Tag: Wearables
Bluetooth Circuit Playground What!
So anyone who has worked with me knows that I am a huge fan of Adafruit’s Circuit Playground development boards. It has been a huge help in getting people started with programming hardware because you can do so much with it before you even start plugging in other things.
I was so excited when they came out with the CP Express because now I could use Blockly to help even younger hardware developers on their way to making cool things. However, the MicroBit did offer a few more tantalizing options that made me choose it over the CP Express. Now it is hard to compare the two platforms because they both have a lot of value in different ways, but the one thing that stood out about MicroBit was Bluetooth Low Energy. The CP Express has IR communication and that is nice, but it is only line of site and that makes it hard to do projects that would involve networking. So the MicroBit typically would win out with projects that needed wireless communication.
Now with the introduction of CP Bluefruit this issue is solved an so many ways. I could see this coming based on some posts and a demo a few weeks ago on Ask an Engineer, but I was not sure if there would be a price increase with the new BLE support. Well it looks like not only is there no change in price, but the jump from and M0 to M4 Cortex processor makes this thing even more powerful as well.
I am supper excited about the idea of doing IOT workshops where the students get to program the devices that get networked. Basically this makes every CP Bluefruit into a smart light with a host of sensors on them. This could help students design and code puzzles for an escape room project… so many cool things that this can do now that is has BLE.
For now this is an Alpha version of the CP Bluefruit and that means that some hardware may change, but it is working for Arduino IDE and Circuit Python. Hopefully they will have a Blockly option soon as well. Not really time to start getting these for schools yet, but worth testing out as an early adopter and to keep an eye on for the near future.
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How to add Sound Effects to a Costume
From time to time I am asked about adding sound to a prop or costume. Thankfully, Adafruit has made this supper easy for all of us with a line of Audio FX boards that can be triggered without writing a single line of code.
Here are a few kits that I have picked out for anyone looking to add such a device to their outfit or prop. Continue reading How to add Sound Effects to a Costume
Richard and Emily’s Halloween
We had a few photos taken at Gasworks park to show off some of the new wearable LED projects I have been working on. This is basically what we will be wearing out for Halloween on Friday.
Continue reading Richard and Emily’s Halloween
The Sparkling Chameleon Fur Wrap
This is a variant of the Adafruit Chameleon Scarf that I recently made. I made the color fade and randomly twinkle rather than stay on all the time. I also added a button to restart the color sample sequence as well. To include some motion feedback, I used a Fast Vibration Sensor Switch to increase the number of pixels that go bright when it is triggered.
LED Matrix Pendant
I made a pendant for my girlfriend as a Halloween present. The animation was changed to an eye that blinks and looks around. I really wanted it not to just loop the same animation so I set out to create a few animations for the pendant to cycle through at random including a few longer blackout periods. I am still rather new to the coding side of this and didn’t understand some of the code, but here is the version I have working as of now. Continue reading LED Matrix Pendant