If you’re the type of person who prefers to make or give DIY gifts, then you are looking at the right gift guide. This guide is probably better if pets are involved. But who knows, maybe you want to give a Wifi-Controlled Cat Laser Toy to your catless friends to play with.
GPS Logging Dog Harness
GPS Logging Dog Harness: Make a GPS logger to map your dog’s playtime at the park or hike in the woods! This intermediate FLORA microcontroller circuit is a great first GPS project! Use conductive thread to stitch up the sewable GPS and FLORA so there’s no soldering required.
For this project you’ll need: FLORA main board, FLORA sewable GPS, conductive thread, sewable coincell battery holder with battery, 3xAAA battery holder and batteries, scrap of tablecloth vinyl, sewing needle and thread, scissors, sturdy tape (like gaff or packing), and clear nail polish.
GPS Dog Collar
GPS Dog Collar: Wonder if you’re giving your dog the exercise she needs? Like electronics? Make your own GPS dog collar!
You will need: Adafruit Ultimate GPS Breakout – 66 channel w/10 Hz updates – MTK3339 chipset, Atmega32u4 Breakout Board, Monochrome 128×32 OLED graphic display, 3 x AAA Battery Holder and batteries, stranded hookup wire, wire-edged ribbon, scrap of fabric, and electrical tape or dark nail polish (optional)
Tools: Soldering iron, wire strippers, pliers, scissors, needle and thread, iron, sewing pins, sewing machine (optional)
Laser Dog Goggles
Laser Dog Goggles: While this is a fairly simple electronics project suitable for intrepid novices, there are a few common sense safety considerations to keep in mind throughout – Any battery-powered circuit is capable of burning your pet, but you can mitigate the risk of injury (but never completely eliminate it). Protect batteries from a scratching paw with adhesive, fabric tape, or both. Mount batteries on the exterior components, never in direct contact with your pet’s face. Do not allow lipoly batteries to be abused and remove/discontinue use immediately if your battery is damaged. Adhesives can give off fumes an should be completely dry (sometimes 24 hours or more) before going anywhere near your pet’s face, especially its eyes. Never leave your pet unattended while wearing any costume. Observe for signs of discomfort. While positive reinforcement with treats can help some pets aclimate to any costume, other pets may not tolerate wearing your project at all. Be ready to accept this fact, and don’t push the issue or abuse your pet! Do not shine lasers directly into anyone’s eyes. The laser used in this project is relatively safe but could still cause eye damage if stared at for more than ~30 seconds.
Tools & Supplies: Doggles ILS dog goggles (with clear lenses for night visibility), laser diode (dot, line, or cross will work great), Trinket 3v microcontroller (or GEMMA), micro servo motor, 150mAh lipoly battery and charger, JST battery plug, slide switch, JST extension (optional), heat shrink tubing, black gaffer tape, hot melt glue, E6000 adhesive, wire strippers, flush diagonal cutters, scissors, soldering iron and solder, USB cable, solderless breadboard for prototyping, header pins.
Raspberry Pi Wifi-Controlled Cat Laser Toy
Raspberry Pi Wifi-Controlled Cat Laser Toy: This project will show you how to create a laser toy for your cat which is controlled over the web with a Raspberry Pi. The project demonstrates using a web application to control servos with the Raspberry Pi and an excellent way to keep your cat exercising when you’re umm busy playing minecraft.
To build this project you will need the following: Raspberry Pi (either model A or B will work), two servos, like these micro servos, Laser diode – you can buy one or scavenge one out of a laser pointer, PWM/servo controller based on the PCA9685 chip, a network camera that can output a MJPEG video stream.
You will also need: basic tools and supplies such as a hot glue gun (or other means of fastening servos and laser diode), a power supply for your laser diode and servos (your Pi’s 5V output is not powerful enough alone–use a battery pack, wall wart, or bench supply), and wires to connect the Raspberry Pi GPIO to the servo controller board. A breadboard and Pi Cobbler breakout are perfect for this project.
Flora-Powered TARDIS Costume
Flora-Powered TARDIS Costume: This project uses a Flora wearable processor and the VS1053 MP3 music player module which plays the sound of the TARDIS from Doctor Who. A Flora NeoPixel is used for the blinking blue light on top. The project lays flat for a wearable project. An infrared receiver is added to mute the sound when you want quiet (although you could also use it to switch between different audio tracks). For a full list of parts, click here.
SMS Texting Pet Food Dish
SMS Texting Pet Food Dish: Is checking and filling your pet food dish a constant daily chore? Have you ever wished you could be notified on your phone when the dish is empty? With this project you’ll learn how to build a pet food dish that does exactly that by sending an SMS text message when the dish is empty! This is way better than giving your pet a smartphone: our cat MOSFET ran up a huge texting bill and then refused to pay it.
This project is a great example of using an Arduino, CC3000 Wi-Fi module, and the Amazon Simple Notification Service to send notifications such as text messages. You can even use the knowledge and code from this project to add notification capabilities to your own Arduino projects! For a full list of parts, click here.
REMOTE PET FEEDER
by littleBits
REMOTE PET FEEDER by littleBits: When away, make sure your pet [fish, cat, dog] never goes hungry with this WiFi-activated feeder/treat dispenser.
You can either feed your pet remotely by pressing the button in Cloud Control (on your phone or computer) or you can set up an automated feeding schedule through IFTTT (If this then that). IFTTT is a service that lets you connect to different web apps through simple conditional statements. Click here for a full list of parts and tutorial.
Adafruit Holiday Shipping Deadlines 2014
Here are your 2014 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
The Adafruit Shipping Department works hard to get your orders out as quickly as we can, but once they’re in the hands of our carriers they’re out of our control.
Carriers have been struggling to keep up with the sharp rise in online orders. Last year UPS, FedEX, and USPS all experienced delivery delays.
So all the Adafruit Shippers say: Please be sure you get your gifts early! Order as soon as you can! Once you place your order we’ll ship like the wind!
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 12, 2014 – There is no guarantee that UPS Ground packages will arrive in time for Christmas.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 17, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 18, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 19, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday or Sunday service for UPS or USPS.
Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday– December 12, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 21, 2014. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner, but not a trackable service and cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/14.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 5, 2015. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner.
Gift Certificates are always available at any time.
When in doubt contact us!
