High-tech holiday projects can raise your stress levels when you take the road less travelled.
The school holidays are always a juggling act when you’re a working parent, trying to strike that balance between getting things done and spending some quality time with your kids. These school holidays I decided it was finally time to tackle our father/son Raspberry Pi robotics project that’s been lying in pieces since Christmas, although it’s forced me to concede that father doesn’t always know best.
The idea sounds simple enough; combine the Raspberry Pi mini-computer with a Laika breakout board, in order to control the motors in a Dagu Rover 5 robot chassis wirelessly using MIT’s Scratch programming language. Okay, maybe it doesn’t sound that simple – but I’ve seen Laika-based projects online using all the same components so I figured they’d play nicely together and we’d work it out as we went along.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
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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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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!