How to Make a Lightsaber Even Better? Add Plumbing #WearableWednesday #Wearabletech #StarWars
When I go through Home Depot’s aisles, I’m often amazed at the number of parts available in the plumbing section. You’ve got PVC and metal pipes, valves and clamps. These things are often re-purposed into sci-fi movie sets, so it really isn’t so surprising that Ian Johnson included some on his beautiful version of a battle worn lightsaber. Inside the nicely aged hilt you’ll find an Arduino Pro Mini, speaker/amp, sound module and accelerometer. It’s got all the action you’d expect from a decent lightsaber like blaster, swinging, clash and power off sounds. It’s also got the ability to choose your color based on character preference for the polycarb blade. Ian sounds almost giddy as he explains his build, and I suspect that is because this project has been a long time in the making. Some things are worth the wait; Ian, I’m personally wishing you a great new year and may the cosplay be with you. For those of you who want the easy way to add some lights and sounds to your project, check out our new learning guide on Sword and Wand Prop Effects. Simple hacks can add fun to your props and make your next cosplay adventure even more fun.
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.
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