The Microsoft MakeCode team is proud to announce a great partnership with our good friends at Adafruit Industries. Over the last several months we have been working together on a new educational physical computing experience that pairs Microsoft MakeCode with a new version of the Circuit Playground board, called Circuit Playground Express.
This new board carries over all the goodness of Circuit Playground Classic – small size, round shape, colored NeoPixels, etc. – but packs in even more sensors (thanks to the brilliant Ladyada), along with a more powerful processor. Circuit Playground Express uses our MakeCode magic to allow easy drag-and-drop programming from inside a browser.
Using either the visual block-based editor, or the JavaScript editor in Microsoft MakeCode, students can build programs to create custom animations, sounds, and use sensor events like “On Shake” to react to external stimulus. Here are a few of the cool features we’ve come up with:
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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 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Diving into the Raspberry Pi RP2350, Python Survey Results 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
