#AdafruitLearningSystem Weekly Update: Circuit Playground Edition

This week we published a total of 5 new guides. This week we published one new product guide and four new project guides. Learn how to use the FunHouse to trigger LIFX bulbs, use CircuitPython libraries on any computer with Raspberry Pi Pico, create Zoom shortcuts with the Neo Trinkey, and create a sound reactive sunflower baby crib mobile with Bluetooth control!

Circuit Playground Series

Many of you may know all about one of our most popular boards, the Circuit Playground, but did you know we have a full series of shows aimed at teaching kids about all things electronics? Follow along as Adabot, Ladyada, and a whole cast of fun characters teach you the basics of electronics. While the show is aimed at kids, there is plenty of useful info for makers of all ages.

Check out the full series on the Adafruit Learning System

Favorite New Guide

This week’s favorite new guide shows you how to a sound reactive sunflower baby crib mobile with Bluetooth control

Make a beautiful hanging mobile with lights for your nursery. This mobile is so cute and so much fun that older kids and adults will definitely enjoy it as well.

The included sample code has around 8 different animated color modes that you can control via bluetooth using Adafruit’s free BlueFruit app. It also has a sound reactive mode, where the lights will pulse in time to music or voices in the room.

ALS Deep Cut

With so many guides on the Adafruit Learning System, some amazing guides of years past get buried and lost. ALS Deep Cuts brings these guides back up to the surface. This week’s guide is from back in 2016, and is the perfect project to dive into on a day like today.

Happy Chewbacca Mask

Electronic talking toys are fun, but the same old sound loops can get pretty repetitive after a while. This guide will show you how to swap out the original sound board for an Audio FX Sound Board loaded up with lots of your favorite sounds. You’ll need a specific mask to follow along exactly, but these principles can be applied to nearly any toy designed to trigger a sound effect. Or, add a speaker and switch to the mix to give a voice to any prop or costume.

The Adafruit ItsyBitsy RP2040

adafruit_products_ItsyRP_held.gif

Another new board featuring the powerful RP2040 chip, the Adafruit ItsyBitsy RP2040

A new chip means a new ItsyBitsy, and the Raspberry Pi RP2040 is no exception. When we saw this chip we thought “this chip is going to be awesome when we give it the ItsyBitsy teensy-weensy treatment” and so we did! This Itsy’ features the RP2040, and all niceties you know and love about the ItsyBitsy family

What’s smaller than a Feather but larger than a Trinket? It’s an Adafruit ItsyBitsy RP2040 featuring the Raspberry Pi RP2040! Small, powerful, with a ultra fast dual Cortex M0+ processor running at 125 MHz – this microcontroller board is perfect when you want something very compact, with lots of horsepower and a bunch of pins. This Itsy has sports car speed, but SUV roominess with 8 MB of FLASH and 264KB of SRAM.


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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 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 38,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


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