Engineering & Technology

When you think of rodents, you might think of tiny mice running through your cellar or the adorable hamster that was your 5th grade class pet.

Whether you prefer cute little puppy dogs or furry baby kittens, new pet owners should always consider longevity when selecting a new companion. Even with proper nutrition, consistent activity and top-notch veterinarian care, few pets will survive more than a decade or two.

Wildfires have profoundly shaped the landscape and history of the United States, leaving behind tales of devastation and resilience. While the infamous Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is often remembered for its urban destruction, the nation's forests and wildlands have witnessed even more extensive blazes.

Quetzalcoatlus northropi wasn't just big; it was ginormous! As the largest flying animal yet discovered, Quetzalcoatlus continues to fascinate paleontologists and average people alike.

The natural world is home to some incredibly tiny creatures. From miniature mammals to tiny amphibians, many of the smallest animals in the world weigh less than a grape and are smaller than an average 5-year-old's hand.

242 angel number symbolizes harmony, trust, and stability. Stay positive, embrace balance, and trust that your angels are guiding you forward.

1244 angel number symbolizes balance, determination, and spiritual growth. Trust your path, work hard, and align with your higher purpose.

944 angel number urges discipline, hard work, and spiritual growth. Trust the process, embrace change, and align with your higher purpose.

Ever wondered why some dead bodies last for thousands of years while others break down into dust? That's where the science of mummification comes in. Whether it's through ancient rituals, boggy swamps or some truly extreme self-imposed methods, mummified human remains give us an incredible look into history, biology and even chemistry.

What's special about smaller cats? Well, in addition to being extra cute, the smallest cat breeds can often be stealthier than bigger cats.

The term "commonwealth states" refers to a specific political status that four states in the United States use. These states retain the same powers and privileges as all other U.S. states, but their choice to use commonwealth reflects their history, values and governance.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Psychiatric Association, more than 10 million adults in the United States are living with phobias or similar mental disorders.

Troodon, a theropod dinosaur, has captured the curiosity of paleontologists for decades. Known for its sharp wits and fascinating features, Troodon possesses some of the most intriguing traits of the dinosaur world.

The world of baby names is full of fresh trends and timeless favorites, with parents searching for the perfect name for their little one.

NEW PRODUCTS – Adafruit PCM5102 I2S DAC with Line Level Output – 112dB SNR + Adafruit PCM5100 I2S DAC with Line Level Output – 100dB SNR

We stock a lot of chips and development boards that are able to do high quality digital I2S out, which makes for great quality audio playback. That’s great when you have enough processing power to decode WAVs or MP3s in real time. However, we don’t have a good selection of I2S DAC boards…until now! We really love the sounds coming out of the Adafruit PCM5102 I2S DAC with Line Level Output – it’s got clean, excellent-quality, stereo audio and does not need any MCLK or I2C configuration. Literally just pipe some I2S audio in and it ill just work.

The PCM510x comes in a few different varieties: we’ve got the the good-quality PCM5100 with 100dB signa-to-noise/dynamic range, and the excellent-quality PCM5102 with 112dB. The ’02 is a little more expensive but they are both quite good for any use and are pin-compatible so can swap between the two.

This breakout makes I2S digital audio easy: all you need to do is power it with 3~5VDC, and provide BCLK (bit clock), WSEL (left/right word select), and DIN (data in). The data lines are 3.3V logic only. By default it’s configured for I2S but you can also do Left-Justified by toggling the Format pin. Audio can be 16, 24 or 32-bit wide, the chip will automagically determine the right format from the WSEL / BCLK ratio. No MCLK pin is needed, the chip will auto-generate it internally from the bit clock – or you can provide it on the MCLK input if you want.

Other breakout pads provide: filtering (change from normal to low-latency by pulling high), mute (pull low to quickly set the outputs to ground), and de-emphasis for 44.1khz audio (default is off). The audio outputs are also available on breakout pads if you want to wire directly without using the 3.5mm jack.

Audio output is not AC-coupled because it is centered on ground: you can plug it into anything that is either AC coupled or has the same ground reference. Note that this is a line-level output, it cannot drive headphones – the output is for no less than 1K ohm loads!

Each order comes with one I2S Stereo DAC breakout and some header you can solder on for breadboard usage.

Adafruit PCM5100 I2S DAC with Line Level Output – 100dB SNR

We stock a lot of chips and development boards that are able to do high quality digital I2S out, which makes for great quality audio playback. That’s great when you have enough processing power to decode WAVs or MP3s in real time. However, we don’t have a good selection of I2S DAC boards…until now! We really love the sounds coming out of the Adafruit PCM5100 I2S DAC with Line Level Output – it’s got clean, high-quality, stereo audio and does not need any MCLK or I2C configuration. Literally just pipe some I2S audio in and it ill just work.

The PCM510x comes in a few different varieties: we’ve got the the good-quality PCM5100 with 100dB signa-to-noise/dynamic range, and the excellent-quality PCM5102 with 112dB. The ’00 is a little less expensive but they are both quite good for any use and are pin-compatible so can swap between the two.

This breakout makes I2S digital audio easy: all you need to do is power it with 3~5VDC, and provide BCLK (bit clock), WSEL (left/right word select), and DIN (data in). The data lines are 3.3V logic only. By default it’s configured for I2S but you can also do Left-Justified by toggling the Format pin. Audio can be 16, 24 or 32-bit wide, the chip will automagically determine the right format from the WSEL / BCLK ratio. No MCLK pin is needed, the chip will auto-generate it internally from the bit clock – or you can provide it on the MCLK input if you want.

Other breakout pads provide: filtering (change from normal to low-latency by pulling high), mute (pull low to quickly set the outputs to ground), and de-emphasis for 44.1khz audio (default is off). The audio outputs are also available on breakout pads if you want to wire directly without using the 3.5mm jack.

Audio output is not AC-coupled because it is centered on ground: you can plug it into anything that is either AC coupled or has the same ground reference. Note that this is a line-level output, it cannot drive headphones – the output is for no less than 1K ohm loads!

Each order comes with one I2S Stereo DAC breakout and some header you can solder on for breadboard usage.

NEW PRODUCT – Snap-on Enclosure for Raspberry Pi Pico / W / 2 / 2W

Here is a cute and minimal enclosure for your Pi Pico to keep it safe during use and transport. This case has been custom-designed and 3D printed to accommodate the Micro USB and Bootloader button press with venting through the top cover. No screws or glue are required; simply snap the Pico into the bottom piece and assemble the top piece.

If you want to connect accessories on top, like a PiCowbell, simply leave the cover off.

It’s made of translucent milky white plastic with an SLA process, so you can still easily see the power good LED shining through, and there are no lines or blobbiness to the print.

Comes with two snap-together plastic pieces. No boards, cables, or accessories are included. Designed for the Raspberry Pi Pico, Pico W, Pico 2, and Pico 2 W which you can grab here! It should also work with any Pico-like board as long as the button and micro USB connector are in the same spot.

Image of various stills from FLOW from Blender interview

 

Flow is an enchanting film about the journey of a cat. It is notable for a few reasons – no words are spoken as the cat makes friends, gets out of scrapes, and generally survives a (post human?) drowning world.

It is also the first Academy Award nominated movie made in Blender! With a budget of only $4 Million, it is a testament to the power of open source.

Blender spoke with the director Gints Zilbalodis:

…Blender’s mission, where a small, independent team with a limited budget is able to create a story that moves audiences worldwide, and achieve recognition with over 60 awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Animation and two Oscar nominations.

How did you learn Blender?

I learned a lot online, but it was great to have someone with more experience next to me (Konstantīns). He did a lot of rigging and was much more technical than me, so I could ask him for advice. Sometimes, I needed something specific in the animatic, like the deer moving in a spiral, and he would write a script to automate it. This was before Geometry Nodes.

Read more – Making Flow – Interview with director Gints Zilbalodis

Fast Company – How ‘Flow’ turned a $4 million budget into an animated work of art

Hollymotion – “FLOW” (2024): THE FUTURE OF 3D ANIMATION CINEMA ON BLENDER

If you are cat fan check in (or add to) our Cats of Engineering page or make a project for your cat with help from the Adafruit Learning System:

• Automatic Cat Treat Dispenser
• Nunchuck Controlled Laser Cat Toy
• HalloWing Interactive Cat Toy
• Pet Bowl Water Level Sensing
• NAU7802 Pet Food Scale
• IoT Food Scale with Azure and CircuitPython

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!