Engineering & Technology

I guess porting DOOM has become rote. Makers are moving on to Quake, id software’s followup franchise. Released ~5 years after Doom in the late 90’s, Quake was a leap forward in graphics (unlike current gaming iterations).

Nicola Wrachien Silicon Labs created this fun handheld porting Quake using the Arduino Nano Matter. For easy playing a custom controller shaped board was designed with joysticks a screen and few Adafruit goodies.

Last year we showed a Doom port to the SparkFun Thing Plus MGM240P Matter board, this year we’ve been amazed to see one of our engineers has ported Quake to the Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 microcontroller on the Arduino Nano Matter board (this version of Quake can also be run on the original SparkFun board for Doom). The game runs at an average frame rate of 27 fps at the original game resolution of 320×200 pixels with the 3D and sound engines implemented in full.

A new board in a joypad format, has been created adding two thumb sticks and stereo speakers over the original Doom hardware, along with a two-inch screen and other components from Adafruit.

You can see the full build detials: Quake ported to Arduino Nano Matter and Sparkfun Thing Plus Matter Boards and Quake Port to the Sparkfun Thing Plus and Arduino Nano Matter Boards, with only 276 kB RAM!

Made with:

• 2.0″ 320×240 Color IPS TFT Display with microSD Card Breakout – ST7789 EYESPI
• Adafruit Mono 2.5W Class D Audio Amplifier – PAM8302
• Adafruit Micro-Lipo Charger for LiPoly Batt with USB Type C Jack

We’ve got the New nEw NEW for you right here

New Products 10/9/24 Feat. Adafruit RP2040 Snap-on Enclosure for Adafruit Feather RP2040 USB Host

This week we debut 6 New Products.

See the sidebar on the right for what’s new this week or visit www.adafruit.com/new for more info.

What is the reality of the near-future of space travel? The rocket dreams of the twentieth century needed budgets only available to superpowers. Times change. Smaller countries, private companies, and even some individuals see the stars as within their reach. What does that portend about the future of space travel? Here’s more from the UK Science Museum:

The next step will be the deployment in space of robotic fabricators, which can build large structures – for instance, giant successors to the James Web Space Telescope, with huge gossamer-thin mirrors assembled under zero gravity. These will further enhance our imaging of exoplanets and the wider cosmos.

The practical case for human spaceflight gets ever weaker with each advance in robots and miniaturization. Astronauts need far more ‘maintenance’ than robots, simply because their activities require air, water, food, living space, and protection against harmful radiation.

Learn more!

toyota_supra shared this project on Thingiverse!

hello again!

this is a “custom” wolverine arm armor set made with a bunch of models that is inspired by the deadpool 3 wolverine’s suit

if you have any questions or requests you can comment on this THING.

enjoy:)

Halloween is fast approaching, learn more and check out our COSPLAY HACKS guide in the adafruit learn system!

Surprise! It’s the Barbie content you had no idea you needed. We absolutely love Max Vega’s build and the video results.

Bring more camera fun into your life with MEMENTO!

PiMyLifeUp shares how to turn your Raspberry Pi into a Wi-Fi router using Pi-Fi.

PiFi is a distribution that makes setting up your Raspberry Pi as a speedy OpenWrt-based Wi-Fi router significantly easier. It is definitely a project you will want to consider using if you want a super portable travel router.

OpenWrt, for those who do not know, is an open-source operating system with a focus on network routing. It has become a popular choice for anyone wanting to set up their very own router. PiFi utilizes its own customized version with improvements to work better on the Raspberry Pi and be controllable through their app.

Read 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!

With some sensors, servos and of course a Raspberry Pi, you can create some spooky effects. Hack into store bought props to induce the ultimate chills.

NetworkChuck set up a haunted house to scare his daughters. The power of the Pi lets you set the level of scares. He goes through 1,2,3….and 4!

This is my Raspberry Pi Haunted house. In this video, I’m going to show you how to program your Raspberry Pi in Python to scare EVERYONE for Halloween. For a solid basic scare, all you’ll need is a Raspberry Pi and some speakers. For more advanced users….you’re going to have some fun.

See more!

Learn all about PIR Motion Sensor to create your own motion triggered props like Erin St Blaine’s Fog Machine with Motion Sensor and Adafruit IO

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!

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!

Adafruit is proud to once again run our Distributor Spotlight series, highlighting the invaluable role our distributor network plays 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 SAMM Market. Here is some info about them:

SAMM Market is a reliable supplier for electronic components, maker products and hobby projects in Turkey. As the official distributor of Adafruit in Turkey, we ensure quick access to the latest Adafruit products. We offer a wide range of products, including Raspberry Pi, Arduino, sensors, displays, and more, providing solutions for all your electronic and technology projects.

Here are some more links for SAMM Market if you’d like to learn more.

• Website: market.samm.com
• YouTube: MarketSAMM
• Instagram: @marketsamm
• LinkedIn: Samm Teknoloji
• X: @marketsamm
• Facebook: MarketSamm

Check out their shop here.

For most a walkman is a hopelessly dated piece of personal musical equipment, fit for the technological cemetery. But makers no gadget is without its use-value or inspirational power. The WALKPi takes its inspiration from the dearly departed Walkman, re-made DIY-style for makers Here’s more from via instructables:

Similar to a traditional walkman, WalkPi is an audio player setup that plays audio files stored on an SD card by pairing a Raspberry Pi Pico with the DFMini Player. It has an SSD1306 OLED screen, an interactive menu with various buttons for selecting tracks, volume controls, and additional functions.

…

The Raspberry Pi Pico, the project’s brain, is linked to the DF Mini Player, a compact, inexpensive MP3 module that has a simplified output directly to the speaker.

See project!

I was looking around the interwebs for the receiver I first bought for myself and I found it today. The Radio Shack Realistic Modulette 939 from the late 70s. It was something like $129 I believe, a chunck of change then. It could play a cassette tape inserted in the left side and tune AM/FM. Dual VU meters, stereo mic in, headphone out, input for a turntable (sold separately).

I used that stereo for a number of years including buying a turntable later. I must have sold it off or donated it in the 1980s.

Here Steve’s electronic Repair Shop gets one and shows how it was repaired in the video below.

Did you have a Realistic receiver? Let us know in the comments.

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

Are you subscribed to the Adafruit Youtube channel? If you’re not already subscribed, click here! http://adafru.it/subscribe . It’s a free and easy way to keep up with our newest episodes. Here’s some of what we’re up to.

• Electronics Show and Tell Wednesdays 7:30pm

Electronics show and tell every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET.

• Adafruit Ask an Engineer LIVE 8pm Wednesday!

Every Wednesday night at 8pm ET join us for our weekly live video & chatroom! Visit http://adafruit.com/ask for more info. You can ask anything about electronics, kits at Adafruit or just stop in to meet other makers who are building cool things!

• 3D Hangouts – Thursdays

Hang out with Noe & Pedro Ruiz every week and discover 3D printing! Get your 3D news, projects, design tutorials, shop talk and more each week..

• New Products – Updated Fridays

Each week Ladyada shows the newest great electronics at Adafruit!

• Live from the desk of Ladyada

Join Ladyada streaming live for circuit board layout design, code writing, surface mount soldering and more fresh engineering and even some gaming! If Ladyada’s working on it, you’ll find it here first.

• Chip Shortage

Chip Shortage includes videos about the ongoing chip shortage in the electronics industry. Adafruit founder Ladyada discusses the current state and highlights products that are hard to get or possibly “unobtainium”.

• John Park’s Workshop

Project builds, hacks, and mods from John Park’s Workshop!

• Advanced Manufacturing: Made in NYC by Adafruit!

This playlist highlights Adafruit manufacturing right here in NYC!

And so much more!

Anyone who owned a Radio Shack Armatron robotic arm in the 80s likely has fond memories of it. I still have mine, with all of the accessories, and it still works!

In this 8-Bit Guy video, he restores one that he bought online for $20. During the restoration, he shares an invaluable tip. This thing is filled with gears. To keep them all straight for reassembly, he photographed each step of the disassembly. To reassemble, he just looked at the pics in reverse order.

New Products 10/11/2024 Featuring Snap-on Enclosure for Adafruit Feather RP2040 USB Host! (Video)

• Adafruit I2S Stereo Decoder – UDA1334A Breakout (0:06)
• Protective Silicone Bumper for Raspberry Pi 5 (0:53)
• Official Raspberry Pi A2-Class microSD Card – 32GB Blank (1:07)
• Official Raspberry Pi A2-Class microSD Card – 64GB Blank (1:07)
• Digital Genuine Hakko FX888DX-010SV (936 upgrade) (1:55)
• Snap-on Enclosure for Adafruit Feather RP2040 USB Host (2:42)

Check out our Raspberry Pi Face Recognition Treasure Box learn guide in the adafruit learning system! Tony DiCola shared this video on Youtube!

Face recognition is an exciting field of computer vision with many possible applications to hardware and devices. Using embedded platforms like the Raspberry Pi and open source computer vision libraries like OpenCV, you can now add face recognition to your own maker projects! In this project I’ll show you how to build a treasure box which unlocks itself using face recognition running on a Raspberry Pi.

Check out the full guide!

somenice made this itty bitty slot machine with a QT Py and a NeoPixel Grid BFF add on and it is just the cutest lil thing!

Over the holidays I came up with an idea to create a micro slot machine coded in #CircuitPython using the Adafruit 5×5 NeoBFF Led Matrix. A micro switch, or limit switch is used to ‘pull’ the slot machine arm. A Piezo buzzer bleeps and bloops familiar tones and may signal a win. Ding-ding-ding!

Read more

Looking for more ways to use a QT Py or a NeoPixel Grid BFF? Look no further than the Adafruit Learning System:

• Adafruit QT Py Activity Timer and Hydration Reminder
• 3D Printed Frankenstein Monster with NeoPixel Eyes
• Adafruit QT Py and NeoPixel LEDs
• Programmable 12v Outdoor Cafe Lights
• Canary Nightlight
• NeoPixel Novelty Cufflinks with Scrolling Text
• NeoPixel Sprite Weather Display

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.

11,410 subscribers and growingSpecial Hurricane Milton Edition

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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The Adafruit Feather ecosystem is so rich with hardware diversity, we wanted to share them, one each day. Today is the Adafruit 14-Segment Alphanumeric LED FeatherWing – STEMMA QT / Qwiic!

Display, elegantly, 012345678 or 9! Gaze, hypnotized, at ABCDEFGHIJKLM – well it can display the whole alphabet. You get the point.

A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the Adafruit 0.54″ 4-Digit 14-Segment Display FeatherWing! This 14-segment FeatherWing backpack makes it really easy to add a bright alphanumeric display that shows letters and numbers in a beautiful hue. It’s super bright and designed for viewing from distances up to 23 feet (7 meters) away.

Works with any and all Feathers!

14-Segment Matrices like these are ‘multiplexed’ – so to control all the fourteen-segment LEDs you need 18 pins. That’s a lot of pins, and there are driver chips like the MAX7219 that can control a matrix for you but there’s a lot of wiring to set up, and they take up a ton of space. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could control a matrix without tons of wiring? That’s where these Alphanumeric LED Matrix FeatherWings come in, they make it really easy to add a 4-digit alphanumeric display with decimal points.

The LEDs themselves do not connect to the Feather. Instead, a matrix driver chip (HT16K33) does the multiplexing for you. The Feather simply sends i2c commands to the chip to tell it what LEDs to light up and it is handled for you. This takes a lot of the work and pin-requirements off the Feather. Since it uses only I2C for control, it works with any Feather and can share the I2C pins for other sensors or displays.

This product kit comes with:

• A fully tested and assembled Adafruit 4-Digit 14-Segment Alphanumeric Display FeatherWing
• Two sixteen pin headers

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the FeatherWing but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes!  Note: Feather board and 14-segment display are not included, but we have lots available in the shop.

Of course, in classic Adafruit fashion, we also have a detailed tutorial showing you how to solder, wire and control the display. We even wrote a very nice library for the backpacks in both Arduino & CircuitPython so you can get running in under half an hour, displaying letters or numbers on the 14-segment. If you’ve been eyeing matrix displays but hesitated because of the complexity, this is the solution you’ve been looking for.

USE

The 14-Segment Alpha-numeric LED FeatherWing Guide provides details and use examples.

Projects

Would you like to see this FeatherWing in action? Check out the project below:

• Mystery Box: Crypto Countdown Case

Video:

Upgrade this Haunted Candy Bowl with an Adafruit HalloWing M4! Use the touch pads to change the side lit NeoPixel animations, customize the animated eyes, and trick out your candy bowl to win this year’s Halloween!

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!

From the GitHub release page:

This is CircuitPython 9.2.0-beta.1, a beta release for 9.2.0. It has known bugs that will be fixed before the final release of 9.2.0.

WARNING for nRF52 boards only: If your board has an nRF52 UF2 bootloader whose version is before 0.6.1, you will not be able to load CircuitPython 8.2.0 and later, due to increased size of the firmware. See these instructions for updating your bootloader.

Highlights of this release

• New busio.I2C.probe() and bitbangio.I2C.probe() methods to check for a single device address.
• Use new ESP-IDF I2C driver.
• ESP32-S3: implement sdioio.
• Incompatible change: Change default hostname for all Espressif boards to the ESP-IDF default, which is espressif. Previous board-specific names were not applied consistently. Use wifi.radio.hostname to set a custom hostname.
• Incompatible change: Use default hostname for mDNS. Fix mDNS collision mangling.

Notable changes in 9.2.0 from 9.1.x

• Raspberry Pi RP2350 support.
• Update to Espressif ESP-IDF V5.3.1, including new I2C driver.
• Merge MicroPython updates from v1.22.2 and v1.23.
• Espressif BLE improvements.
• Add math.dist().
• _eve updates.
• New busio.I2C.probe() and bitbangio.I2C.probe() methods to check for a single device address.
• ESP32-S3: implement sdioio.
• Incompatible change: Change default hostname for all Espressif boards to the ESP-IDF default, which is espressif.
• Incompatible change: Use default hostname for mDNS. Fix mDNS collision mangling.

Incompatibility warnings

• Change default hostname for all Espressif boards to the ESP-IDF default, which is espressif. Previous board-specific names were not applied consistently. Use wifi.radio.hostname to set a custom hostname.
• Use default hostname for mDNS. Fix mDNS collision mangling. DNS hostnames will be different.

Download from circuitpython.org

Firmware downloads are available from the downloads page on circuitpython.org. The site makes it easy to select the correct file and language for your board.

Installation

To install follow the instructions in the Welcome to CircuitPython! guide. To install the latest libraries, see this page in that guide.

Try the latest version of the Mu editor for creating and editing your CircuitPython programs and for easy access to the CircuitPython serial connection (the REPL).

Documentation

Documentation is available in readthedocs.io.

Port status

CircuitPython has a number of “ports” that are the core implementations for different microcontroller families. Stability varies on a per-port basis. As of this release, these ports are consider stable (but see Known Issues below):

• atmel-samd: Microchip SAMD21, SAMx5x
• cxd56: Sony Spresense
• espressif: Espressif ESP32, ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3, ESP32-C2, ESP32-C3, ESP32-C6
• nordic: Nordic nRF52840, nRF52833
• raspberrypi: Raspberry Pi RP2040, RP2350
• stm: ST STM32F4 chip family

These ports are considered alpha and will have bugs and missing functionality:

• broadcom: Raspberry Pi boards such as RPi 4, RPi Zero 2W
• espressif: ESP32-P4 (currently no USB support)
• litex: fomu
• mimxrt10xx: NXP i.MX RT10xxx
• renode: hardware simulator
• silabs: Silicon Labs MG24 family
• stm: ST non-STM32F4 chip families

Changes since 9.2.0-beta.0Fixes and enhancements

• Incompatible change: Use default hostname for mDNS. Fix mDNS collision mangling. #9699. Thanks @tannewt.
• Fix epaperdisplay to handle delays properly when two_byte_sequence_length=True. #9694. Thanks @sola85.
• Fix crash when printing DeepSleepRequest exception, used internally by alarm. #9692. Thanks @jepler.
• Fix internal check for connected BLE workflow, which was preventing deep sleep on some BLE boards. #9679. Thanks @dhalbert.
• New busio.I2C.probe() and bitbangio.I2C.probe() methods to check for a single device address. #9671. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Add slight delay in KeyMatrix scanning to allow time for signal setting. #9665. Thanks @SeanCline.
• Update to tinyusb v0.17.0. #9664. Thanks @samblenny.
• Fix MP3Decoder infinite loop when file ends in a partial frame. #9653. Thanks @eric321.

Port and board-specific changesBroadcomEspressif

• Save space when copying default hostname. #9677. Thanks @RetiredWizard.
• Fix BLE Characteristic deinit checking. #9676. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Switch to using new ESP-IDF I2C driver. #9671. Thanks @tannewt and @dhalbert.
• Incompatible change: Change default hostname for all Espressif boards to the ESP-IDF default, which is espressif. #9656. Thanks @RetiredWizard.
• ESP32-S3: implement sdioio. #9641. Thanks @jacobcrigby and @RetiredWizard.
• Remove ESP_CONSOLE_UART settings for ESP32-S3 666 display boards. #9583. Thanks @RetiredWizard.

i.MXnordicrenodeRP2

• Move RP2040 divider wrapper to RAM. #9698. Thanks @tannewt.
• Fix os.uname() values for RP2350. #9683. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Fix rotaryio on RP2350. #9682. Thanks @jepler.
• Clear any pending interrupt flag in rp2pio. #9680. Thanks @jepler.

SAMxSiLabsSpresenseSTMIndividual boards

• Adafruit Feather RP2350: Add board.IO4 and board.IO7. #9668. Thanks @tannewt.
• Datanoise PicoADK V2. #9696. Thanks @DatanoiseTV.
• Makerfabs TFT7: Allow specifying CIRCUITPY_DISPLAY_WIDTH in settings.toml. #9654, #9634. Thanks @RetiredWizard.
• Sunton ESP32 2432S028: Allow specifying CIRCUITPY_DISPLAY_ROTATION in settings.toml. #9654, #9627. Thanks @RetiredWizard.

Documentation changes

• Fix floppyio documentation formatting. #9658. Thanks @jepler.
• Correct memorymap.AddressRange example. #9639. Thanks @jepler.

Build and infrastructure changes

• Use MP_PROPERTY_GETTER, etc. everywhere. #9684. Thanks @diamant3.
• Keep PYTHONPATH setting when running tests. #9655. Thanks @jepler.

Translation additions and improvements

• Thanks for translations:
  • @andibing (English – UK)
  • @diamant3 (Filipino)
  • Kamborio (weblate user) (Spanish)
  • @wtuemura (Portugese – Brazil)

New boards since 9.2.0-beta.0

• Espressif ESP32-S# LCD EV Board v1.5. #9608. Thanks @sanhu88.
• Makerdiary iMX RT1011 Nano Kit. #9645. Thanks @makerdiary.
• Maker Go C6 SuperMini. #9687. Thanks @bill88t.
• Sunton ESP32 8048S050 [ESP32-S3]. #9661. Thanks @sanhu88.

Known issues

• See https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues for other issues, including issues still to be addressed for:
  • 9.1.x
  • 9.2.0
  • 9.x.x
  • 10.0.0
  • long term
• Native-code .mpy files are not working. This capability is currently enabled only on the winterbloom_sol board.

Thanks

Thank you to all who used, tested, and contributed toward this release, including the contributors above, and many others on GitHub and Discord. Join us on the Discord chat to collaborate.

Legoyeti6376 shares this great design for a An Articulated humpback whale

download the files on: https://www.printables.com/model/991532-articulated-humpback-whale

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

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

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