If you were lucky enough to get your hands on one of the new Raspberry Pi Zero’s, one of the first things you are likely going to want to do is hook it up to a USB hub to add things like WiFi and a keyboard and mouse. Of course you can just connect an ordinary USB hub, but there isn’t many compact solutions available just yet. There are a few methods that have been posted online so far, from hacking an off the shelf USB hub, to manufacturing a custom hub yourself. These are all great, but are either a little unpolished or require some advanced maker skills, so we thought we’d have a go ourselves at something that is a but more approachable by the average maker, and uses predominantly off the shelf parts. So here is what we came up with.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
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.