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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/

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New Guide: Build a NeoPixel Crystal Chandelier with Speed & Brightness Control

DIY crystal chandelier

Take a look at the latest guide from Erin St. Blaine: build a three tiered chandelier with hanging DIY paper-craft crystals that light up with pixels inside. Easily add your own custom animations using CircuitPython and the LED Animations Library. This guide takes animated lights a step further, adding a rotary encoder knob that controls the brightness or the animation speed of the pixels, and also acts as an on/off switch. From the guide:

Floating crystals and glowing lights are a match made in heaven. This project combines a wide variety of skills and tools into one lovely project. Make a gorgeous hanging lamp with sparkly beads, glowing crystals, live edge wood and of course, lots of NeoPixels.

My chandelier is unique, and designed to show my personal style. Since you, dear reader, have your very own unique style, this tutorial will focus on giving you the tools to design and create your own one-of-a-kind bespoke hanging lamp. This tutorial will provide source files and ideas, and give guidance on how the electronics fit together.

This tutorial will also get you started with customizing your own software animations. The sample code uses CircuitPython and the delightfully easy to use LED Animations Library by Kattni Rembor. This code gives you a framework that allows speed and brightness control using a rotary encoder knob, so you can adjust the lighting to suit any environment or mood.

See the full build tutorial here: https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixel-crystal-chandelier-with-circuitpython-animations-and-speed-control/overview

crystal chandelier

We can’t wait to see the creative lamp you build with NeoPixels and Circuit Python!

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Adafruit’s Top Ten Tweets of 2020 #AdafruitTopTen

Preview lightbox adafruit top 10 2020 blog

Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting Adafruit’s Top 10 lists covering social media posts and much more! Be sure to check back every weekday! Check out Adafruit’s top 10 tweets of 2020 below!

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

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UPDATED GUIDE: DIY lofi hip hop Raspberry Pi radio gets a 3D printed enclosure #AdafruitLearningSystem #RaspberryPi @Adafruit @Raspberry_Pi @JeffEpler

The DIY lofi hip hop radio guide has a new page with a 3D printable enclosure:

If you like lofi radio as much as the author, you’ll want to make your project into something more permanent, and that means 3D printing!

Grab the STL files from prusaprinters.org to get started. All files should load in your slicer in the intended orientation for printing.  If you want to customize or remove the lettering, you can use the free software OpenSCAD to edit the scad source.

Check out the full guide on the Adafruit Learning System!

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UPDATED GUIDE: Customize the Streams on the DIY lofi radio (ft. Baby Yoda) #AdafruitLearningSystem #RaspberryPi @Adafruit @Raspberry_Pi @JeffEpler

What would Baby Yoda listen to? It’s hard to be sure, but I think “star wars ~ lofi beats to relax/study to” is a good guess.

Learn how to customize the streams on the DIY lofi radio, by following this example with two Star Wars themed lofi channels.

Check out the new guide page or start at the beginning if you didn’t try out this project yet!

3D Printable Baby Yoda model by Alsamen on Thingiverse.

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New Layer By Layer – Outdoor LED Sign via @ecken

In this video we’ll take a look at how I designed an outdoor LED sign. A woodworking project that uses 3d printed brackets to make a modular outdoor sign. It flat packs down so it can easily be stored away.

LED Outdoor Sign – f360 Share Link
https://a360.co/36nDWso

Mini Skinny NeoPixel Strip 30/m
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2949?length=5

I made an appearance on Show and Tell and walked through the project and took it apart, LIVE! Check it out in action:

3D Printing Projects Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOWD2dJNRIN46uhMCWvNOlbG

3D Hangout Show Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVgpmWevin2slopw_A3-A8Y

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVsMp6nKnpjsXSQ45nxfORb

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVagy3CktXsAAs4b153xpp_

Milling Monday
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVL48weqeHiu7aw-_sPhCSA

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Adafruit Weekly Editorial Round-Up: Inspirational Quote E-Ink Display, MagTag 3D Printed Stand Case, Which CircuitPython Board is Right for You? and More!

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

Inspirational Quote E-Ink Display

The Adafruit Quote Server is a great way to get a new Maker/Hacker-inspirational quote – or just test your IoT device to see how it works reading and parsing JSON data. This example for the MagTag displays a quote on the E-Paper display in a nice font and with word-wrapping for an easy read – video.

See more!

More BLOG:

LEARN

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UPDATED GUIDE: Preparing Graphics for E-Ink Displays

The following Adafruit Learning System guide has been updated:
Preparing Graphics for E-Ink Displays

The updated guide adds:

  • Conversion palette and output examples for 4-level grayscale displays
  • Explains BMP compatibility differences among libraries (Arduino and CircuitPython)
  • Explains more efficient BMP settings for CircuitPython use

Read more…

More LEARN

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

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NEW GUIDE: 3D Printed Frankenstein Monster with NeoPixel Eyes #QTPy #AdafruitLearningSystem #NeoPixels #Adafruit @Adafruit

A new guide today in the Adafruit Learning System: 3D Printed Frankenstein Monster with NeoPixel Eyes

3D print this Frankenstein’s Monster head, nicknamed Frank, to build a light-up Halloween decoration. NeoPixels illuminate the inside of the model for a clean and even lighting effect. Frank’s brains are powered by a QT Py board, making this build nice and compact.

This guide will show you how to combine NeoPixels with capacitive touch using a QT Py.

See this guide now >>>

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Reinvented Magazine Presents their Latest Maker Themed Issue!

Caeley Looney from Reinvented Magazine reached out to let us know all about their latest issue which features Erin St. Blaine, Adafruit tutorials and more!

Reinvented Magazine is proud to present its latest issue, and guess what? It’s maker themed! Issue No. 5, their most recent publication, features a wide variety of makers, innovators, and electronics aficionados. Here is a more in-depth look at the content you’ll find in this season’s magazine:

  • An exclusive interview with Svetlana from Kamui Cosplay, showing off her extraordinary maker-centric cosplay designs just in time for some Halloween inspiration;
  • A story highlighting the Maker Movement, including an exclusive interview with the founder of Maker Faire, Sherry Huss;
  • Their ‘Meet the Makers’ series featuring interviews with Julielynn Wong, MD; Maker and Nonprofit Founder, Xyla Foxlin; Ashley Awalt; Erin St. Blaine; and Lorraine Underwood;
    An interview with the Host of Mythbusters Jr., Allie Weber;
  • Articles providing an introduction to electronics, 3D printing, and hackathons;
    Do it yourself (DIY) article featuring one of Adafruit’s tutorials;

You can find all of this (and much more) in their latest issue, which is officially in stock on their website!

Order your digital or physical copy now at https://www.reinventedmagazine.com/shop-1!

Reinvented Magazine is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to empower and inspire the next generation of young girls to pursue their passions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Through their One-for-One Program, for every magazine bought, they donate up to one magazine to a girl in a low-income or rural area without access to STEM education resources.

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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