Arye Barnehama had an idea for a headband that could measure a person’s level of focus. So last year, he recruited people with the know-how to design software and arrange circuit boards to help build it.
“We had a really great foundation for the company,” he said. But the inevitable question came: Now what? Startups like his that build physical things, rather than websites or applications, have had a hard time luring investors.
Barnehama turned to HAXLR8R (think: “hack” and “accelerator”), a new incubator program that specializes in developing electronics. HAXLR8R picked his group, called Axio, and eight other startups to spend more than three months in Shenzhen, China, where they designed prototypes, met with Chinese manufacturers and outlined business plans, all on a $20,000 budget.
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, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, 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 with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
