These Sneakers Will Make You the Master of Beats #WearableWednesday #Wearabletech @push_reset
This is such a fun project that I’m already dancing without shoes! Lara Grant has hacked sneakers so they play beats from different areas of the soles wirelessly through a computer. So, whether it be the toe, ball or heel, you can get any party started—external speakers are a bonus. This is considered a beginner/intermediate project and you can check out Lara’s detailed directions on Instructables. Here are some highlights from this awesome project.
The secret to the sneakers is the Adafruit Feather Bluefruit LE, which allows bluetooth connectivity to the computer for the sound. Samples are mapped using free Soundplant software. The other secret is soft textile switches which are developed in three areas of the shoe’s sole. Basically a new sole of veggie tanned leather is created and attached to the bottom of the shoe to house these switches. You may wonder why they weren’t placed in the insole and Lara has the answer:
“It turns out the actual sole of the shoe is a needed barrier between the switches and the force of the foot.”
Many of the lessons learned in this project came from Lara’s real life testing with prototypes on dancers. It enabled her to understand best placement for the textile switches and it also revealed the need for a manual switch to disarm one of the sensors during idle time. It may take longer to go through this process, but the finished product is well worth it.
So, are you fascinated by textile switches? They can make wearables a lot more comfortable and allow you to trigger different actions like lights, sounds and keyboard movements. Check out our learning guide for a Plush Game Controller for a great example of how you can turn conductive fabric into soft buttons. Who needs plastic buttons anyway!
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
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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.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!