I remember using WRT54G router when it first came more than a decade ago and back then, my first attempt to upgrade the firmware resulted in bricking it. It wasn’t until I went searching for how to make it OK again that I discovered an entire community of hackers making this $100 device do incredible and magical things.
Fast forward to few days ago and while going through my stuff, I came across this Samsung HDD which had a very familiar looking chip on it—an SDRAM! Aha! I remembered I had seen that chip elsewhere, on my very own WRT54GL. I quickly googled the part numbers and found them to be pin compatible. So I rolled up my sleeves and got busy desoldering the chip off the HDD and soldering it onto the router.
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.
