Author Gordon Williams writes, “We humans have endless imaginations. ‘Making’ — whether that’s painting, designing, building, or programming — can be one of the most satisfying human experiences. Standing back from a creation and thinking, ‘I made that,’ is one of the best feelings I know.”
Whether you’re into robotics or other forms of electromechanics, Make: Making Things Smart is a great, approachable resource for beginner and intermediate makers. This instructional book lays out the ABCs of programming with engaging, but inexpensive homemade projects, giving YOU a solid, hands-on foundation in Javascript and Espruino. You only need everyday household tools (and the Espruino microcontroller) for these fun devices!
The Espruino’s fast response time has a lot of advantages. It allows for quick and easy debugging and is a great way to test your project before your big reveal. In addition, you can control the Espruino from almost anything – Windows, Mac OS, Linux, RasPi, Android, anything that can talk to a USB Serial port.
This book is a perfect partner for learning Making and Electronics and JavaScript with Espruino – it’s very easy and very satisfying!
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, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, 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 with Google Hangouts On-Air 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.
