday lighting. –Adafruit Learning System

Bike Web Server

Jelle Reith’s bike doubles as a mobile web server. –HackADay

Distance Running Training with an IoT Pet Feeder

Dan purchased an IoT pet feeder, filled it with their favorite candy, and had it dispense a piece of candy if they ran far enough. It ended up being an effective training program, they recently completed a half marathon. –mayer.cool

IoT News and More! Adafruit IO in 2025 – We Want Your Feedback!

The developers and designers on the Adafruit IO team are requesting feedback (from you!) to help guide our development of Adafruit IO in 2025. If you’re a current Adafruit Free IO user, an Adafruit IO Plus (paid) user, or have previously used Adafruit IO in the last year, we want to hear from you! – Adafruit Blog

u-blox Phases Out its Cellular IoT Modules

u-blox, a provider of connectivity modules, announced that is phasing out its cellular business in 2025. They are re-focusing on short-range radio modules such as WiFi and Bluetooth. – ublox

Matter will be better in 2025 — say the people who make it

An interview with the Connectivity Standards Alliance about current concerns and the future of the Matter protocol in 2025. – The Verge

6GHz Frequency Band Opens in the US

The FCC announced the 6GHz band would be opened to “very low power devices”. As to what qualifies as a low-power device – we’re not sure yet. – HackaDay

The James Webb Space Telescope has stepped onto center stage. But fhe value of the venerable old Hubble Telescope will never be lost, becuase its  stunning images still deliver. Here’s more form Astronomy Now:

With Hubble we can get into enormous detail about what’s happening on a holistic scale across the entire disc of the galaxy. You can’t do that with any other large galaxy,” said principal investigator Ben Williams of the University of Washington. Hubble’s sharp imaging capabilities can resolve more than 200 million stars in the Andromeda galaxy, detecting only stars brighter than our Sun. They look like grains of sand across the beach. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Andromeda’s total population is estimated to be 1 trillion stars, with many less massive stars falling below Hubble’s sensitivity limit.

Photographing Andromeda was a herculean task because the galaxy is a much bigger target on the sky than the galaxies Hubble routinely observes, which are often billions of light-years away. The full mosaic was carried out under two Hubble programs. In total it required over 1,000 Hubble orbits, spanning more than a decade.

See and learn more!

CNC Sphere shared this video featuring our Adafruit TFT capacitive touch screen on Youtube!

This video shows the creation of a 3D printed bezel for the Adafruit TFT capacitive touch screen. It covers the design in Fusion 360 and mounting of the TFT display.

It also demos a Arduino library that wraps the Adafruit libraries which combines the display and touch screen functionality into an event based library that is easy to use.

If you would like to use the Arduino library I’ve created, post a comment and I will post it to the Arduino library.

Unlike other cookware, cast iron requires a little extra love to maintain its nonstick surface and long-lasting durability. With the right technique, you can learn how to clean cast iron and keep your seasoned skillet in perfect condition, ready to deliver delicious meals every time.

Sables are luxurious little animals. These fur-bearing mammals, native to the forests of Eurasia, have sandy yellow, light brown, dark brown and black coats, which are valuable commodities in the fur trade. Sable pelts are a symbol of wealth and elegance.

Today marks the start of Black History Month 2025. All through February you can check out the blog for stories and figures that honor Black History Month. We are excited to share about Black makers, scientists, artists, hackers and more!

The theme for 2025 is African Americans and Labor

Take part on social media with #BlackHistoryMonth and checkout https://www.adafruit.com/blacklivesmatter for resources and ways to help.

Build your own custom mechanical keyboard that runs CircuitPython on the RaspberryPi Pico RP2040!

With lots of pins, the RaspberryPi RP2040 Pico makes for a great brain of a mechanical keyboard/macro pad — no scan matrix required. Up to 26 keys can be used with direct GPIO pins. You’ll learn how to make your own PCB design in Fritzing to send off for fabrication. A 3D printed or laser cut case finishes it off in style.

Once you’ve built your own custom keyboard from scratch, run over to Reddit r/mechanicalkeyboards and show it off!

 

Check out the full guide in our learn system!

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

PiMyLifeUp shares how to use Spoolman software on your Raspberry Pi to manage your filament inventory.

Spoolman is a really easy-to-use software for managing your 3D printer filament on your Raspberry Pi. It has various features that make managing your filament inventory even easier, especially if you are using software like OctoPrint.

When you pair Spoolman with OctoPrint or Moonraker, it can automatically update your inventory with the amount of filament that has been consumed.

This information is presented within a simple and easy-to-use web interface. This web interface even allows real-time updates so you can monitor your filament usage in real time. The team even actively manages a list of filaments, so adding a new filament to your inventory is as simple as possible.

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

NEW PRODUCTS – NeoPixel LED Outdoor Nettings – 1×4 + 1×5 Meter Sizings

This ready-to-go NeoPixel LED Outdoor Netting will make it easy to make large grids without having to piece together multiple LED strips. It looks like a 100 x 20 RGB LED grid but requires only a single pin for drawing to the entire 2,000-point display.

Each net comes with 100 x 20 RGB NeoPixel LEDs, spaced 50mm (2 inch) apart, already wired in a zig-zag pattern. For signal input, give it your classic SK6812/WS2812/NeoPixel data at 5V logic level (it might be OK with 3.3V, but we don’t recommend it). Power it with 12V: while it does seem to light at lower voltages, you’ll see the voltage dip by the time it gets to the ‘end’ of the grid, and also the lights are much dimmer. 12V DC will work best! Draw is 30mA per LED when fully on, so you could need as much as 60A if you try having all the LEDs on at full brightness. However, you can get away with 12V 20A for some simple displays where not all the LEDs are lit.

We recommend our Sparkle Motion board for driving, it comes with an ESP32, level shifted output, and USB PD and DC input for easy 12V supply. You can get started with WLED for a quick start. However, you could use anything that can drive 2,000 LEDs.

This netting works well for both indoor and outdoor displays, although we will caution that outdoor-friendly doesn’t mean waterproof: don’t dunk these underwater, and if the weather is particularly bad, it would be good to bring these indoors. We also don’t expect it to have excellent UV-resistance so keep it from long-term direct sunlight.

There’s lots of attachment points on all four sides, including plastic rings on the top and bottom and plastic-coated-wire loops on the left and right. You could easily ’tile’ more of these grids together to make larger displays.

Don’t forget to read our NeoPixel Uber guide for more information on how to care and feed your NeoPixels!

NeoPixel LED Outdoor Netting – 80 x 20 LEDs – 1×4 Meter Sizing

This ready-to-go NeoPixel LED Outdoor Netting will make it easy to make large grids without having to piece together multiple LED strips. It looks like a 20 x 80 RGB LED grid, but requires only a single pin for drawing to the entire 1,600-point display.

Each net comes with 20 x 80 RGB NeoPixel LEDs, spaced 50mm (2 inch) apart, already wired in a zig-zag pattern. For signal input, give it your classic SK6812/WS2812/NeoPixel data at 5V logic level (it might be OK with 3.3V, but we don’t recommend it). Power it with 12V: while it does seem to light at lower voltages, you’ll see the voltage dip by the time it gets to the ‘end’ of the grid, and also the lights are much dimmer. 12V DC will work best! Draw is 30mA per LED when fully on, so you could need as much as 48A if you try having all the LEDs on at full brightness. However, you can get away with 12V 10A for some simple displays where not all the LEDs are lit.

We recommend our Sparkle Motion board for driving, it comes with an ESP32, level shifted output, and USB PD and DC input for easy 12V supply. You can get started with WLED for a quick start. However, you could use anything that has the ability to drive 1,600 LEDs.

This netting works well for both indoor and outdoor displays, although we will caution that outdoor-friendly doesn’t mean waterproof: don’t dunk these underwater and if the weather is particularly bad it would be good to bring these indoors. We also don’t expect it to have excellent UV-resistance so keep it from long-term direct sunlight.

There’s lots of attachment points on all four sides, including plastic rings on the top and bottom and plastic-coated-wire loops on the left and right. You could easily ’tile’ more of these grids together to make larger displays.

Don’t forget to read our NeoPixel Uber guide for more information on how to care and feed your NeoPixels!

Speak directly to a philosopher with this installation piece from Marc Simon Frei

Thanks for sharing!

Answering the Call: When the user presses the physical button on the phone,
the call is answered. The LED light dims, and the name of a randomly
selected philosopher appears on the display, marking the start of a unique
conversation.

Engaging Dialogue: Behind the scenes, the Raspberry Pi communicates with the
OpenAI API to generate responses that emulate the selected philosopher’s
style and thought process. These responses are converted into speech using
Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology, allowing the philosopher’s voice to emerge
from the telephone’s speaker.

See more!

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).

This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information (and more) that you may have missed, all in one place!

You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no ads! You can cancel anytime.

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The Adafruit Sparkle Motion is the flagship in our series of “Sparkle Motion” boards, that are our attempt to make the best small WLED-friendly smart LED driving board in the whole world. Our resident mermaid, firepixie makes a lot of projects with WLED and she loves it!

The Adafruit Sparkle Motion guide has everything you need to get started with this Sparkle Motion. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, connecting LEDs, WLED, CircuitPython, Arduino, and resources for download.

Read more at Adafruit Sparkle Motion

#circuitpythonparsec
Easily shift pixels around your display with LED matrix shifting.
code example

To learn about CircuitPython: https://circuitpython.org

 

There are some fantastic cases you can buy for all versions of Raspbeery Pi. There are also some solid 3D designs out there for those of you with 3D printers. Here’s a selection from PiMyLifeUp:

While you could go out and buy a new case, a more interesting and fun option is to 3D print your own Raspberry Pi case. Many makers around the internet have gone out of their way to design had share their unique cases. There are many places you can search for cases, including Thingiverse, Printables, and Makerworld.

3D printing a case for your Pi is a more cost-effective solution, especially if you already own a 3D printer. You can purchase decent 3D filament fairly cheaply, and most 3D printed cases use very little filament.

Over the next few sections, we will show you some of the best 3D-printed cases we have personally printed and tried out. Some of these offer unique designs or are just simply something we thought looked and printed nicely.

See more!

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

New Products 1/31/2025 Featuring Adafruit Sensirion SHT45 Precision Temp & Humidity with PTFE – STEMMA QT / Qwiic! (Video)

• Adafruit 1.28″ 240×240 Round TFT LCD Display with MicroSD – GC9A01A with EYESPI Connector (0:09)
• RJ-50 (10P10C) Round Panel Mount Adapter Plug (0:49)
• NeoPixel LED Outdoor Netting – 100 x 20 LEDs – 1×5 Meter Sizing (2:02)
• NeoPixel LED Outdoor Netting – 80 x 20 LEDs – 1×4 Meter Sizing (2:02)
• Adafruit Sensirion SHT45 Precision Temp & Humidity with PTFE – STEMMA QT / Qwiic (6:12)
  

In quantum physics lectures, half-integer spins are generally introduced as “objects that do not come back to their original state after one full turn but that do after two.” As a consequence, students often consider this behavior to be purely quantum mechanical. However, spin-1/2 is above all a geometrical property of the rotations group and can, therefore, also have practical consequences at the macroscopic scale.

In the American Journal of Physics, a recent article demonstrates a macroscopic object of spin-1/2: The spinorial ball.

To illustrate this, we introduce and describe in this work a new pedagogical tool named the spinorial ball. It allows students to concretely manipulate a macroscopic 1/2-spin, which helps them to build intuition as to how the latter behaves under rotations.

The ball used for illustration is a LED football containing an electronic 3D gyroscope, powered by an internal battery, whose faces change colors when it is rotated.

It is made of :

• a 3D printed frame divided in two halves of a truncated icosahedron
• 32 addressable multicolor LEDs (WS2812E)
• Arduino compatible Adafruit Feather 32u4 basic proto controller (And an additional FeatherWing Proto board receiving the LED strip connector)
• Adafruit Bosch BNO055 9 DOF inertial measurement unit
• a 3.7 V 1,1 Wh liPo Battery

See more in the paper here. The information on the LED ball is on GitHub. Via X.

Swedish death cleaning might sound a little intense, but it's actually a gentle and thoughtful approach to decluttering your life.