Looking to dip your toes into the IoT realm without hitting too many technical speed bumps? So were we, until we picked up some parts that were a little too advanced for our hobby. After some research into other solutions on Adafruit, The Spark Core stood out to pair with our other parts to get our sensors talking to the internet.
The best way to get started with any embedded project is to try to solve a small problem you have, no matter how minor, to keep you on track. Our problem was seeing people not knowing if a bathroom was in use or not and react with a quick experiment on giving people a heads up from their computers or seats.
This project will show you how to share sensor data through the Spark Core API, wire up your hardware, and dive you into JavaScript. The wiring and firmware are very simple and the web programming isn’t too intense; we had this up and running within two weeks.
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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.
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