With a few modifications, one circuit can make many different projects. Here are three wearable ideas all built from one simple circuit. First, we’ll make an LED headband from start to finish. Then we’ll use the same circuit to make both a Star Trek- inspired combadge and a light-up hoodie. In all three builds, we’ll play with capacitive touch and make a button using conductive fabric. This is a great technique for wearables, and the Gemma M0 from Adafruit makes it easy to incorporate into projects.
The circuit is programmed for the desired lighting with CircuitPython, the easy to use code that you can edit in a text editor and copy to the Gemma like a flash drive. Experiment with effects in minutes to get the right look (compared to hours in Arduino).
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 – we’ll post the link there.
