Posted on

New Guide: Make Your Own Cosplay Fireball Props with Motion Sensing

Cosplay Fireball

Check out the latest tutorial from Erin St. Blaine: make a magical floating fireball prop for your Cosplay character. A snap of the wrist makes the LED flames flare up brightly! This is a fun beginner project, with no soldering required. The code is done in Microsoft MakeCode, with a drag-and-drop code block editor, so it’s easy to change colors or animation triggers.

From the guide:

Complete your cosplay with this Magical Item: a floating fireball that flares up at your command. Whether you’re portraying Kael’thas Sunstrider from WoW or trading flaming shots with Super Mario and Luigi, this fireball will push your outfit over the top. This is a very easy project, with no soldering required. The Circuit Playground board makes motion-sensing programmable lights a snap. Customize your colors and your animation speed with Microsoft MakeCode’s drag-and-drop code editor. You’ll be stopped for so many photos that you’ll never make it to that panel discussion at DragonCon.

Full tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/cosplay-fireball-prop-with-motion-sensing/

Posted on

New Guide: Minecraft Inspired Epoxy Resin Torch Lamp with Touch Control

Check out the newest project tutorial from Erin St. Blaine: make an epoxy resin Minecraft-inspired torch lamp. This lamp has a strand of warm white fairy lights embedded right into the resin, making a lovely starry glow effect. Adding a Circuit Playground Express underneath powers up the lamp with 10 programmable NeoPixel LEDs. The included MakeCode downloadable code makes the lamp flicker like a torch for a really beautiful ambient lighting effect.

From the guide:

Make your own custom Minecraft-inspired Torch lamp from epoxy resin. Embed a strand of fairy lights inside, and set it on top of a Circuit Playground Express. The onboard NeoPixel lights provide a lovely, flickery torch effect. This gorgeous lamp glows from the inside out.

Add a piece of shiny copper tape to the base, and you can change light modes with a touch of your finger. Capacitive touch control is just like magic!

We’ve provided a simple 3d printable base model, or you can get creative and design your own display mount. We made ours look like Viking Dragon Ships to go with our Dragon Wall Sconce, and now we sail into sleep at night with fiery dragonish gargoyles watching over us.

Learn to make your own Resin Torch Lamp here: https://learn.adafruit.com/epoxy-resin-torch-lamp-with-touch-control-3d-printed-base

 

Posted on

Making a Mini Arcade Wireless Charger #NeoPixel #CPX #3DPrinting

YouTube Makers EvanAndKatelyn have fun creating this mini arcade. The charger is taken to the next level with a Circuit Playground and some LEDs.

We made a wireless phone charger that looks like a mini arcade and even has a working button! Click the link to download PUBG Mobile for free: http://www.inflcr.co/SH2Bt. Thanks to PUBG Mobile for sponsoring this video!

See more!

Posted on

New Guide: Frozen-Inspired Temperature-Sensing Pendant

Elsa with her Gizmo

The latest tutorial from Erin St. Blaine will teach you how to make a Frozen II inspired pendant for your young maker friend (or for you and your own sweet style) featuring elemental images that change based on the temperature of the air. The TFT Gizmo inside the pendant will display a snowflake when it’s cold, a spinning leaf image when it’s warm, and a lovely purple flame when it’s hot. From the guide:

Discover your inner Snow Queen with this temperature sensing pendant. Invoke the elements of snow, air, and fire using your breath or body heat (or your Ice Queen Superpowers). The pendant will display a snowflake, a spinning leaf, or a lovely purple flame animation depending on the warmth of the air.

Inspired by the elemental spirits in Disney’s Frozen II movie, this pendant will be sure to inspire and excite any Queen Elsa fans, and add an element of magic to your cosplay or halloween costume.

This project uses Adafruit’s TFT Gizmo, a Circuit Playground Bluefruit, and a 3d printed case. There’s no soldering or coding involved — just a few screws to tighten, and a couple files to upload — so it’s a wonderful beginner project if you’re just starting out in the world of electronic cosplay, or if you have a young helper who’s getting interested in making stuff.

Check out the full tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System here: Frozen-Inspired Animated Temperature Sensing Pendant Guide

Posted on

NEW GUIDE: Machine Learning with Marshmallows and Tiny Sorter #machinelearning #teachablemachine #marshmallows #adafruit @adafruit

A new guide today in the Adafruit Learning System: Machine Learning with Marshmallows and Tiny Sorter

Machine learning is only about as complicated as cereal and marshmallows in this guide.

This project from Google uses a laptop’s built-in camera to identify various cereal and marshmallows. The computer then sorts them based on a model you train. A Circuit Playground Express communicates with the computer to decide when to sort which marshmallow/cereal via a micro servo.

See this new guide now!

Posted on

Adafruit Weekly Editorial Round-Up: January 5th – January 11th, Thoughts for #CircuitPython2020

IINewImage 21 1 1 2

ADAFRUIT WEEKLY EDITORIAL ROUND-UP

We’ve got so much happening here at Adafruit that it’s not always easy to keep up! Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. Each week we’ll be posting a handy round-up of what we’ve been up to, ranging from learn guides to blog articles, videos, and more.

BLOG

Adafruit blinka 2020 blog

#CircuitPython2020

This week was #CircuitPython2020 packed! We shared your thoughts, we shared our thoughts…we’re just so excited to see what 2020 will bring!

Check out all the posts here!

More BLOG:

Keeping with tradition, we covered quite a bit this past week. Here’s a kinda short nearing medium length list of highlights:

LEARN

Hero weather

PyPortal Retro Cases

Retro-inspired Enclosures for Adafruit PyPortal IoT Displays. This project is like a mini desktop PC that you can have on your desk and display all sorts of data. The ports are accessible on the side and there’s even a spot to hold a speaker.

The 3D printed enclosure is designed to snap fit so it’s easy to assemble and take apart.

See the full guide here!

More LEARN:

Browse all that’s new in the Adafruit Learning System here!

Posted on

Students make Star Wars themed 3D printing and electronics projects #3Dprinting #CircuitPython #Feather #CircuitPlaygroundExpress

In the Adafruit Discord, middle school/high school teacher Daniel writes:

I’d like to show some Star Wars projects my students made for this semester. I’m finding it difficult to make the Wednesday night Show and Tell show due to family life, so forgive the forthcoming dump of photos. I teach high school 3D modeling and Middle School programming. I had a combined theme of Star Wars this semester. High School designed lightsaber hilts and 3D printed them. Middle School programmed the electronics (M4 Feather + Propwing) that went inside.

Middle School also made a bunch of Circuit Playground based Star Wars projects as well. (Everything is CircuitPython). We then showed everything off to the 3rd to 5th graders in a big Star Wars showcase.

Lightsabers designed in Blender. I wrote a Python script in Blender to form the base pommel, hilt, and blade holder. Students then designed their own lightsaber from there. Time of fun. Used both CP Express and some alpha CP Bluetooth.

Pictures from the post are below. Great job folks!! You too can join the Adafruit Discord – go to adafru.it/discord for more details.

 

Posted on

Adafruit Weekly Editorial Round-Up: November 3rd to November 9th, #TubmanStamp at the Smithsonian, Adafruit Holiday Shipping Deadlines 2019 and “Arcade Game Typography” Book Review

IINewImage 21 1 1

ADAFRUIT WEEKLY EDITORIAL ROUND-UP

We’ve got so much happening here at Adafruit that it’s not always easy to keep up! Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. Each week we’ll be posting a handy round-up of what we’ve been up to, ranging from learn guides to blog articles, videos, and more.

BLOG

DSC 1912

Harriet Tubman stamp on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History #tubmanstamp

The Harriet Tubman stamp is now on display as a part of the Smithsonian’s The Value of Money exhibition at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. The Smithsonian joins the International Slavery Museum in putting the Harriet Tubman stamp on display to the public.

Check out the full post here!

More BLOG:

Keeping with tradition, we covered quite a bit this past week. Here’s a kinda short nearing medium length list of highlights:

Learn

Desktop Dumpster Fire

Having a bad day? With the press of a button and your small desktop storage container erupts into flames, creating a perfect visual representation of how life often feels, and a cathartic way to express oneself.

See the full guide here!

More LEARN:

Browse all that’s new in the Adafruit Learning System here!

Posted on

NEW GUIDE: Alien Xenomorph Halloween Candy Bucket with CPX & MakeCode #adafruit

Why roam around with a boring pumpkin bucket when you can collect delicious candy with a robotic Xenomorph head? This NEW GUIDE takes you through the process of turning an ordinary halloween candy bucket into a terrifying robotic alien head.

This robotic candy bucket shoots out a small receptacle to retrieve candy and bring it back into the bucket.

Learn how to build your own Xenomorph on the Adafruit Learn System!