This right here is a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) synthesiser connecting to a speaker over the magic of BLE. According to its maker, Liz Clark (who you can hear more from in the issue), this is “the cutest keyboard ever to exist”. The keys are shorter and squishier than normal, which gives the
whole project a nice accessible feel.
The electronics are pretty simple too: powering the circuit on the keyboard there’s a Feather nRF52840, which communicates over BLE with an Adafruit Circuit Playground Bluetooth, plus an Adafruit STEMMA Speaker (it’s got an amplifier built-in) in the speaker. Aside from a battery, perfboard, jumper leads, and a handful of momentary switches, that’s the entire bill of materials.
Want to make one yourself? Check out the build video at hsmag.cc/G5zCsy.
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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.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.