Arduino-Powered Cicada Warning System by @WNYC’s @Radiolab
Our neighbors at WNYC’s Radiolab are working on a cicada tracker. Here on the Eastern Seaboard, one particular breed of cicada, Magicicada Breed II (I’m not making that up), emerges every 17 years from their hibernation period, makes a lot of noise all summer long, and then dies. The last time this happened was 1996, which means we’re due for another Cicada Summer this year.
To help track the cicadas as they emerge from hibernation, Radiolab has crafted some custom hardware, built around an Arduino, and shared the instructions online.
You can find many of the materials required to make this circuit in our ARDX kit. We also sell a suitable thermistor.
This is a great project to do with your kids — and the opportunity will only come around once every 17 years, so get tracking!
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 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.