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Desc: Connecting an older PC PS/2 mouse to an Arduino is fairly simple. With just a few wires, it can be easily integrated into Arduino projects. The mouse can act as a sensor for determining positions or movements of vehicles, robots, for example.See the video below and more on hackster.io.
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=563744
Source: Anne Barela
Connecting an older PC PS/2 mouse to an Arduino is fairly simple. With just a few wires, it can be easily integrated into Arduino projects. The mouse can act as a sensor for determining positions or movements of vehicles, robots, for example.
Desc: Xyla Foxlin and Becky Stern team up to develop DIY version of a bear that senses hugs and transmits them via the internet to a remote bear.The project uses a number of Adafruit parts including Feather ESP8266 Huzzah boards, MPRLS pressure sensors and vibration motors attached to a permanent breadboard. Programming is via Arduino and […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=563662
Source: Anne Barela
Xyla Foxlin and Becky Stern team up to develop DIY version of a bear that senses hugs and transmits them via the internet to a remote bear.
Desc: Spice up your Feather project with a beautiful 3.5″ touchscreen display shield with built in microSD card socket. This TFT display is 3.5″ diagonal with a bright 6 white-LED backlight. You get a massive 480×320 pixels with individual 16-bit color pixel control. It has way more resolution than a black and white 128×64 display, and […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=563579
Source: Liz Clark
Spice up your Feather project with a beautiful 3.5″ touchscreen display shield with built in microSD card socket. This TFT display is 3.5″ diagonal with a bright 6 white-LED backlight. You get a massive 480×320 pixels with individual 16-bit color pixel control. It has way more resolution than a black and white 128×64 display, and twice as much as our 2.4″ TFT FeatherWing. As a bonus, this display comes with a resistive touchscreen attached to it already, so you can detect finger presses anywhere on the screen.
The Adafruit 3.5″ 480×320 TFT FeatherWing guide has been updated for rev B of the board. As of Nov 15, 2023, we’ve updated this hardware to use the TSC2007 instead of the discontinued STMPE811 touchscreen controller. The screen and micro SD card are the same but any touchscreen code will need to be updated to use our Arduino or CircuitPython library. We’ve also updated the reset button to be right-angle and added a STEMMA QT port. Lastly, we’ve also updated it with Adafruit Pinguin to make a lovely and legible silkscreen. We have a new Pinouts page, new Arduino example, new CircuitPython example and updated resources on the Downloads page.
Desc: The Adafruit ADS7830 8-Channel 8-Bit ADC with an I2C interface is an affordable 8-channel ADC with I2C interface, so it’s easy to include with any platform. Wire up to the SDA/SCL pins plus power and ground, only four wires required. If you need more than 8 channels, there’s 2 address pins so you could have […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=562556
Source: Liz Clark
The Adafruit ADS7830 8-Channel 8-Bit ADC with an I2C interface is an affordable 8-channel ADC with I2C interface, so it’s easy to include with any platform. Wire up to the SDA/SCL pins plus power and ground, only four wires required. If you need more than 8 channels, there’s 2 address pins so you could have 4 x 8 = 32 total ADC channels with chain-able Stemma QT cables.
The Adafruit ADS7830 guide has everything you need to get started with using this ADC. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: What’s Metro-shaped and has an ESP32-S3 WiFi module? What has a STEMMA QT connector for I2C devices and a Lipoly charger circuit? What has your favorite Espressif WiFi microcontroller and lots of memory for your next IoT project? That’s right – it’s the new Adafruit Metro ESP32-S3! With native USB and a load of PSRAM, […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=562474
Source: Liz Clark
What’s Metro-shaped and has an ESP32-S3 WiFi module? What has a STEMMA QT connector for I2C devices and a Lipoly charger circuit? What has your favorite Espressif WiFi microcontroller and lots of memory for your next IoT project? That’s right – it’s the new Adafruit Metro ESP32-S3! With native USB and a load of PSRAM, this board is perfect for use with CircuitPython or Arduino to add low-cost WiFi while retaining shield compatibility.
The Adafruit Metro ESP32-S3 guide has been updated for rev B of the board. As of Nov 8, 2023, we’ve fixed this hardware to be revision B which has changed the NeoPixel pin and the SPI/SD card pins to no longer use the same pins as the octal PSRAM. This means that the hardware now works correctly when PSRAM is activated! If you have a rev A hardware board, contact support to get a replacement rev B. The guide has an updated Pinouts page, updated Factory Reset UF2 and .bin files and new resources on the Downloads page.
Desc: Neat new project from Mirko Pavleski up on Hackster.io!A metronome is a device used in music to help musicians keep a consistent tempo or beat while playing or practicing. It produces a regular, steady sound, typically in the form of clicks or beats per minute (BPM), to aid musicians in maintaining the desired rhythm. See […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=562503
Source: Kelly
Neat new project from Mirko Pavleski up on Hackster.io!
A metronome is a device used in music to help musicians keep a consistent tempo or beat while playing or practicing. It produces a regular, steady sound, typically in the form of clicks or beats per minute (BPM), to aid musicians in maintaining the desired rhythm.
Desc: The VCNL4020 is a handy two-in-one sensor, with a proximity sensor that works from 0 to 200mm (about 7.5 inches) and light sensor with range of 0.26 to 16,000 lux. As with all of our new I2C sensors, we’ve taken the VCNL4020 and put it onto a breakout PCB along with support circuitry to let […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=562013
Source: Adafruit Learning System
The VCNL4020 is a handy two-in-one sensor, with a proximity sensor that works from 0 to 200mm (about 7.5 inches) and light sensor with range of 0.26 to 16,000 lux. As with all of our new I2C sensors, we’ve taken the VCNL4020 and put it onto a breakout PCB along with support circuitry to let you use this little wonder with 3.3V (Feather/Raspberry Pi) or 5V (Arduino/ Metro328) logic levels. Since it speaks I2C you can easily connect it up with two wires (plus power and ground!).
The Adafruit VCNL4020 Proximity and Light Sensor guide has everything you need to get started with using this sensor. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: Autumn Lights Festival in Oakland, CA is a long-running and beloved Oakland tradition. It takes place at the Gardens at Lake Merritt every October. This event is a fundraiser for the garden, which is a peaceful sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the city, right on the shore of the lake.Around 100 LED light […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=561229
Source: Erin St Blaine
Autumn Lights Festival in Oakland, CA is a long-running and beloved Oakland tradition. It takes place at the Gardens at Lake Merritt every October. This event is a fundraiser for the garden, which is a peaceful sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the city, right on the shore of the lake.
Around 100 LED light artists bring their creations out to Autumn Lights every year. This year, we caught up with Yvonne Schindler, who created a giant Connect 4 game using laser-etched acrylic, NeoPixels and arcade buttons. It’s a fully functioning game where players can face off with each other by standing on either side of the board and pressing buttons to drop a “piece” wherever they’d like. This was a really popular installation — people were lined up to play all night long.
The game also functions as an art piece, with gorgeous colorful animations that run while no one is playing. It is one of the most beautiful and intuitively interactive use of pixels and Arduino we’ve seen.
Desc: Fun Halloween Decorations video from Crazy Couple DIY!See the full write-up here on Hackster.ioWhen the full moon is shining and the wolves are howling, it’s time for Halloween’s spooky spectacle. The snickering grins of jack-o’-lanterns glow from lit porches. Kids skip down the block in spooky costumes, carrying bags full of candy and shouting “Trick […]
When the full moon is shining and the wolves are howling, it’s time for Halloween’s spooky spectacle. The snickering grins of jack-o’-lanterns glow from lit porches. Kids skip down the block in spooky costumes, carrying bags full of candy and shouting “Trick or Treat!”. The Nightmare Before Christmas is almost here…Do you see dead people???Alright Enough of that, in this Spooktacular video I am going to create an Arduino based 3D printed Halloween Décor.It’s super easy, fun and spooky….
Desc: Which is better, less bits or more? MORE of course! The Adafruit AD5693R Breakout Board is a 16-Bit DAC with I2C Interface and temperature compensated 2.5V internal reference for a compact high-precision output. We break out the ADDR/A0 pin so you can connect two of these DACs on one I2C bus. Works with both 3.3V […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=560320
Source: Liz Clark
Which is better, less bits or more? MORE of course! The Adafruit AD5693R Breakout Board is a 16-Bit DAC with I2C Interface and temperature compensated 2.5V internal reference for a compact high-precision output. We break out the ADDR/A0 pin so you can connect two of these DACs on one I2C bus. Works with both 3.3V or 5V logic.
The Adafruit AD5693R 16-Bit DAC Breakout Board guide has everything you need to get started with using this DAC. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: Mike Rankin posts about making an ESP32 stock tracker using a 2.4” LCD display and the free Finnhub API for getting the data. This project was created to monitor multiple stock and crypto prices throughout the day without having check on my phone. I’ve seen a few versions on Kickstarter that monitor just one at […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=560257
Source: Anne Barela
Mike Rankin posts about making an ESP32 stock tracker using a 2.4” LCD display and the free Finnhub API for getting the data.
This project was created to monitor multiple stock and crypto prices throughout the day without having check on my phone. I’ve seen a few versions on Kickstarter that monitor just one at a time and wanted more. The sketch uses a free Finnhub acount using a loop and JSON to cycle though grabbing the data for each stock ticker. Becuase of the free account limitations, updating every five minutes or so is fine.
With plenty of room left over on the board I placed a few sensors that I had on hand. Some being used and some for future use. The QwiiC connector is free to connect other I2C sensors and the ambient light sensor could be used to auto adjust the lcd backlight. On the software side, you could grab the time and update the stock prices more often only when the market is open.
Desc: This project provides a substitute for a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) on a kitchen range that had become difficult to read with age (these displays typically begin to dim after 10 years or so). Dan Ellis’ solution is to mirror the intended VFD display on a separate 128 x 64 pixel backlit LCD display.The project uses […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=560252
Source: Anne Barela
This project provides a substitute for a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) on a kitchen range that had become difficult to read with age (these displays typically begin to dim after 10 years or so). Dan Ellis’ solution is to mirror the intended VFD display on a separate 128 x 64 pixel backlit LCD display.
The project uses a Raspberry Pi Pico, reading the VFD clock and outputing on the new display. The code is written in Arduino.
Desc: “The Imagination Machine, Version 2”, is a motion-sensing light sculpture made from a reclaimed airplane wing. The wing is divided into 2 parts, each with their own artist-programmed circuit boards.Two Adafruit M4 Express microcontrollers run around 35 pages of Arduino codes each, which sample 4 PIR motion sensors, and run multiple light programs on the […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=559974
Source: Anne Barela
“The Imagination Machine, Version 2”, is a motion-sensing light sculpture made from a reclaimed airplane wing. The wing is divided into 2 parts, each with their own artist-programmed circuit boards.
The colors are recorded from photos I’ve taken around the world. It also tallies each interaction and celebrates notable milestones by playing additional light patterns at 50, 100, 200, and 500 interactions. Part of “The Living Machine series”, this responsive sculpture takes a look at the emotional intelligence of imagination and memory, as displayed by a robot. The wing has now joined the ranks of Warhol, Picasso, Gaugin, Dali, & more in the permanent collection at The Schumacher Gallery at Capital University.”
You can find out more in the article here and in the video below:
Desc: Revisiting one of our favorite Halloween projects, published by Scott N Miller back in 2018 on Hackster.ioMiller uses a bunch of Adafruit products, woodwork, and more to create the ultimate Halloween candy dispenser! Check out more details here.Be the coolest house on the block for Halloween with the Candy Machine. Trick or treaters can pick […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=559718
Source: Kelly
Revisiting one of our favorite Halloween projects, published by Scott N Miller back in 2018 on Hackster.io
Miller uses a bunch of Adafruit products, woodwork, and more to create the ultimate Halloween candy dispenser! Check out more details here.
Be the coolest house on the block for Halloween with the Candy Machine. Trick or treaters can pick from four different candies.
Desc: Evan Allen was looking to build a robust circuit board to connect Sega Genesis controllers to arcade game PCBs.The board is based on the ATmega328, common in older Arduino boards. It uses an MCP23018 as an open drain I/O expander to simulate mechanical buttons on those lines connecting to ground.You can read the details in […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=559479
Source: Anne Barela
Evan Allen was looking to build a robust circuit board to connect Sega Genesis controllers to arcade game PCBs.
The board is based on the ATmega328, common in older Arduino boards. It uses an MCP23018 as an open drain I/O expander to simulate mechanical buttons on those lines connecting to ground.
You can read the details in the blog post and see the code on GitHub.
Desc: AarduinoGameConsole is a minimal solution to create audio and video with an Arduino Nano. GitHub user c0pperdragon writes: I wanted to build a game console into the case of a small USB game pad (a NES controler look-alike). To make the work a challenge, I wanted to only use an Arduino Nano clocked at 16 […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=559049
Source: Anne Barela
AarduinoGameConsole is a minimal solution to create audio and video with an Arduino Nano. GitHub user c0pperdragon writes:
I wanted to build a game console into the case of a small USB game pad (a NES controler look-alike). To make the work a challenge, I wanted to only use an Arduino Nano clocked at 16 Mhz and some passive components (diodes are OK) and create the best possible video and audio signal that is imaginable with such restrictions.
As it turned out, a monochrome 288p video signal with 4 gray scales is possible when progamming the controller at machine level. 4-channel music is also possible.
My game of choice is Tetris in a version that comes pretty close to the original GameBoy version with a very similar audio track.
Desc: The HUSB238 USB PD sink chip is neat in that you can either use jumpers (really, resistor selection) to set the desired PD voltage and current or you can use I2C for dynamic querying and setting. We’ve built a nice Adafruit USB Type C Power Delivery Dummy Breakout board around the HUSB238 to make it […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=558726
Source: Liz Clark
The HUSB238 USB PD sink chip is neat in that you can either use jumpers (really, resistor selection) to set the desired PD voltage and current or you can use I2C for dynamic querying and setting. We’ve built a nice Adafruit USB Type C Power Delivery Dummy Breakout board around the HUSB238 to make it very easy to configure and integrate without having to solder any tiny resistors.
Desc: Justin Miller writes on Mastodon about making an Arduino-based project to switch the polarity on an electromagnet for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Switching inductive loads like this cannot be done by a microcontroller directly, so Justin is using a TI SN754410 quad half-H bridge chip to alternate the magnet’s polarity.Oscillating the electromagnet […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=558680
Source: Anne Barela
Justin Miller writes on Mastodon about making an Arduino-based project to switch the polarity on an electromagnet for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Switching inductive loads like this cannot be done by a microcontroller directly, so Justin is using a TI SN754410 quad half-H bridge chip to alternate the magnet’s polarity.
Oscillating the electromagnet back and forth with a piece of paper in contact produces a homemade speaker.
See the fun things being done in the Mastodon thread here.
Desc: The International Space Station (ISS) Mimic project is developing a 3D printed model of the International Space Station that uses the actual ISS live telemetry to mimic the actual positioning of the ISS solar arrays and radiators! The team is also developing tools to visualize all of the ISS public telemetry in informative ways!The telemetry […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=558210
Source: Anne Barela
The International Space Station (ISS) Mimic project is developing a 3D printed model of the International Space Station that uses the actual ISS live telemetry to mimic the actual positioning of the ISS solar arrays and radiators! The team is also developing tools to visualize all of the ISS public telemetry in informative ways!
The telemetry is awesome in and of itself. But we wanted to do something more with the data, using it to drive software and hardware. Software – running a Raspberry Pi, we want to display all of the telemetry in an interesting and informative manner, enabling visualization of more than just boring numbers.
Hardware – using Arduino related microcontrollers, receiving data from the Raspberry Pi, we want to control a 3D-printed model of the ISS and make it exactly match up with the actual ISS in real time. All of the solar arrays, radiators, and outboard truss will be able to rotate to match the ISS joint angles.
See the video below and more on GitHub (using the MIT Open Source License).
Desc: I2Cwrapper enables you to connect peripherals without dedicated I2C interface like stepper motor drivers, TFT-displays, sensors, etc. to an I2C-bus. It uses an Arduino-compatible device which acts as an I2C target device and “translates” between the I2C-bus and the non-I2C peripheral.To do so, the IC2wrapper framework “wraps” library function calls and return values and transmits them […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=557964
Source: Anne Barela
I2Cwrapper enables you to connect peripherals without dedicated I2C interface like stepper motor drivers, TFT-displays, sensors, etc. to an I2C-bus. It uses an Arduino-compatible device which acts as an I2C target device and “translates” between the I2C-bus and the non-I2C peripheral.
To do so, the IC2wrapper framework “wraps” library function calls and return values and transmits them between I2C-controller and I2C-target. From the controller’s perspective, using the device over I2C is very similar to directly using it, so that existing code can be adapted easily.
Desc: Earth Moon Model (EMM) is a tabletop digital art project by Elliot Barlas that combines a Raspberry Pi computer with sensors and actuators to create a realistic model of the Earth and the Moon in their orbits. EMM can orient the Earth in its orbit and rotation and the Moon in its orbit at any […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=557836
Source: Anne Barela
Earth Moon Model (EMM) is a tabletop digital art project by Elliot Barlas that combines a Raspberry Pi computer with sensors and actuators to create a realistic model of the Earth and the Moon in their orbits.
EMM can orient the Earth in its orbit and rotation and the Moon in its orbit at any target date-time. In normal operating mode (main.py), EMM is a timepiece that reflects the positions of the Earth and Moon at the present clock time. EMM can also operate in a demonstrate mode (time_warp.py) that accepts ISO-date time entries in standard input and adjusts Earth and Moon positions to reflect them.
Desc: What’s Metro-shaped and has an ESP32-S3 WiFi module? What has a STEMMA QT connector for I2C devices and a Lipoly charger circuit? What has your favorite Espressif WiFi microcontroller and lots of memory for your next IoT project?That’s right – it’s the new Adafruit Metro ESP32-S3! With native USB and a load of PSRAM, this board is […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=557765
Source: Anne Barela
What’s Metro-shaped and has an ESP32-S3 WiFi module? What has a STEMMA QT connector for I2C devices and a Lipoly charger circuit? What has your favorite Espressif WiFi microcontroller and lots of memory for your next IoT project?
That’s right – it’s the new Adafruit Metro ESP32-S3! With native USB and a load of PSRAM, this board is perfect for use with CircuitPython or Arduino to add low-cost WiFi while retaining shield compatibility.
The Metro ESP32-S3 has a dual-core 240 MHz chip, so it is comparable to ESP32’s dual-core. However, there is no Bluetooth Classic support, only Bluetooth LE. This chip is a great step up from the earlier ESP32-S2!
This ESP32-S3 mini-module we are using on the Metro comes with massive 16 MB flash and 8 MB PSRAM, as well as 512KB of SRAM, so it’s perfect for use with CircuitPython support or any time massive buffers are needed: for fast memory access use SRAM, for slower-but-roomier access use PSRAM. It’s also great for use in ESP-IDF or with Arduino support.
Desc: A new guide in the Adafruit Learning System: Adafruit Metro RP2040 by Kattni RemborChoo! Choo! This is the RP2040 Metro Line, making all station stops at “Dual Cortex M0+ mountain”, “264K RAM round-about” and “16 Megabytes of Flash town”. This train is piled high with hardware that complements the Raspberry Pi RP2040 chip to make […]
Choo! Choo! This is the RP2040 Metro Line, making all station stops at “Dual Cortex M0+ mountain”, “264K RAM round-about” and “16 Megabytes of Flash town”. This train is piled high with hardware that complements the Raspberry Pi RP2040 chip to make it an excellent development board for projects that want Arduino-shape-compatibility or just need the extra space and debugging ports.
RP2040 main chip, 133MHz clock, 3.3V logic
16 MB of QSPI flash for program storage
24 GPIO, 4 of which are also analog inputs
Micro SD card wired up for SPI interfacing, and also has extra pins connected for advanced-user SDIO interfacing (note that there’s no released usage code for SDIO in Arduino/Python, so this is a super-cutting-edge setup).
Onboard RGB NeoPixel
Onboard #13 LED
STEMMA QT/Qwiic port for I2C peripherals and sensors
Desc: This TFT display is big (2.8″ diagonal) bright (4 white-LED backlight) and colorful (18-bit 262,000 different shades)! 240×320 pixels with individual pixel control. It has way more resolution than a black and white 128×64 display. As a bonus, this display has a resistive or capacitive touchscreen attached to it already, so you can detect finger […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=557734
Source: Liz Clark
This TFT display is big (2.8″ diagonal) bright (4 white-LED backlight) and colorful (18-bit 262,000 different shades)! 240×320 pixels with individual pixel control. It has way more resolution than a black and white 128×64 display. As a bonus, this display has a resistive or capacitive touchscreen attached to it already, so you can detect finger presses anywhere on the screen.
The Adafruit 2.8″ TFT Touch Shield v2 guide has been updated for the new version of the Touch Shield that was recently added in the shop. That version uses the TSC2007 as the touch screen controller. There is a new Pinouts page and new examples for both CircuitPython and Arduino.
Desc: Piezos make noise when you put an AC voltage across them: and the bigger the voltage used the louder they are. We found the nifty PAM8904, which is an amplifier specifically designed for driving piezo elements. We whipped up a quick breakout in our 2mm JST-PH STEMMA form-factor to make it easy for anyone who […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=557707
Source: Liz Clark
Piezos make noise when you put an AC voltage across them: and the bigger the voltage used the louder they are. We found the nifty PAM8904, which is an amplifier specifically designed for driving piezo elements. We whipped up a quick breakout in our 2mm JST-PH STEMMA form-factor to make it easy for anyone who wants to beep their boops very loudly.
The Adafruit STEMMA Piezo Driver Amp guide has everything you need to get started with using the breakout with your piezo elements. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython and Python, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: Arduino recently received $22m in funding (see our previous post), and they went back for more: a gigantic $34m in series B VC funding announced today.Congrats to Arduino and their team! This is now the biggest success story (by some definitions) of an open-source hardware company going “big.” With $54m in funding, the questions later […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=557187
Source: phillip torrone
Arduino recently received $22m in funding (see our previous post), and they went back for more: a gigantic $34m in series B VC funding announced today.
Congrats to Arduino and their team! This is now the biggest success story (by some definitions) of an open-source hardware company going “big.” With $54m in funding, the questions later will be who would acquire it for $500m+, will they go public, or what will be the eventual exit …
A major chunk will be invested to further strengthen the R&D team based in Turin, Italy, with the goal to grow enterprise application libraries and the Arduino Cloud for Business with more integrations and embedded AI features.
They have a few more details about offices in the USA, however, none of the funding appears to be dedicated to open-source hardware, open-source software, or the open-source communinty, which I think it’s fair to say is what got Arduino where it is today and worth these levels of venture capital funding. Instead, “enterprise application libraries and the Arduino Cloud for Business” is where the focus is.
Desc: Neat build from Arnov Sharma that includes our NeoPixel Ring – 16 x 5050 RGB LED with Integrated Drivers.Made a cone-shaped RGB Lamp from scratch, The lamp consists of WS2812 LEDs that are controlled by an XIAO MCU.See more details on Hackster.io
Desc: New video! One of the big tasks that Ladyada still has to spend a lot of time on is writing Arduino libraries for all our devices and sensors, particularly all the I2C & SPI chips out there! These ICs use register maps and sub-byte addressing to set dozens of configurable knobs and switches, and a […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=556900
Source: phillip torrone
New video! One of the big tasks that Ladyada still has to spend a lot of time on is writing Arduino libraries for all our devices and sensors, particularly all the I2C & SPI chips out there! These ICs use register maps and sub-byte addressing to set dozens of configurable knobs and switches, and a good driver lets folks set and get all of the noodly bits.
However, there is yet to be a standard format to get that configuration map. Instead, you have to pore over datasheets with long lists of binary tables and bit insets to figure out how to convert that into C or Python code.
It is tough. Only a few folks can write an excellent comprehensive library…. but Ladyada can & has! In fact, there are hundreds of Arduino libraries on Adafruit’s GitHub https://github.com/orgs/adafruit/repositories, all in the Ladyada ‘style,’ using Adafruit_BusIO for I2C / SPI register addressing https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_BusIO/ and since ChatGPT 4 was trained on all of it, we can ask it to become a mini-Ladyada to write new drivers.
With a PDF parsing plugin, we can even upload the chip’s datasheet to extract register names, values, create enum tables, and text for doxygen comments. Here’s the chatGPT log for the video https://chat.openai.com/share/e8055f6c-25e2-4ea1-bbcc-db7b35ca357b – and here’s a previous one that is more ‘complete’ https://chat.openai.com/share/f44dc335-7555-4758-b2f9-487f9409d556. The amount of time it takes for ChatGPT to write a driver is about the same as it would take Ladyada, and you definitely need to be eagle-eyed to redirect the AI if it starts making mistakes… but it can be done even when Ladyada is tired after a full day of baby-care, or at the same time as pumping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpbH-sXRNps – plus there’s a lot less continuous typing/mousing so her wrists don’t ache the next day!
Do you use ChatGPT for electrical engineering or coding work? Any suggestions on how to make this even better? This is only our 3rd day using this tool, so we’re getting started with how to integrate it into our workflow.
In an upcoming post we’ll outline how we’re credit ChatGPT when we’re using it in this somewhat “pair programing” way, and who we’re asking out there for guidance on how license can/will reflect these collaborations.
Desc: Scott W Harden looks into storing sounds in a microcontroller, starting with the very diminutive ATmega 328P on the Arduino Uno R3.Reading numbers from a speaker is an interesting and simple alternative to displaying numbers on a display, which often requires complex multiplexing circuitry and/or complex software to drive the display. This page describes the […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=556008
Source: Anne Barela
Scott W Harden looks into storing sounds in a microcontroller, starting with the very diminutive ATmega 328P on the Arduino Uno R3.
Reading numbers from a speaker is an interesting and simple alternative to displaying numbers on a display, which often requires complex multiplexing circuitry and/or complex software to drive the display. This page describes the techniques I used to extract audio waveforms from MP3 files and encode them into data that can be stored in the microcontroller flash memory.
Because microcontrollers have a limited amount of flash memory this method is not suitable for long recordings, but it is fine for storing a few seconds of audio at a limited sample rate. Unlike more common methods for playing audio with a microcontroller, playing audio from program memory does not require a SD card, special hardware, or complex audio decoding software. Although this technique works best when a speaker is driven with a amplifier circuit, I found acceptable audio can be produced by driving a speaker directly from a microcontroller pin. This technique makes it possible to play surprisingly good audio without requiring any components other than a speaker.
Desc: This board has a 15 pin D-Sub socket port, that you can plug any classic PC joystick into. Onboard is a ATtiny816 helper chip that acts as a I2C peripheral using our ‘seesaw’ library. Two STEMMA QT ports mean you can plug this board in using a 4-pin JST SH cable to any microcontroller or […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=555685
Source: Liz Clark
This board has a 15 pin D-Sub socket port, that you can plug any classic PC joystick into. Onboard is a ATtiny816 helper chip that acts as a I2C peripheral using our ‘seesaw’ library. Two STEMMA QT ports mean you can plug this board in using a 4-pin JST SH cable to any microcontroller or microcomputer with I2C support and read the joystick X & Y plus the two buttons, even if your main chip doesn’t have analog inputs. There’s even a 5V power generator on-board since joysticks are expecting that voltage.
The Adafruit PC Joystick to seesaw I2C Adapter guide has everything you need to get started with using the breakout with your PC joystick. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython and Python, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: Resistive touch screens are incredibly popular as overlays to TFT and LCD displays. This breakout board features the TSC2046, which has an easy-to-use SPI interface available to read the incoming data from the touch screen. There is also an interrupt pin that you can use to indicate when a touch has been detected to your […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=555651
Source: Liz Clark
Resistive touch screens are incredibly popular as overlays to TFT and LCD displays. This breakout board features the TSC2046, which has an easy-to-use SPI interface available to read the incoming data from the touch screen. There is also an interrupt pin that you can use to indicate when a touch has been detected to your microcontroller. It can be powered from 3-5V, so it’s safe to use with 3V or 5V logic. It’s a nicely designed chip and has very stable precise readings.
The Adafruit TSC2046 breakout guide has everything you need to get started with using the breakout. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: Mark W Kiehl was looking to build a project monitoring six thermocouples on an aircraft. The requirements: Read up to 6x K type thermocouples Display temperature readings and indicate visually if any are lower or higher than normal. Daylight readable display. 12 VDC power input The circuit was designed using an Adafruit M0 Basic Feather […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=555677
Source: Anne Barela
Mark W Kiehl was looking to build a project monitoring six thermocouples on an aircraft. The requirements:
Read up to 6x K type thermocouples
Display temperature readings and indicate visually if any are lower or higher than normal.
Daylight readable display.
12 VDC power input
The circuit was designed using an Adafruit M0 Basic Feather along with:
Analog input connections A0 to A5 are routed to each of the thermocouple amplifiers, but each one has a pair of tabs with a thin trace that can be cut if the analog input assignments needs to be changed.
12 VDC input to the screw terminals provides 1A of 5V power to the Feather Vbus connection. The PCB overall dimensions are 80 x 65 mm. This PCB will mount directly behind the 2.9″ eInk display (centered), with the height of the PCB larger than the display in order to accommodate mounting of the thermocouple breakouts on the top and bottom.
Desc: A new guide added to the Adafruit Learning System: Adafruit Feather RP2040 RFM95This is the Adafruit Feather RP2040 RF95 LoRa Radio. We call these RadioFruits, our take on a microcontroller with a “Long Range (LoRa)” packet radio transceiver with built-in USB and battery charging. It’s an Adafruit Feather RP2040 with a 900MHz radio module cooked in! Great for making wireless […]
This is the Adafruit Feather RP2040 RF95 LoRa Radio. We call these RadioFruits, our take on a microcontroller with a “Long Range (LoRa)” packet radio transceiver with built-in USB and battery charging. It’s an Adafruit Feather RP2040 with a 900MHz radio module cooked in! Great for making wireless networks that are more flexible than Bluetooth LE and without the high power requirements of WiFi.
Desc: The JECCbot mini is an outdoor robotics platform intended for participation in contests like Robotem Rovne, Roboorienteering, Robotour, or for general robotic experiments. It has mounting positions for Arduino Uno and Mega size boards.The chassis is 40 cm long and 20 cm wide.The whole robot with ultrasonic sensors is, depending on the wheels, about 45 […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=555254
Source: Anne Barela
The JECCbot mini is an outdoor robotics platform intended for participation in contests like Robotem Rovne, Roboorienteering, Robotour, or for general robotic experiments. It has mounting positions for Arduino Uno and Mega size boards.
The chassis is 40 cm long and 20 cm wide.
The whole robot with ultrasonic sensors is, depending on the wheels, about 45 cm long and 35 cm wide. The weight is about 1.5 kg.
Desc: This week’s EYE ON NPI (video) is a new spin on an old familiar classic, it’s Arduino’s UNO R4 Minima and R4 WiFi Boards, now in stock at DigiKey for folks who want a 5V microcontroller board with classic UNO-compatibility but a ton more speed, flash and RAM!The UNO R4 comes in two flavors, the […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=554397
Source: Anne Barela
This week’s EYE ON NPI (video) is a new spin on an old familiar classic, it’s Arduino’s UNO R4 Minima and R4 WiFi Boards, now in stock at DigiKey for folks who want a 5V microcontroller board with classic UNO-compatibility but a ton more speed, flash and RAM!
The UNO R4 comes in two flavors, the Minima is low cost, only $20, whereas the UNO R4 WiFi is $27.50 and adds WiFi and BLE via an ESP32-S3 plus a cute monochrome LED grid for scrolling messages or displaying status icons.
This pair of dev boards look just like those classic Arduino boards you probably learned to code and hack on, they’ve been around for almost 20 years, the first board looked very similar, but had a RS232 serial port instead of USB, and all through-hole components. Through various iterations and improvements, the original board was redesigned to add USB and update to the ATmega168 with the Diecimila and then the ATmega328 plus auto-power-switching Duemilanove in 2009. In 2010 the most popular Arduino to date was released, the UNO, which updated the USB port to use an ATmega16u2 and through various small revisions added the IOref pin to allow 3V power/logic and separate I2C pins since A4/A5 were no longer always connected to a TWI peripheral.
Since about 2012, which was the release date of the UNO R3, not a lot has happened with that particular configuration/shape. Arduino the company has released a ton more boards but in different form factors, all available at DigiKey: Nano, Due, MKR, Portenta etc. and you should definitely check them out! But it’s also a big deal when the main workhorse of the family gets a respin. Particularly since the new R4 takes a very different direction than the previous UNOs: instead of just upgrading the atmegaxx8 chipset, Arduino has gone with the totally different ARM Cortex-based RA4M series which we’ve covered on a previous EYE ON NPI.
In that video we covered a lot about the chip itself, so check it out if you’re interested in the specifics of that chip family.
The chip itself is a similar family to the ARM Cortex M0-based SAMD21 ‘Arduino Zero‘ but thanks to the Renesas version of this core, we now get the 5V-run RA4M. From Arduino’s description, here are some of the updates
Hardware compatibility with UNO form factor: The UNO R4 Minima maintains the same form factor, pinout, and 5 V operating voltage as its predecessor, the UNO R3. This ensures a seamless transition for existing shields and projects, leveraging the extensive and unique ecosystem already established for the Arduino UNO.
Expanded memory and faster clock: Prepare for more precise calculations and the ability to handle complex projects with ease. The UNO R4 Minima boasts increased memory and a faster clock speed, empowering you to tackle demanding tasks effortlessly.
Extra on-board peripherals: The UNO R4 Minima introduces a range of on-board peripherals, including a 12-bit DAC, CAN BUS, and OP AMP. These additional components provide you with expanded capabilities and flexibility in your designs.
Extended 24 V tolerance: The UNO R4 Minima now supports a wider input voltage range, allowing power supplies up to 24 V. This enables seamless integration with motors, LED strips, and other actuators, simplifying your projects by utilizing a single power source.
SWD connector: Debugging is a critical aspect of any project. Simply connect an external debugger to the UNO R4 Minima and effortlessly monitor the inner workings of your system. Stay in control and gain valuable insights.
HID support: The UNO R4 Minima comes with built-in HID (Human Interface Device) support, enabling it to simulate a mouse or keyboard when connected to a computer via a USB cable. This convenient feature makes it a breeze to send keystrokes and mouse movements to a computer, enhancing usability and functionality.
Some are not particularly new: USB HID support was already added with the Arduino Leonardo, and SWD connectors have been available on the Zero. Some are quite nice additions: USB Type C replaces the chonky B or Micro B, CAN bus support historically requires a separate MCP2515 chip now just needs a transceiver.
The SAMD21 had a DAC, but only 10 bits whereas this one is 12. And 24V DC input with a buck converter for the 5V power rail means you can power motors and larger LED arrays directly. And of course, this is one of the few ARM Cortex chips that can run at 5V.
Adding a new core to the Arduino IDE & ecosystem is no small task, but often the initial work of getting one chip in the family added means that new boards can easily use the same board support package.
One of the great reasons to use Arduino is once your prototype is up and running, you can use the UNO R4 design files to respin your very own open-source hardware variants thanks to the published CAD files!
At $20 a piece, these new Arduino UNO R4s are a great price for the high quality you get from Arduino – and there’s lots of them in stock at DigiKey for immediate shipment! Grab both the UNO R4 Minima and UNO R4 WiFi, and they’ll ship immediately so you can get started moving your 8-bit micro projects to Cortex-M4 by tomorrow afternoon.
Desc: Check out the latest tutorial from Erin St Blaine on the Adafruit Learning System. She built a dress using NeoPixel LEDs and Arduino code by Phil Burgess: the amazing Oozemaster 3000 code. This code does a mind-blowing job of mimicking the way water flows, oozes, and drips, so Erin’s dress creates the illusion that water […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=554305
Source: Erin St Blaine
Check out the latest tutorial from Erin St Blaine on the Adafruit Learning System. She built a dress using NeoPixel LEDs and Arduino code by Phil Burgess: the amazing Oozemaster 3000 code. This code does a mind-blowing job of mimicking the way water flows, oozes, and drips, so Erin’s dress creates the illusion that water is constantly glowing and flowing over her.
This guide builds on Phil Burgess’ Oozemaster 3000 guide, which tells how to create the same illusion for halloween props or stationary objects. We wanted to see if the same illusion would work in motion on a costume, and we’re really excited about the results!
From the guide:
Create a costume that oozes charm and sophistication, and shows you off like the Sea Goddess you are.
This is a fairly advanced project, with some costuming skills and a lot of work with wiring and soldering. If you don’t already have mad soldering skills, you will have them by the time you’re done with this project.
This is also not a step-by-step build guide. I’ll go over tips and techniques and show you the path I took and the mistakes I made, to give you the tools to go and build your own magical creation.
Desc: John Graham-Cumming discusses revisiting a Pong project developed in 2011. At the time, composite video televisions were quite common. On getting a new television with only HDMI input, the Arduino Pro-based hardware didn’t generate the right signals.The post revisits the methods used to generate composite PAL video using only two resistors and two digital pins. […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=554242
Source: Anne Barela
John Graham-Cumming discusses revisiting a Pong project developed in 2011. At the time, composite video televisions were quite common. On getting a new television with only HDMI input, the Arduino Pro-based hardware didn’t generate the right signals.
The post revisits the methods used to generate composite PAL video using only two resistors and two digital pins. Toggling the state of those two pins can provide approximately the correct video signal voltages with the two resistors chosen (magic! but well explained – ed).
With the methodology from 12 years ago verified, a composite to HDMI converter from China was usable to once again play this classic game.
Desc: Michael Klements on the DIY Life blog posts about using an Arduino Uno R4 to control a 3D printer hotend in printing plastic recycled from PET plastic bottles.I’m doing this as the first part of a project, working towards building my own version of a PET bottle recycler to produce filament for my 3D printer. […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=554224
Source: Anne Barela
Michael Klements on the DIY Life blog posts about using an Arduino Uno R4 to control a 3D printer hotend in printing plastic recycled from PET plastic bottles.
I’m doing this as the first part of a project, working towards building my own version of a PET bottle recycler to produce filament for my 3D printer.
The Uno 4 comes in two versions, the minima which is the more basic version and then the WiFi version which has WiFi and an integrated LED matrix. They both have a new more powerful 32-bit processor as well as significantly increased SRAM and flash memory, allowing more complex projects. The LED matrix on the WiFi board is really useful for quickly displaying a status or mode, and you can even run some animations and games on it.
For prototyping, I’m going to use the display as a rolling graph of the hot-end temperature to see how it is tracking towards the setpoint.
A PCB for the recycler controller was designed in the form of a shield to fit on top of the Arduino.
Desc: The Audio BFF is designed to fit onto the back of any QT Py or Xiao board. Onboard is a MAX98357 audio amplifier and picoblade-compatible connector for plugging in a 4 or 8 ohm speaker. We use A1 for the audio data, A2 for wordselect clock, and A3 for bitclock. The SD card connects over […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=553777
Source: Liz Clark
The Audio BFF is designed to fit onto the back of any QT Py or Xiao board. Onboard is a MAX98357 audio amplifier and picoblade-compatible connector for plugging in a 4 or 8 ohm speaker. We use A1 for the audio data, A2 for wordselect clock, and A3 for bitclock. The SD card connects over the SPI port: MOSI, MISO and SCK plus A0 for card select.
The Adafruit Audio BFF guide has everything you need to get started with using the BFF. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: Cool project from Darren Shen and Evelyn Shen up on Hackster.io.We love how the students decided to develop a project around an issue that’s important to their daily lives.As high school student athletes, we as siblings decided to create a smart lawn care system that is able to detect the fields’ temperature and conditions, including […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=553395
Source: Kelly
Cool project from Darren Shen and Evelyn Shen up on Hackster.io.
We love how the students decided to develop a project around an issue that’s important to their daily lives.
As high school student athletes, we as siblings decided to create a smart lawn care system that is able to detect the fields’ temperature and conditions, including the ability to spray water depending on the fields’ necessities. Ever since the age of 4 and 5 years old, we have been playing baseball and softball and have noticed the amount of injuries caused by poor field maintenance. From experiencing sprained ankles to dislocated shoulders, we have decided to take initiative in stopping these life-changing injuries. Many athletes get the opportunity of playing sports at a higher level taken away due to injuries starting from inadequate fields.
Desc: The I2C Quad Rotary Encoder breakout allows you to read up to 4 encoders for big builds with lots of twisty interfaces. You can solder in any four ‘standard’ PEC11-pinout rotary encoders with or without a push-switch. The onboard microcontroller is programmed with our seesaw firmware and will track all pulses and pins for you […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=553158
Source: Liz Clark
The I2C Quad Rotary Encoder breakout allows you to read up to 4 encoders for big builds with lots of twisty interfaces. You can solder in any four ‘standard’ PEC11-pinout rotary encoders with or without a push-switch. The onboard microcontroller is programmed with our seesaw firmware and will track all pulses and pins for you and then save the incremental value for querying at any time over I2C.
The Adafruit I2C Quad Rotary Encoder Breakout guide has everything you need to get started with using the breakout. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: Neat project from diy-projects-lab up on electricmaker.io.Hi beloved readers in this project I will show you how to make this Small Desk Clock with Weather Station This is a step-by-step article, I will guide you through the process of creating your very own desk clock using a Mini LCD display, Wemos D1 Mini microcontroller, lithium-ion […]
Hi beloved readers in this project I will show you how to make this Small Desk Clock with Weather Station
This is a step-by-step article, I will guide you through the process of creating your very own desk clock using a Mini LCD display, Wemos D1 Mini microcontroller, lithium-ion battery, and the ability to show real-time weather and temperature data.
Desc: A really nice ChatGPT terminal project running with arduino. Sent in by Programming Electronics Academy. Watch the vid and checkout the full details here! Can you integrate the power of a chatGPT terminal into your own Arduino projects? I don’t mean using chatGPT to help write your code, I mean incorporating the textual responses from […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=553114
Source: Ben
A really nice ChatGPT terminal project running with arduino. Sent in by Programming Electronics Academy. Watch the vid and checkout the full details here!
Can you integrate the power of a chatGPT terminal into your own Arduino projects?
I don’t mean using chatGPT to help write your code, I mean incorporating the textual responses from chatGPT to do something for your project.
Desc: Amp up your QT Py with this BFF!Our QT Py boards are a great way to make very small microcontroller projects that pack a ton of power. Now we have the Adafruit I2S Amplifier BFF, which provides a way for you to add an I2S 3 Watt amplifier, for high quality audio playback, that can […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=552914
Source: Kattni
Amp up your QT Py with this BFF!
Our QT Py boards are a great way to make very small microcontroller projects that pack a ton of power. Now we have the Adafruit I2S Amplifier BFF, which provides a way for you to add an I2S 3 Watt amplifier, for high quality audio playback, that can fit on the back of your miniature dev board. It uses just three GPIO pins that do not intersect with the I2C/UART or SPI port.
The Adafruit I2S Amplifier BFF guide has everything you need to get started with this tiny board. It includes an overview, pinouts details, examples of using it with both CircuitPython and Arduino, and download resources. If you’re ready to amp up your QT Py, this guide has you covered!
Desc: Do you think this is a game? It is now!Make a game or robotic controller for any I2C microcontroller or microcomputer with this tiny Adafruit Mini I2C STEMMA QT Gamepad with seesaw breakout board. This design has a 2-axis thumb joystick and 6 momentary buttons (4 large and 2 small). It boasts a STEMMA QT connector […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=552906
Source: Kattni
Do you think this is a game? It is now!
Make a game or robotic controller for any I2C microcontroller or microcomputer with this tinyAdafruit Mini I2C STEMMA QT Gamepad with seesaw breakout board. This design has a 2-axis thumb joystick and 6 momentary buttons (4 large and 2 small). It boasts a STEMMA QT connector which means you can get going quickly with no soldering necessary!
The Adafruit Mini I2C STEMMA QT Gamepad with seesaw guide has everything you need to get started. It includes an overview, pinouts details, examples for CircuitPython and Arduino, and downloads resources. If you picked up one of these boards, and are wondering how to begin, this guide has you covered!
Desc: On Workshop Nation, Thomas turns an Alexa Echo into a more characterful robotic assistant using an Arduino, a tiny, old B&W CRT monitor as a mouth, and Will Cogley’s animatronic eyes. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a retro, cyberjunky robotic head recite the “Tears in the Rain” soliloquy from Blade Runner.
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=552670
Source: gareth branwyn
On Workshop Nation, Thomas turns an Alexa Echo into a more characterful robotic assistant using an Arduino, a tiny, old B&W CRT monitor as a mouth, and Will Cogley’s animatronic eyes.
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a retro, cyberjunky robotic head recite the “Tears in the Rain” soliloquy from Blade Runner.
Desc: Now we have a way for you to add a small, colorful, and bright display to any project using one of our tiny QT Py boards. This BFF has an 18-pin “EYE SPI” standard FPC connector with flip-top connector. This is intended to be a sort-of “STEMMA QT for displays” – a way to quickly […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=552464
Source: Liz Clark
Now we have a way for you to add a small, colorful, and bright display to any project using one of our tiny QT Py boards. This BFF has an 18-pin “EYE SPI” standard FPC connector with flip-top connector. This is intended to be a sort-of “STEMMA QT for displays” – a way to quickly connect and extend display wiring that uses a lot of SPI pins.
The Adafruit EYESPI BFF has everything you need to get started with using the breakout. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: We often get folks asking how to get NeoPixels working on some OrangeBananaOnionRockchipAllWinner Pi type board, given we have our Blinka library that provides support for CircuitPython libraries including the NeoPixel library. A quick solution is this seesaw-based NeoDriver board here: send it the NeoPixel data you want to write over I2C and it will […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=552060
Source: Liz Clark
We often get folks asking how to get NeoPixels working on some OrangeBananaOnionRockchipAllWinner Pi type board, given we have our Blinka library that provides support for CircuitPython libraries including the NeoPixel library. A quick solution is this seesaw-based NeoDriver board here: send it the NeoPixel data you want to write over I2C and it will blit out the perfect pixel timing on the other side. We’re using an ATtiny1616 so we have enough RAM to buffer a 512-pixel long strand.
The Adafruit NeoDriver guide has everything you need to get started with using the breakout. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython and Python, Arduino and resources for download.
Desc: The Feather P2040 Prop-Maker: an all-in-one combination of the Feather RP2040 with a Prop-Maker FeatherWing with a few tweaks based on feedback from expert prop-builders. This board has an I2S amplifier, terminal block for NeoPixels, digital input/output and speaker output, header pins for a servo motor and an LIS3DH accelerometer. Build your next prop with […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=552066
Source: Liz Clark
The Feather P2040 Prop-Maker: an all-in-one combination of the Feather RP2040 with a Prop-Maker FeatherWing with a few tweaks based on feedback from expert prop-builders. This board has an I2S amplifier, terminal block for NeoPixels, digital input/output and speaker output, header pins for a servo motor and an LIS3DH accelerometer. Build your next prop with just one board and no soldering!
The Adafruit RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather guide has everything you need to get started with using the Feather. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, power management, CircuitPython essentials, Arduino, factory reset and resources for download.
Desc: Jepler has posted up a new guide that shows how to create an emulator for the 8-bit CP/M operating system. Relive the glory days of computing before MS-DOS by coding up Z80 assembler programs, or just Zork & Chill. Because video generation & USB keyboard support are built in, this project is fully usable without […]
Guid: https://blog.adafruit.com/?p=551493
Source: Jeff Epler
Jepler has posted up a new guide that shows how to create an emulator for the 8-bit CP/M operating system. Relive the glory days of computing before MS-DOS by coding up Z80 assembler programs, or just Zork & Chill. Because video generation & USB keyboard support are built in, this project is fully usable without a supporting desktop/laptop computer.
The CP/M operating system was created in 1974 and ran on the 8080 and Z-80 microprocessors. Before the rise of the IBM PC & MS-DOS, it was considered a powerful operating system, especially for home computers.
This project uses two Adafruit Feathers. Why’s that? Both the digital video output and the USB Host are implemented using the RP2040’s powerful PIO peripheral—but each task requires almost all of the chip’s capacity in order to do so. That made it necessary to split the project in half. One of the Feathers does the CPU and OS emulation plus the video signal generation. The other reads keystrokes and transmits them over a UART connection to the first board. It’s not a Beowulf cluster, but it’s still a cool technique to expand the capabilities in this project.
Build the software using the Arduino IDE, put your CP/M software on a Micro SD card & get computing like it’s 1979.
