Adafruit is celebrating Lunar New Year🐍 Wednesday 1/29/2025. In combination with MLK Day, shipping could be delayed. Please allow extra time for your order to ship!
3D printing starts by designing objects on a computer and then printing them with thermoplastics (and in this case, lasers) in super-thin layers to create intricate finished objects.
Inside the oven a 30cm-deep basin of powder is heated to just below its melting point; then a laser heats specific points over a layer just 0.1mm deep, melting and fusing the powder. Repeat that 3,000 times – it runs overnight – and you end up with a solid object – glasses, a doll, an architect’s model – surrounded by powder. Wash the powder off, and you have the finished product, with detail as fine as you want. The spectacles’ hinges are held together by 0.5mm links, each just five layers of plastic.
Having got its start in making prototypes for aerospace and automotive companies, and latterly for surgeons looking to make preci
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!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 2025 Wraps, Focus on Using Python, Open Source and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
When 3D printing hits the mainstream, I believe its mainstream use will be mostly for counter-fitting or nefarious things. Maybe 5% of its adoption will end up for innovative good.
But I think that’s the model as all of these new, disruptive technologies transition from starting in a vigorously innovative niche to the mainstream.
When 3D printing hits the mainstream, I believe its mainstream use will be mostly for counter-fitting or nefarious things. Maybe 5% of its adoption will end up for innovative good.
But I think that’s the model as all of these new, disruptive technologies transition from starting in a vigorously innovative niche to the mainstream.