Engineering & Technology

Tom’s Hardware shares the details of robot wiz Kevin McAleer’s new Pico-powered spider robot.

This spider is still technically a work in progress but he shared lots of juicy info about its design in a recent video — plenty to indulge in. The design schematics show it’s built around a Raspberry Pi Pico but McAleer assures you could use an Arduino Nano in its place. It works by detecting people with ultrasonic sensor eyes (HC-SR04). When someone gets close, its arms wiggle open and closed. It also has LED strips inside its body that can be programmed to change colors.

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!

Nice Pi find from Tom’s Hardware just in time for Halloween:

Poke080 shared a demo video of the Halloween eye in action. In it, we get a good look at the eye’s movement and ability to track targets. It’s illuminated from the inside with RGB LEDs to glow red, occasionally flashing green. It could theoretically be programmed to say anything but in the video, we hear a nice welcoming “Happy Halloween!”

See more! and check out the project from Poke08 on reddit and demo on YouTube

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!

It’s Saving time! Subscribers to the Newsletter get 15% off The Halloween Gift Guide with the Code HALLOWEEN15

Working on a project for Halloween this year? Share it with us in the comments below, the Adafruit forums, Facebook, Discord, Instagram or Twitter [aka X]– (tag your posts #ElectronicHalloween). You can also send us a blog tip!

Here’s a project that brings a matteter sensor together with a Raspnerry Pi to create a DIY filtration system. Here’s more from Joyce Lin via hackster.io:

Connect a particulate matter sensor to a Raspberry Pi to trigger a DIY air filtration system. The PMS7003 particulate sensor measures the air quality and transmits data in a serial stream from the transmitter pin (TX) to the receiver pin (RX pin) on the Raspberry Pi.

See project!

New Products 10/18/2024 Featuring Adafruit INA3221 – Triple 0-26 VDC, ±3.2 Amp Power Monitor – STEMMA QT / Qwiic! (Video)

• Engineer Professional Silicone-Tip Solder Sucker (0:10)
• USB Type C PD to 5.5mm/2.1mm Barrel Jack Adapter – 20V (0:40)
• USB C to USB C Cable w/ 100W Watt Display – 2 meter Black Woven (1:34)
• Adafruit INA3221 – Triple 0-26 VDC, ±3.2 Amp Power Monitor – STEMMA QT / Qwiic (2:11)

Adafruit is proud to once again run our Distributor Spotlight series, highlighting the invaluable role our distributor network and makerspaces play in bringing our products to a global market. From retail brick-and-mortar stores to customers on every continent, our distributors ensure that Adafruit is able to reach diverse sectors and communities.

Today we are highlighting MakeInspires. They had this to say about working with Adafruit:

At MakeInspires, we’ve been using Adafruit’s incredible products to inspire and educate thousands of young minds in STEAM each week. From designing robots to building DIY handheld gaming devices, Adafruit’s unique tools have empowered our students to turn their creative ideas into reality. We even have life-size posters of LadyAda on our walls! Adafruit has played a key role in growing a new generation of makers, helping us ignite passion and curiosity in technology for future innovators. See what we are up to at MakeInspires.com and Instagram.com/MakeInspires

Check out their site here.

In this guide you will learn how to make a spooky digital portrait come to life with a Raspberry Pi Zero image player!

You can make a seemingly innocuous portrait come to life using an ornately framed flat panel TV powered by a Raspberry Pi. With proper lighting, it will look just like a painting, but every so often, the portrait subject’s eyes will shift their gaze ever so slighting, sending chills up the spines of your unsuspecting victims, er, friends.

You’ll use a hidden Raspberry Pi Zero as the image playback device to drive the TV over HDMI. Plus, you’ll have a set of controls available using the buttons and thumbstick of the Joy Bonnet so you can pause and start the show, and more!

Check out the full guide!

#circuitpythonparsec
Find the distance between two points on a touchscreen, such as the PyPortal, using the Pythagorean Theorem.
code example: https://github.com/jedgarpark/parsec/blob/main/2024-10-17/code.py
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4116
To learn about CircuitPython: https://circuitpython.org

While recalling the fun one could have with the project kits and parts found in the Radio Shack of the 1970s,  I found a little board I made in 1978 (as usual stumbling across it while looking for something else).  Every part on this thing came from Radio Shack.  The IC is a National Semiconductor LM3914N, which is a 10-LED bar/dot display driver which at the Shack cost $2.49. Solderless breadboards were a new thing back then, with CSC (that is Continental Specialties Corp.) being the primary vendor at the time.  Radio Shack offered the perma-proto board seen here for about $1.79.  The LEDs were sold in packs of 2 for $0.79 and with the wire, switch and a few passive parts the entire project cost about $10.  The short demo videos show the bargraph and dot display modes.

http://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2015/03/LM3914_barmode.m4v http://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2015/03/LM3914_dotmode.mp4

 

I went on to make a stereo VU meter later that summer, again all parts from Radio Shack:

And while it came with a data sheet, remember–this was Radio Shack–they had Forrest Mims notebooks.  This exact circuit is used twice:

I went on to do more with the LM3915, such as build a 70-LED spectrum analyzer.  However I will save that for another day. (read: I have to find it!)

Cheers!

On the heels of #SepTandy, Adafruit is celebrating #ShackToberFest, a celebration of all things Radio Shack and Tandy. Tag your social media posts #ShackToberFest!

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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Try our spam-free newsletter today! 

It arrives about 11 am Monday (US Eastern time) with all the week’s happenings.

And please tell your friends, colleagues, students, etc.

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Strength is a trait that seems well-suited to competition. Over the years, there have been various attempts to claim world supremacy in strength, with different strongman competitions arising to certify the most impressive achievements.

Native to Sub-Saharan Africa, the boomslang snake is known for its remarkable agility, bright green coloration and potent venom. Despite being one of the few snakes capable of delivering a fatal bite to humans, this tree snake is timid and generally avoids confrontation.

There are more than 50 species of snakes that live in the seas. Some are super venomous and they can zip through the water with ease.

The V engine has been a favorite among car lovers for many years. Known for its unique design and powerful performance, it is the engine of choice for many vehicles today.

Thornhill! made this fantastic 160 phrase AAC device and shared some of the details over on Hackaday.io:

10 x 16 grid of snap-dome buttons covered with a sheet of icons, represent 160 pre-recorded phrases that play when their buttons are pressed. The snap-dome buttons have a nice tactile feel and are covered in a membrane that gives the grid some resistance to spills.

Read more about the project here

If you’re curious about making an AT build, check out one of our guides:

• CircuitPython Powered AT Hand-Raiser
• Building the Assistive Technology Ultimate Remote
• Using the TRRS Trinkey as an Assistive Technology Device

A new Adafruit Playground Note shows how to adapt a Tandy 1000 keyboard for use on modern computers using CircuitPython and an Adafruit QT Py RP2040 microcontroller board.

Check it out here > > >

The Adafruit Feather ecosystem is so rich with hardware diversity, we wanted to share them, one each day. Today is the Adafruit 15×7 CharliePlex LED Matrix Display FeatherWing – Blue!

You wont be able to look away from the mesmerizing patterns created by this Adafruit 15×7 CharliePlex LED Matrix Display FeatherWing.  This 15×7 LED display can be paired with any of our Feather boards for a beautiful, bright grid of 105 charlieplexed LEDs. It even comes with a built-in charlieplex driver that is run over I2C.

We carry these FeatherWings in five vivid colors – this is the Blue matrix.

What is particularly nice about this Wing is the I2C LED driver chip has the ability to PWM each individual LED in a 15×7 grid so you can have beautiful LED lighting effects, without a lot of pin twiddling. Simply tell the chip which LED on the grid you want lit, and what brightness and it’s all taken care of for you. You get 8-bit (256 level) dimming for each individual LED.

The IS31FL3731 is a nice little chip – and it runs happily over 3.3V power. Inside is enough RAM for 8 separate frames of display memory so you can set up multiple frames of an animation and flip them to be displayed with a single command. Since it uses I2C, it takes up only the SDA/SCL pins on your Feather and can share those pins with other I2C devices and sensors.

USE

The Adafruit 15×7 CharliePlex FeatherWing Guide provides details and use examples.

Video:

Moss Agate meaning revolves around growth, emotional healing, and nature's balance. Discover its grounding energy and how it fosters abundance and inner peace.

bitwiz_2152881 shares:

This super-cute mushroom doubles as a fun fidget spinner. Holding the mushroom by the stem and then quickly spinning the cap with the thumb and forefinger of the opposite hand produces a smooth spin that can provide a fun, satisfying sensory experience. Experiment to find the positions and methods that result in the smoothest and longest-lasting spins.

download the files on: https://www.printables.com/model/993556-mushroom-fidget-spinner

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

Shared by vidision on Printables:

I printed in PLA+ with 0.20 layers and outer brims. The PLA is really too rigid to fit the original connectors … I’ll try PETG and TPU the next time they are loaded up.

These pieces will have very small tolerances … probably worth printing at slightly above 100% scale … . Compensation and filament choices will makes a difference too.

Download the files and learn more

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

IanSmithBuilds shares:

A small camping lantern made to hang in your tent. This is made to fit any battery powered tealight candles under 40mm wide. The base has a print in place hook to hang in your tent or to string up a few around your campsite. The hook also folds flat so you can set them on the table.

download the files on: https://www.printables.com/model/993576-tent-light-camping-lantern

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil