Thanks so much to Chris for sending in this tip! Chris writes:
For their year-long project, my Grade 12 class of seven students developed a clock based on Adafruit’s ChronoDot and Neopixel strip components. The challenge was to integrate the components into a custom designed acrylic case worthy enough to acknowledge our College’s 50th Anniversary. The result was stunning piece that had the inward-facing strip deliver its light into 60, two piece, finger jointed, transparent/opaque wells. I believe the marriage of Adafruit components and acrylic CAD encasement would provide inspiration to many who find the courage to pursue their creative imagination.
ChronoDot – Ultra-precise Real Time Clock – v2.1: The ChronoDot RTC is an extremely accurate real time clock module, based on the DS3231 temperature compensated RTC (TCXO). It includes a CR1632 battery (not shown, but included in the product) which should last at least 8 years if the I2C interface is only used while the device has 5V power available. No external crystal or tuning capacitors are required. (read more)
Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip – Black 60 LED – BLACK: You thought it couldn’t get better than our world-famous 32-LED-per-meter Digital LED strip but we will prove you wrong! You wanted twice the LEDs? We got it (well, it’s 1.875 times as many but that’s within a margin of error). You wanted thinner strips? Now only 12.5 mm wide, 10 mm if you remove the strip from the casing. You wanted less noticeable strip color – this strip has black-colored flex PCB, which will be less visible against black-painted walls. (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.
