What better way to showcase your making skills than giving a handmade Arduino based gift? Not a maker but know a maker? Gather all the parts needed for any project that catches your eye and gift them – give the gift of making!
Be sure to check out the Adafruit Learning System for more Arduino based projects and more!
For the young engineer (in years or heart!):
Arduino “Hunt The Wumpus”
You can relive the early days of computer gaming on your Arduino with Hunt the Wumpus. This game is a particularly good fit for the RGB LCD shield
Adafruit Trinket-Modded Stuffed Animal
People love stuffed animals! One of the first toys a child gets is some representation of an animal. Over time, these beloved companions become part of what we surround ourselves with.
This project provides ideas for creating stuffed, papercraft or other toy animals with characteristics you want. You can chose your animal, make it move and have it make sounds. Assembly is straightforward, the most complex component is using your imagination.
For the maker who loves the kitchen:
Smart Measuring Cup
This guide will show you how to build a smart measuring cup which displays the volume of liquid in real time on a web page. No longer will you need to squint and guess while measuring liquids; the smart measuring cup’s web page clearly shows the measured volume, and even converts between units or tares measurements like a digital scale!
Sous-vide controller powered by Arduino – The SousViduino!
Want to make delicious, perfectly-cooked food using a robot? Who doesn’t!? This project will show you how to build your own “Sous viduino”, an automated cooking pot that makes perfect eggs, succulent steaks and tender fish without the whole “slaving over a stove.” All this is possible due to a recent advancement in cooking technology – instead of using a pan or pot, a “sous vide” (pronounced suu veed) machine heats the food in sort of a cross between a jacuuzi and a crock pot.
Wireless Gardening with Arduino + CC3000 WiFi Modules
In this guide, we are going to give a modern touch to gardening and connect some informations about your garden to the Internet. We are going to use a soil moisture & temperature sensor connected to an Arduino and a WiFi chip to automatically send measurements from your garden to the cloud.
Cloud Thermometer
Have you ever wished you could know when something you put in the oven was done cooking? Maybe not 10 minute cookies but how about the 3 or 4 hour turkey roast? You might have used a gadget like a kitchen probe thermometer to monitor the temperature of food in the oven. Probe thermometers are great at measuring the temperature of cooking food, however there are a couple ways they can be improved. First, most probe thermometers (the inexpensive ones at least) can’t be monitored remotely, so you need to be in the kitchen constantly watching them. Second, these thermometers only display the current temperature and don’t give any prediction of when the food will be at a desired temperature.
Smart Cocktail Shaker
The smart cocktail shaker is a project to help you easily mix drinks using an Arduino, a load cell from a cheap kitchen scale, and an Android application. By measuring the weight of a cocktail shaker, an Arduino can send the amount of poured liquid to an Android application over a USB or bluetooth connection in real time. Making a drink is as easy as following the steps on screen–no more guessing or fumbling with measurements!
For the security buff:
Wireless Security Camera with the Arduino Yun
Ever saw these wireless security cameras that you can buy off the shelf? These are devices that you can setup somewhere in your home or outside, connect to your WiFi network, and then access the video stream from anywhere. However, they are usually using the interface given by the manufacturer, which means you are quite limited with what you can do with your camera.
In this project, we are going to build our own DIY version of such devices. The project is based on the Arduino Yun, to which we are going to connect a standard USB webcam and a PIR motion detector to create some cool applications.
Adafruit Optical Fingerprint Sensor
Secure your project with biometrics – this all-in-one optical fingerprint sensor will make adding fingerprint detection and verification super simple. These modules are typically used in safes – there’s a high powered DSP chip that does the image rendering, calculation, feature-finding and searching. Connect to any microcontroller or system with TTL serial, and send packets of data to take photos, detect prints, hash and search. You can also enroll new fingers directly – up to 162 finger prints can be stored in the onboard FLASH memory. There’s a red LED in the lens that lights up during a photo so you know its working.
NFC Ring Password Helper
Log in to your computer with a swipe of your hand! Use an NFC ring and reader to type in your password for you with an Arduino Leonardo, which can act like an HID keyboard.
For the commuter:
Personalized NextBus ESP8266 Transit Clock
NextBus is a free internet service using GPS and cellular networks to provide realtime arrival data for over 135 transit agencies in the United States and Canada.
For transit-bound people, the NextBus service is a tremendous convenience. Knowing when a bus is due means less standing out in the rain…one can use that time inside to get a little extra work done, or finish that cup of coffee. In this tutorial we’ll build a handy desk-top or wall-mount countdown display that lets you know when the next bus or train is on the way!
We’re excited for the Holiday Season here at Adafruit, and we can’t wait to share that excitement with you! Stay tuned into the blog where you will find new, handpicked gift guides five days a week from November 7 through December 23rd, 2016 alongside holiday themed tutorials and builds!
Free Deals
Adafruit offers exciting deals and free items when you shop with us. As of February 23rd, 2016 3:00 PM ET we are currently offering FREE UPS ground (Continental USA) for orders $200 or more.
Adafruit Holiday Shipping Deadlines 2016
Here are your 2016 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
The Adafruit Shipping Department works hard to get your orders out as quickly as we can, but once they’re in the hands of our carriers they’re out of our control.
Carriers have been struggling to keep up with the sharp rise in online orders. UPS, FedEX, and USPS all experienced delivery delays over the last few years.
So all the Adafruit Shippers say: Please be sure you get your gifts early! Order as soon as you can! Once you place your order we’ll ship like the wind!
Please note: We do not offer Saturday or Sunday service for UPS or USPS.
Sunday, Dec. 25, 2016, Christmas, no UPS or USPS pickup or delivery service.
Monday, Dec. 26, 2016, no UPS or USPS pickup or delivery service.
Monday, Jan. 2, 2017, no UPS or USPS pickup or delivery service.
Sunday, Jan. 1, 2016, New Year’s Day, no UPS or USPS pickup or delivery service
Gift Certificates are always available at any time.
When in doubt contact us!
Domestic Orders
UPS ground: Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 9, 2016 – There is no guarantee that UPS Ground packages will arrive by December 23.
UPS 3-day: Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 15, 2016 – Arrive by 12/23/2016.
UPS 2-day: Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 16, 2016 – Arrive by 12/23/2016.
UPS overnight: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 19, 2016 – Arrive by 12/23/2016.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority: Place orders by Friday– December 9, 2016 – Arrive by 12/23/2016 or sooner.
International Orders
USPS First class mail international: Place orders by Friday – November 18, 2016. Can take up to 30 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2016 or sooner, but not a trackable service and cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/23/2016.
USPS Express mail international: Place orders by Friday – December 2, 2016. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2016 or sooner.
UPS WORLDWIDE EXPRESS, UPS WORLDWIDE EXPEDITED and UPS EXPRESS SAVER (UPS International orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 9, 2016 – There is no guarantee that international packages will arrive by December 23 2016.
