Adafruit’s Top Ten Best-Selling Products of 2023 #AdafruitTopTen
Another year in the can! Check out our best-selling, most beloved products that maker folks can’t get enough of.
10. Panel Mount USB Cable – A Male to A Female
This handy USB extension cable will make it easy for you to enclose a device that has a A type (USB host) port. We think this would be most handy when putting a Beagle Bone, Raspberry Pi or Mintyboost into a box.
The jack half has two mounting ‘ears’ with 12mm M3 screws installed, 30mm apart. The ears are flexible so the holes don’t have to drilled very precisely. Can be used with box walls up to 0.25″ wide. The screws can be put on from the back for ‘reverse’ mounting if the box thickness is a problem. Entire unit is 13.4″ long from tip to tip (with 10.2″ cabling between USB connectors).
9. Simple Spring Antenna – 915MHz
This simple spring antenna matches great with any of our 900MHz RFM and LoRa breakouts, bonnets and Feathers. They’re made of copper-clad wire so you can solder them easily.
They are compact, only 17.5mm/0.68″ long, and have 2.15dBi of gain and 50Ω impedance, so it will work fantastically with just about any 850~950MHz wireless receiver/transmitter.
8. Raspberry Pi Pico W
The Raspberry Pi foundation changed single-board computing when they released the Raspberry Pi computer, now they’re ready to do the same for microcontrollers with the release of the brand new Raspberry Pi Pico W. This low-cost microcontroller board features their powerful new chip, the RP2040, and all the fixin’s to get started with IoT embedded electronics projects at a stress-free price.
7. Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet for Raspberry Pi
You can create a dazzling display with your Raspberry Pi with the Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet. These boards plug into your Pi and make it super easy to control RGB matrices such as those we stock in the shop and create a colorful scrolling display or mini LED wall with ease.
6. USB Type A to Type C Cable – approx 1 meter / 3 ft long
As technology changes and adapts, so does Adafruit. This USB Type A to Type C cable will help you with the transition to USB C, even if you’re still totin’ around a USB Type A hub, computer or laptop.
USB C is the latest industry-standard connector for transmitting data and power. Like Lightning and MagSafe cables, USB C has no up or down orientation. And who among us has inserted USB correctly the first time? Works great with any computer that has a classic USB type A (rectangular) port, and will let you attach to any devices with new-fangled type C connector (rounded rectangle).
5. Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is the latest product in Raspberry Pi’s most affordable range of single-board computers. The successor to the breakthrough Raspberry Pi Zero W, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is a form factor–compatible drop-in replacement for the original board.
4. Panel Mount Cable USB C to Micro B Male – 30cm
This panel mount cable will allow you to enclose a device that has a USB Micro B port, and also converts it to a modern USB C connector at the same time. Perfect for placing your project in a secure box! One end is a USB Micro B plug connector, and other is a USB C socket with special over-molding.
The socket side has two mounting ‘ears’ with M3 screws installed 20mm apart. Can be used with box walls up to 0.25″ wide. If you have a thinner-walled box, simply swap out the M3 screws for shorter ones.
3. Adafruit TSL2591 High Dynamic Range Digital Light Sensor – STEMMA QT
When the future is dazzlingly-bright, this ultra-high-range luminosity sensor will help you measure it. The TSL2591 luminosity sensor is an advanced digital light sensor, ideal for use in a wide range of light situations. Compared to low cost CdS cells, this sensor is more precise, allowing for exact lux calculations and can be configured for different gain/timing ranges to detect light ranges from 188 uLux up to 88,000 Lux on the fly.
2. DC Gearbox Motor – “TT Motor” – 200RPM – 3 to 6VDC
Perhaps you’ve been assembling a new robot friend, adding a computer for a brain and other fun personality touches. Now the time has come to let it leave the nest and fly on its own wings– err, wheels!
These durable (but affordable!) plastic gearbox motors (also known as ‘TT’ motors) are an easy, low-cost way to get your projects moving. This is a TT DC Gearbox Motor with a gear ratio of 1:48, and it comes with 2 x 200mm wires with breadboard-friendly 0.1″ male connectors. Perfect for plugging into a breadboard or terminal blocks.
1. Circuit Playground Express – Base Kit
It’s the Circuit Playground Express Base Kit! It provides the few things you’ll need to get started with the new Circuit Playground Express. This version of Circuit Playground is super powered, and will work with Microsoft MakeCode, CircuitPython, code.org CS Discoveries or Arduino IDE.
You can use Circuit Playground Express with code.org CS Discoveries, but we recommend this code.org Individual Pack which has the alligator clips and LEDs you’ll need to follow all the lessons.
Kit includes: