Every now and then I check up on one of my fave spots in the tech world—Hybrid Ecologies Lab @ UC Berkeley. Recently I spotted Frida Kahlo as a soft circuit on their site and instantly knew one of the lab’s key people, Cesar Torres, was engaged with the group on another exciting project. Cesar is a big Frida fan and is also an artist, however, upon talking with him I realized that the excitement was not about the stitching of the circuit. The real work going on here was designing a digital system/software that could take into account aesthetics, as well as key fabric/art friendly electrical components to create beautiful circuits. The resulting project is called Ellustrate.
I know from doing my own copper tape paper circuits that designs can get quite intricate. The system proposed in the group’s white paper allows for an easier way to design circuits and share them as tutorials with others. It also provides steps for checking the circuit for continuity. With tablet devices becoming so commonplace, this method just makes sense. It’s like a mashup of Fritzing, Art Rage and touch-screens. So, I suspect the future does hold even more exquisite circuits that resemble fine art. They will become lamp shades, jackets, cloth books, duvet covers, paintings and wall coverings. Doesn’t it make you want to grab your art supplies and conductive thread? While you are at it, you might want to take a look at a great example of an electronic embroidery project—the Light-Up Angler Fish. Circuits can be so expressive.
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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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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Select Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: PyCon AU 2024 Talks, New Raspberry Pi Gear Available and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
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!