In March 2011, a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami ravaged Japan’s eastern coast. At the time, Chris Robinson was in the middle of a business meeting, but the subject of his meeting immediately turned to ways of helping people in similar disasters. He decided right then and there to build an escape pod based on a sturdy spherical design. Complete with an electric motor and solar panels, Robinson’s “tsunami ball” would act as a mini safety pod, allowing people to navigate over short distances during an inland tsunami. Without any prior shipbuilding experience, he launched himself into the project—sometimes, the will to build and learn trumps any expertise.
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.
