This week on the Adafruit Learning System, we published a few new guides, and updated a few more. Learn how to submit Arduino code to the Adafruit Learning System, learn all about the new Adafruit ATtiny817 breakout with seesaw, and more!
Favorite New Guide
This week my favorite new guide is all about the new Adafruit ATtiny817 breakout with seesaw!
This is the Adafruit ATtiny817 breakout with seesaw! This breakout board is a “three in one” product:
- The ATtiny817 is part of the ‘next gen’ of AVR microcontrollers, and now we have a cute development/breakout board for it, with just enough hardware to get the chip up and running.
- It’s also an Adafruit seesaw board. Adafruit seesaw is a near-universal converter framework which allows you to add and extend hardware support to any I2C-capable microcontroller or microcomputer. Instead of getting separate I2C GPIO expanders, ADCs, PWM drivers, etc, seesaw can be configured to give a wide range of capabilities.
- Finally, with STEMMA QT connectors on it, you could use it as either an I2C controller or peripheral with plug-and play support.
Halloween on the Adafruit Learning System
Looking for some last minute Halloween costumes? Maybe you just need to make some decorations? The Adafruit Learning System has you covered. Here are some of my favorites:
HalloWing All-Seeing Skull
This skull is keeping an eye on you…
When it comes to decoration for Halloween, or setting up an elaborate, Scooby Doo-esque plot to scare a bunch of meddling kids, it’s hard to beat a creepy skull that looks at you out of one eye whenever it detects movement!
You can build this with the HalloWing and its TFT display, a lens, and a PIR sensor to determine when people are approaching, and then open up it’s one good eye!
NeoPixel LED Cortana Costume
Become your favorite video game character with 3d printing and diy electronics
In this project we’re adding sewable NeoPixels and GEMMA to a bodysuit to make a light up Cortana costume.
To get extra details, we’ll trace artwork from reference photos, format the artwork and make a stencil that we can 3d print.
How it Works
This sewable project uses a Gemma, NeoPixel Rings and sewable NeoPixels use our condutive thread to connect data, power and ground.
Mystical LED Halloween Hood
Create glowing eyes for your costume! This project is ideal for any character with glowing eyes, like the Black Mage from Final Fantasy, Jawa from Star Wars, or Orko from He-Man. Two NeoPixel Jewels can appear any color or animating pattern, and they are driven by a GEMMA microcontroller powered by a 500mAh lipoly battery in a 3D printed pocket.
Animatronic Glowing Medusa Headdress
Snakes that glow and writhe and slither
Your looks will turn them all to stone, and your snakes will writhe in delight and delicious decadence. The glow from your serpentine hair will only be eclipsed by the toothsome grin you wear as you fill your statue garden with wonders wrought from your deadly gaze.
This is not a step-by-step guide, rather an overview of how I used Crickit and Circuit Playground to create this costume. The Crickit is so easy to use that it’s a great first foray into the world of animatronics and servos.
I used MakeCode’s drag-and-drop editor to create the code that runs the servos and the lights, so it’s easy to learn and customize even if you’re not a coder.
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 2013.
Build your very own Electronic Demon Costume!
Spark the demon isn’t really a bad guy, he’s just got a job to do: tangling the cord on those phone/MP3 earbuds in your backpack or pocket. His old job was mangling tapes in car audio systems, but there’s so little call for that anymore that the rare case is just handed off to a minion.Two of my favorite things are electronics and Halloween…why not combine them? Spark came together through a series of Adafruit tutorials and postings leading up to Halloween 2012. The costume features an Arduino-based voice changer, an animated LED matrix face and glowing EL wire wings and horns.
