A Raspberry Pi project has crossed over the line of innovative idea and into the forest of weird. Thanks to a recent addition to the accessory line for Raspberry Pi that Adafruit offers, one man has turned a bowl full of fruit into a MIDI keyboard, complete with multiple sound effects and adjustable tones.
With the Capacitive Touch HAT from Adafruit, turning practically anything into a sound machine seems fairly easy. The board is attached to the top of a Raspberry Pi unit. The HAT adds 12 channels of capacitive touch sensing. Connect an Alligator clip to the board with the other end clipped to a conductive object, like a piece of metal.
Then, by telling Python on Raspberry Pi to talk to the sensor you will know when someone has touched the object.
Adafruit Capacitive Touch HAT for Raspberry Pi – Mini Kit – MPR121: This touch-able add on HAT for Raspberry Pi will inspire your next interactive project with 12 capacitive touch sensors. Capacitive touch sensing works by detecting when a person (or animal) has touched one of the sensor electrodes. Capacitive touch sensing used for stuff like touch-reactive tablets and phones, as well as control panels for appliances, which is where you may have used it before. This HAT allows you to create electronics that can react to human touch, with up to 12 individual sensors. Read more.
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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.
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.
