Adafruit Holiday Gift Guide 2018: Kits!

Today we’re looking at the Adafruit classic: Kits! Adafruit got started with kits like MintyBoost and x0xb0x, and kits remain at the heart of Adafruit’s mission to help folks learn electronics in fun ways! Here are some Adafruit kits that might make great gifts for the new, experienced, and young makers in your life!


MiniPOV 4 Kit – DIY Full-Color POV and Light Painting Kit: An Adafruit classic. We’ve been offering versions of this kit from the start. You may have seen it in use at Burning Man.

The latest and greatest MiniPOV kit to hit the streets – MiniPOV4! We have added full color RGB LEDs to the kit as well USB programmability to make this the easiest, most fun Persistence-of-Vision & Light Painting kit ever.

Learn to solder by building this easy kit. About 30 components are soldered onto the custom PCB using a soldering iron, solder and some basic hand tools such as diagonal cutters and wire strippers. Learn as you go, starting with the easier parts and working your way up to the more challenging ones. Takes about an hour or two to complete following our detailed tutorial, depending on your previous soldering experience.


AdaBox008 – Octo Crickit #MakeRobotFriend Sometimes we wonder if robotics engineers ever watch movies. If they did, they’d know that making robots into slaves always ends up in a robot rebellion. Why even go down that path? Here at Adafruit we believe in making robots our friends!

This AdaBox008 is based around CRICKIT a Creative Robotics and Interactive Creations tool KIT. When paired with motors, servos, a Circuit Playground Express, and your own creativity, you’ll be able to craft your very own Robot Friend!

This is also a great way to test the waters of AdaBox before committing to a subscription.

See more on AdaBox here, and see below for a holiday-themed CRICKIT project!


Adafruit HELLA UNTZtrument! Open-Source 16×8 Grid Controller Kit: Build and customize your very own open-source button grid controller based on the Adafruit Trellis with the UNTZtrument kit HELLA UNTZtrument KIT! Designed by PaintYourDragon, this DIY kit comes with delicious translucent button pads, controller pads, diffused white LEDS and a custom laser cut enclosure. The result is a sturdy, BIG, and elegant but also super-hackable music or video (or something else???) controller device.

We designed this kit for ease of use and ultimate flexibility. All you need is an Arduino Leonardo, basic soldering tools and an afternoon. Once assembled and programmed with the Arduino IDE, this box turns into a USB MIDI device that works with any computer and has 128 buttonswith controllable LEDs. Our default example program sends a MIDI Note On and Off message for each button press but with a little programming ingenuity you can send and receive any kind of MIDI command. Since its USB MIDI it can work instantly with just about all synth software. Don’t like MIDI? The Leonardo can also emulate a USB keyboard or plain old USB serial.

Learn more about Trellis UNTZrument projects here!


Trellis Christmas Soundboad: Here’s more of what you can do with tools like NeoTrellis M4. This guide shows you how to build your own soundboard. Soundboards are commonly used for sound effects or to select various pieces of dialog on command, though this one features a set of open-source holiday audio clips for bountiful fun and mischief this holiday season.

This project uses the NeoTrellis M4 to create a soundboard capable of playing any of 32 audio clips when the corresponding button is pressed. Sounds are able to seamlessly interrupt one another, so you can press as messily as you like and this soundboard will keep up with yo


Motion Gift Box: If you do end up getting the AdaBox008 with CRICKIT, or if you have one already, here’s a great project for the holidays that will create a motion gift box for gift-giving in any tradition!

In this project we’re making a motion activated gift box using Adafruit CRICKIT and Circuit Playground Express. This holiday themed box moves around the floor as it makes creepy sounds and lights. It uses a PIR motion sensor to detect movement and a TT motor to spin a wheel. It also triggers lights and sounds making this an interactive gift box.

More projects for CRICKIT!


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We’re excited for the Holiday Season here at Adafruit and we can’t wait to share that excitement with you! Tune into the Adafruit Blog for 12 hand picked Adafruit Holiday Gift Guides featuring Adafruit products, projects and more starting Monday November 12.

Still not sure if you’re on the right gift giving track? Gift Certificates are the perfect cyber-present for the electronics geek in your life and are available at any time. When in doubt contact us!

Also be sure to check out the awesome freebies you get when you shop!


Adafruit Holiday Shipping Deadlines 2018

Here are your 2018 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.

The Adafruit Shipping Department works hard to get your orders out as quickly as we can, but once they’re in the hands of our carriers they’re out of our control. Carriers have been struggling to keep up with the sharp rise in online orders. UPS, FedEX, and USPS all experienced delivery delays over the last few years.

So all the Adafruit Shippers say: Please be sure you get your gifts early! Order as soon as you can! Once you place your order we’ll ship like the wind!

Please note: We do not offer Saturday or Sunday service for DHL, UPS or USPS.

Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018, Christmas, no DHL, UPS or USPS pickup or delivery service.

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, no DHL, UPS or USPS pickup or delivery service.

Domestic Orders

UPS Ground: Place orders by Friday 11 am ET – December 7, 2018 – Should arrive by Friday December 21 *There is no guarantee that UPS Ground packages will arrive by December 21, 2018.

UPS 3 Day: Place orders by Thursday 11 am ET – December 13, 2018 – Arrive by 12/21/2018.

UPS 2 Day: Place orders by Friday 11 am ET – December 14, 2018 – Arrive by 12/21/2018

UPS Next Day: Place orders by Monday 11 am ET – December 17, 2018 – Arrive by 12/21/2018.

USPS First Class and USPS Priority: Place orders by Friday– December 8, 2018 – Arrive by 12/21/2018 or sooner.

International Orders

USPS First Class Mail International: Place orders by Friday – November 16, 2018. Can take up to 30 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/21/2018 or sooner, but not a trackable service and cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/21/2018.

USPS Express Mail International: Place orders by Friday – November 30, 2018. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/21/2018 or sooner.

UPS WORLDWIDE EXPRESS, UPS WORLDWIDE EXPEDITED and UPS EXPRESS SAVER (UPS International orders): Place orders by Friday 11 am ET – December 7, 2018 – There is no guarantee that international packages will arrive by December 21, 2018.

DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE: Place orders by Friday 11 am ET – December 7, 2018 – There is no guarantee that international packages will arrive by December 21, 2018.


Halloween season is here!
Halloween season is here! Check out all the posts, gift guides, and more!

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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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