An ambient information display is an indicator which conveys meaningful data non-verbally. Unlike a computer screen which must be actively read, an ambient display needs no mental “mode shift” to interpret, and often just sits in one’s peripheral vision.
This project uses our Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 wireless microcontroller board to pull a forecast from the accuweather.com web site using “web scraping” techniques rather than their restrictive programming API, then distills this to its barest essence: good news or bad news? Yes or no? It’s an exercise in minimalism. AccuWeather was chosen because it offers some interesting forecasts beyond the usual temperature or precipitation: there’s predictions for health concerns like allergies or arthritis, or for leisure activities like golf or sailing.
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 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
