Spectacles, phone, wallet, watch. Tablet, keys, pocket knife, camera. Multi-tool. USB cable and charger. Extra batteries. Outgoing mail. Coupons, tickets, medication, and makeup. Sunglasses. Contact lens case and solution. That video game you’ve been meaning to return. A book to read on the subway.
Nowadays we’ve got more stuff than ever, and it seems like we have to carry most of it around with us. We’re also more distracted than ever, our attention constantly jumping back and forth between real and virtual space. It’s an insidious combination that can lead to lots of wasted time and energy when we find ourselves at the pharmacy without the prescription, at the hotel without the phone charger, or at the airport without the passport.
Whatever it is you keep forgetting, this project can help. It combines a selection of parts from littleBits’ Premium Kit with a few common pieces of off-the-shelf hardware to create an automatic pick-me-up-and-take-me-with-you machine. Put it on a table by the door, put the stuff you want to remember inside, and turn it on. If you start to go out without pickings up your things, it sounds an alarm to remind you to grab them, and keeps ringing until you do.
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.
