Tag Archives: adafruit

Circuit Playground Adds Light and Sound to Your Toys or Props

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Are you looking for an easy and inexpensive way to upgrade your toy weapons or props, whether for cosplay or just fun? This is a pretty cool way to do it. An all-in-one board called Circuit Playground lets you add light and sound effects to any weapon or wand, or really almost anything else, with a couple of zip ties.

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It couldn’t be any easier to use and it will really make your weapon or anything else a bit more colorful and cool. John Park has made a video to show you how it’s done.

The Circuit Playground should be available very soon from Adafruit, and sells for just $19.95(USD). Cosplayers are going to find this thing very handy.

[via Nerd Approved]

Introducing the world’s smallest way to play ‘Donkey Kong’

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Once upon a time, video games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong were the absolute height of entertainment technology, imperfect pixels packed into six-foot-tall cabinets in arcades and pizza shops around the world. Now, those same games run on a machine t...

DIY NERF Rayven Halo MA5D Mod: Foam Dart Evolved

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Redditor Sithslayer78 loves playing Humans vs. Zombies (HvZ), a live action game where players try to survive a zombie invasion using soft toys, such as NERF blasters. He’s added another layer of roleplaying to his HvZ games by modding his blasters in the style of Halo‘s trusty assault rifle.

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This Rayven is the 5th NERF blaster that Sithslayer78 has modded in a Halo theme. He designed, 3D printed and painted the front end parts to make the blaster look like the MA5D. It isn’t that polished aesthetically, but it makes up for it with several practical features. For instance, the blaster has an ammo counter similar to the one on the MA5D.

Sithslayer78 used an Arduino Uno to detect trigger pulls, reed switches in the magazine to determine the current ammo count and an Adafruit OLED display with a NeoPixel RGB LED to indicate the remaining ammo.

Ammo Counter in Operation (.gifv)

The display also shows if the magazine is not fully closed and also has a timer feature:

Clip and Door Sensors (.gifv)

Mission Timer

The customized blaster also has a scope, a flashlight and a NERF Jolt modded into a Masterkey.

MA5D Mk V

Sithslayer78 says he’s thinking of printing more of the MA5D front end parts so he can sell them. Keep an eye on his Facebook page if you’re interested.

[via Reddit via 3Ders]

 

 

DIY 3D Printed NFC Ring: Contactless Pay, Amiibo Ike, No Gimmick Shall Escape My Sight

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It’s easy to find NFC or RFID rings these days. Adafruit sells them, but the electronics shop knows that it caters mainly to makers, so it came up with a guide for a customizable 3D printed ring.

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The ring gets is power from Adafruit’s micro NFC transponder. The shop is also sharing its ring 3D model, which you can edit to your taste and size.

Tap this link to read Adafruit’s full guide.

DIY Bluetooth LED Cloud Lamp: Cumulocheapus

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You may have heard of Richard Clarkson and his beautiful but absurdly expensive Cloud lamps. If you’re willing to settle for a more modest design, you can save thousands of dollars by making your own cloud lamp using Eclectical Engineering’s guide.

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Eclectical Engineering’s lamp is based on an Arduino Uno and Adafruit’s NeoPixel strips. Its fluffy body is simply made of spherical paper lanterns that have been covered with polyester fiber. But what it lacks in looks, it makes up for in function. You can program the LEDs to mimic various patterns, such as flags, the Aurora Borealis and Fart from Rick & Morty.

Goodbye Moonmen… float to Eclectical Engineering’s website for their guide.

DIY 3D Printed Light-up Halo Energy Sword: Slice & Solder

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There are tons of foam or plastic replicas of the iconic Energy Sword, but tinkerers can make one that does more with less weight with the help of Adafruit’s guide. The company’s design uses 3D printed components and a pair of RGB LED strips to create a cool prop or toy.

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The replica is based on Adafruit’s Arduino-compatible Feather microcontroller and its NeoPixel LED strip. The company also designed 3D models of the sword’s blades and handle; you’ll need to print the former with a translucent material so the light from the NeoPixel will shine through. Adafruit’s Bluetooth app will let you change the NeoPixel’s color and mode.

Lunge to Adafruit’s website for the guide.

Adafruit PiGRRL 2 Raspberry Pi Gaming Handheld: Make Boy

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Adafruit made it easier to turn the Raspberry Pi into a retro gaming handheld by designing 3D printable cases. Now they’re simplifying the process by designing an internal component: a custom PCB for the gamepad.

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Adafruit says its custom circuit board cuts the PiGRRL 2’s build time in half because with it you don’t need to wire the buttons. Just a (relatively) quick soldering and you’re good.

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But the new handheld template isn’t just easier to build, it’s more powerful and versatile too. Unlike its predecessors, the PiGRRL 2 is based on the Raspberry Pi 2 and has four face buttons as well as L and R buttons at the back for SNES gaming.

Adafruit says it will release a DIY PiGRRL 2 kit, but for now you can check out the list of parts and files on its website.

[via Gadgetify]

DIY Raspberry Pi LED Matrix Display: PiXels

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Need a cheap display for your Raspberry Pi? Or perhaps you’re building a Times Square for ants? Then check out this guide by Adafruit’s Tony Dicola.

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The project is based around Adafruit’s RGB Matrix HAT for the Raspberry Pi, which makes it easy to power and output to daisy chained LED matrices. Tony says a Pi 2 can handle up to 12 32×32 LED matrices at once. Because of how the image is output, the matrices can be put together only as a rectangle. Further, the display’s aspect ratio needs to be as close as possible to the Pi’s output to reduce distortion. You can also program it so that the matrices show only a portion of the Pi’s output.

Head to Adafruit’s website for the complete guide.

Microsoft kit helps you run Windows 10 on a Raspberry Pi

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Sure, it's no secret that you can run Windows 10 on a tiny Raspberry Pi 2, but actually doing that could prove to be a challenge. What parts do you need? And what do you do with it when you're ready? That's where Microsoft and Adafruit think they c...

DIY 3D Printed Talking D20 Will Tell You the Odds

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What’s better than a magic 8 ball? A magic 20 icosahedron. Adafruit and Phillip Burgess made a guide that shows us how to make a D20 that talks about the resulting roll.

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The die’s accelerometer helps it figure out which face is up. It will then play a sound depending on the result.

Ironically, the die might not be suited for tabletop gaming. The 3D printed shell is probably uneven and the electronics inside could make it unbalanced, so its rolls might not be truly random. But you can still have fun with it since you can load any sound you want to its soundboard. Head to Adafruit for the full guide.

[via CNET]