Adafruit Weekly Editorial Round-Up: October 14th – October 20th
ADAFRUIT WEEKLY EDITORIAL ROUND-UP
We’ve got so much happening here at Adafruit that it’s not always easy to keep up! Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. Each week we’ll be posting a handy round-up of what we’ve been up to, ranging from learn guides to blog articles, videos, and more.
Adafruit’s HalloWing, an MCU Optimized for Halloween Projects.
…Adafruit Industries have done something really special this year. They’ve created the HalloWing, what they describe as basically a tricked-out Feather microcontroller that has been optimized for running Halloween projects.
The skull-shaped circuit board has a full-color TFT display, light and motion sensors, 8 megs of storage for plenty of sound effects and video, a speaker driver for sound output, JST ports for LED strips, and a lot more. It supports both Arduino and CircuitPython programming environments.
These are all of the sorts of handy features you would want on a controller driving effects for a costume or Halloween haunts project. It even comes with a creepy eyeball video already loaded (which I plan on making use of in my costume).
Jack-o’-LED·trix: Use a string of diffused pixels and a push button to create a new take on a jack-o-lantern sure to entertain trick-or-treaters and guests at your next Halloween party.
This is a great beginner project if you’re new to soldering or microcontrollers. You can use a real pumpkin (aka “cucurbita pepo”) or a fake foam pumpkin (aka a “funkin”) to create a reusable and unique piece of decor.
I used an Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE board to drive the 3-pin pixels on my Jack-o’-LED·trix this year. The example code will compile on a number of different boards, including the following.. See the full guide here!
Browse all that’s new in the Adafruit Learning System here!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
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: Open Hardware is In, New CircuitPython and Pi 5 16GB, and much 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
