Adabox 005 features a new Circuit Playground character named JOY. She’s very reminiscent to the classic SNES gamepad controller that’s become an iconic staple of the 90’s gaming scene.
Mr. and Mrs. Ladyada had the awesome idea of making JOY into an functional gamepad. PT had the novel idea of using a TFT screen to display Joy’s facial features. The motion of making JOY into a “Puppet” lead to making her eyes animated.
The first prototype shows the entire TFT display.
Originally I designed the case with square cutout for the entire screen. This works well from a functionality stand point but doesn’t really standout in retrospect. PT had the creative suggestion of making the cutout into actual facial features, such as the eyes and mouth. Essentially “masking” out the features with the 3D printed case and giving a more “seamless” look.
The end result is a very colorful USB gamepad powered by an Adafruit Feather M0 Express. If anyone wants to build JOY, our learning guide has everything needed. Circuit diagram, code, STLs, step by steps, you know the drill!
Arduino code for JOY the gamepad was written by Philip Burgess.
JOY character was designed by Adafruit’s Creative Director, Bruce Yan.
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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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