Adafruit’s PyPortal is a pretty powerful little device. One of its main functions are to grab and display data from internet APIs, but it can also easily log data to the cloud using Adafruit IO, has a couple built in sensors, and can be used to play games and perform other functions. Per Adafruit’s overview page, “the PyPortal uses an ATMEL (Microchip) ATSAMD51J20, and an Espressif ESP32 Wi-Fi coprocessor with TLS/SSL (secure web) support built-in. PyPortal has a 3.2″ 320 x 240 color TFT with resistive touch screen. PyPortal includes: speaker, light sensor, temperature sensor, NeoPixel, microSD card slot, 8MB flash, plug-in ports for I2C, and 2 analog/digital pins.”
There are a lot of examples of single-function applications available, such as weather, air quality, event count-down clock, and even how many astronauts are currently in space, along with their names. What I wanted to do was to have the device cycle through multiple applications. I ended up coding it to provide
The day, date, and time (inspired by how cruise ship’s change out a piece of carpet every day in the elevators to tell you what day of the week it is),
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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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