I’m working on several projects almost perpetually. Getting the time to complete one project before being distracted by another is the real trick. My most current project which is almost done is running my bicycle tire in a test rig using a scavenged AC motor. The test rig is so my daughter can work on her SpokePOV kit from Adafruit at the lab bench and the motor will make it easy to spin up the wheel to check the image and/or animation. It takes longer for these projects because I document it all and shoot video for my ToddFun blog. This build includes welding, repairing the scavenged motor and building a 120v AC to 15v DC power source to run a cooling fan to cool the AC motor. The cool part is I built the 15v DC source using only a light bulb, diode and capacitor and showed the viewers how to correctly calculate the required wattage light bulb and what is important to get it right without getting into too much engineering.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
