What if Luke hadn’t listened to Uncle Owen and went to Tosche Station and picked up those power converters? He never would’ve gotten the message from Princess Leia, never would’ve found Obi-Wan Kenobi, and probably would’ve been killed by Stormtroopers before he even knew what the Force was.
Of course he did listen to Uncle Owen, didn’t get any power converters, cleaned the droids, met Obi-Wan, and came home to find his aunt and uncle dead and his home destroyed. Luke got his inciting incident and we all got the Star Wars trilogy.
What does that have to do with a Tool Kit? Well you could not listen to us and not buy it right now. You could spend your money on something else, never pick up a soldering iron, never use wires or a multimeter, and never once put components into a breadboard. You could do all that and you’d probably be fine.
But you wouldn’t begin an electronics adventure, with hand selected beginner’s tools, where you learn your way to a wider universe than you’d ever imagined. You wouldn’t gain unimaginable hours of fun, with infinite possibilities and infinite projects. You wouldn’t join a community full of like-minded Makers, with a vast array of knowledge they’re willing, and happy, to share.
Look, we’re not promising you a hologram popping out of your multimeter and telling you you’re the Maker Movement’s only hope. And we’re not saying that you’ll find some mystical ancient soldering force that’s been dwelling inside you since 36,453 BBY. But we are promising you a journey. So start it.
We have like 2000 products now. Adafruit’s not just a SpokePov, a MintyBoost, and three people like it used to be. And while there’s probably some guy named, like, Kyle who’s memorized every PID, every product name, and everything we’ve ever discontinued, we don’t expect all of you to be as awesome as Kyle is. That’s why we’re starting this – because there are products in our catalog that are still exciting, still useful, and are still things that you probably want to add to your shopping carts but just don’t know it yet. We’re calling it Journey to the Center of the Catalog – because we like Jules Verne and we like to pretend, sometimes, that Adafruit’s a giant unstoppable volcano with a bunch of really cool dinosaurs inside of it.
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!
