While drones date back to the first World War, it’s the modern era that’s really seen them take off in the home market. Cheap electronics, powerful batteries, useful cameras, and easy integration of multiple wireless technologies make it possible for someone to walk into an Apple store, plunk down $200, and start flying a drone with their phone. Almost none of that would have made sense to someone in 1976, when the NASA Ames Research Center commissioned a study from the Lockheed Missiles & Space Company on “Civil Uses Of Remotely Piloted Aircraft.” That study, in all its glorious 328 pages, is available online, and it’s a past glimpse at the future we’re now living in.
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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.
