Considering a Downton Abbey costume for your next convention, for a theme party, or for next Halloween? You could dress like one of the many lords, ladies, or downstairs staff in the series, or you could dress like the actual estate. Rob Cockerham made a wearable version of the Abbey which is actually Highclere Castle. He constructed the costume from foam board and images of the castle he printed from the web.
The layout of the castle ended up being more complex than he expected since the building is more than four flat walls. To get a better idea of the castle’s perimeter, he decided to start by printing the walls on several sheets of paper that he then had to cut out and put together like a puzzle before attaching it to the foam board with spray adhesive. Once the exterior was secured, he carefully assembled and glued the entire building together.
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.