Fume extractors are an important tool to have if you are soldering frequently. It helps suck up the stinky nasty fumes, which then get absorbed by a carbon filter. At Adafruit, we seem to have a fondness for this useful tool. The Adafruit Learning System has a total of five unique fume extractors. From the small and cute, to the motion activated, there is a fume extractor for everyone.
This week we published another amazing fume extractor guide. This project by Liz Clark added an air quality sensor and FunHouse to a fume extractor to be able to not only monitor the air that is being extracted, but also regulate the fan speed. Check it out!
Minimal mechanical macropads are fun and useful. Perfect for playing rhythm games (Osu!), media controls, mic/camera muting, and more. You can customize the Deco Keypad to press any key or key-combo, as well as pick your favorite colors for the under-lit NeoPixels.
Build your own using the NeoKey FeatherWing, two mechanical keyswitches with keycaps, and the CircuitPython-capable Feather of your choice.
The Art Deco-inspired, 3D printed case has ports for USB, STEMMA QT cable, and the reset button. Add rubber bumper feet for a nice, stable macropad experience!
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 2017.
In this Pro Trinket powered project, build and 3D print yourself a friend, an Adafriend! This little colorful guy with an eye responds to taps and vibrations, and shows emotion on its little LED matrix front with a sad, neutral, happy, or angry face. It gazes around at its environment and blinks, plays spontaneous tones and patterns that correspond to it’s emotional state, and even sings some recognizable tunes and themes when it’s in the mood! If left alone for too long it gets lonely, but pester your pet too much and it may get angry at you! Build yourself an Adafriend and keep it happy to sing along with the coolest little cube around!
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.
