MakeCode and Hardware shared this project on Youtube!
This is the beginning of the BST M_Bit app program in the Microbit to control Robotbit EDU with Bluetooth App. Works with Android and Apple; find the app in your app store or play store: FREE.
After 57 years, ScreenRant shares the details about Trelane. FYI it includes spoilers from Stark Trek #21.
Trelane was one of Star Trek’s most intriguing one off characters, and after 57 years, the truth about his god-like species has been resolved. Captain Kirk and company met Trelane early in the five-year mission, and the petulant god made a huge impression on fans. Now, a century after first contact with Trelane, Star Trek #21 makes a stunning revelation about him and his people.
Underwater pressure is intense. Ask any deep-sea diver what it feels like the further you go down and your brain might still not be able to wrap around it. But, unrelated, here’s what played in my head the entirety of my time reading this article from Science. Enjoy both!
Some of us thrive under pressure. Others can’t function without it. And then there are deep-sea comb jellies: Their thin, flowing bodies literally disintegrate if they leave their abyssal homes, where pressures reach 400 bar—roughly equivalent to the weight of 15 African elephants sitting in the palm of your hand. Now, researchers have discovered why: The cell membranes of these jellies depend on extreme pressures to function and retain their delicate shape.
The finding, reported today in Science, is “a seminal contribution to understanding life in high-pressure environments,” says Douglas Bartlett, a deep-sea microbiologist at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) not involved with the study. “This is a totally new way to think about adaptation to the deep sea.”
Josillo shared this project on THingiverse!
Small box for Arduino Nano with USB type C connector.
No glue required. Cover snaps in the box
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
Turns out, the over 150 year old London Underground is an ideal testing spot for some new sensors. Researchers are trying to come up with more robust GPS that will work deep underwater.
A ‘quantum compass’ won’t rely on our current global navigation satellite systems. Via The Guardian:
The ideal place to test it is the London underground, Cotter and his team have discovered. “We are developing very precise new sensors using quantum mechanics, and these are showing great promise in the laboratory,” he told the Observer last week. “However, they are less accurate in real-life settings. That is why we are taking our equipment to the London underground. It’s the perfect place for smoothing out the rough edges and getting our equipment to work in real life.”
Until we get the quantum compass, GPS is still the way to go. Check out some of these projects from the Adafruit Learn System:
If you are feeling the stress and strain of modern life a Wheatstone bridge and you want to quantify it, this handy breakout will do the job, no sweat! The Adafruit HX711 Breakout contains a super-high-resolution 24-Bit differential ADC with extra gain circuitry that makes it perfect for measuring strain gauges / load cells or other sensors that have four wires that are connected in a Wheatstone bridge arrangement.
The Adafruit HX711 24-bit ADC guide has everything you need to get started with this breakout. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.
Read more at Adafruit HX711 24-bit ADC
The Hugos and the Nebulas aren’t the only annual scienbce fiction awards on the block! Here’s more about the Nommos from the African Speculative Fiction Society:
The African Speculative Fiction Society will promote science fiction and fantasy by Africans. Its 60
invited Charter Members include writers, editors, artists and publishers….The Nommo Awards have four years’ worth of prize money in advance thanks to benefactor Tom Ilube.
Says Mr Ilube, “Science fiction is important because it looks ahead to African futures. Fantasy and fiction
based on traditional tales is important because the link us back to our forebears. Both are important for
African development. I wanted to make sure that the explosion of African science fiction gets the
recognition it deserves.”
Today we celebrate Mary W. Jackson, NACA/NASA Mathematician and Engineer!
Here’s more from NASA:
Mary’s own path to an engineering career at the NASA Langley Research Center was far from direct. A native of Hampton, Virginia, she graduated from Hampton Institute in 1942 with a dual degree in Math and Physical Sciences, and accepted a job as a math teacher at a black school in Calvert County, Maryland. Hampton had become one of the nerve centers of the World War II home front effort, and after a year of teaching, Mary returned home, finding a position as the receptionist at the King Street USO Club, which served the city’s black population. It would take three more career changes—a post as a bookkeeper in Hampton Institute’s Health Department, a stint at home following the birth of her son, Levi, and a job as an Army secretary at Fort Monroe—before Mary landed at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory’s segregated West Area Computing section in 1951, reporting to the group’s supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.
After two years in the computing pool, Mary received an offer to work for engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki in the 4-foot by 4-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, a 60,000 horsepower wind tunnel capable of blasting models with winds approaching twice the speed of sound. Czarnecki offered Mary hands-on experience conducting experiments in the facility, and eventually suggested that she enter a training program that would allow her to earn a promotion from mathematician to engineer. Trainees had to take graduate level math and physics in after-work courses managed by the University of Virginia. Because the classes were held at then-segregated Hampton High School, however, Mary needed special permission from the City of Hampton to join her white peers in the classroom. Never one to flinch in the face of a challenge, Mary completed the courses, earned the promotion, and in 1958 became NASA’s first black female engineer. That same year, she co-authored her first report, Effects of Nose Angle and Mach Number on Transition on Cones at Supersonic Speeds.
The Lewis Latimer House Museum in Queens held a special Juneteenth reopening today. The museum has just undergone a large renovation. The new exhibits not only honor Latimer’s many contributions, they also bring his ideas into the present to highlight the lingering influences of his work. Lewis Latimer was a prominent inventor, draftsman, and engineer who lived and worked in the 1800s.
Via last Friday’s edition of New York Today, a New York Times newsletter:
Inside, the walls have been painted bright blue, and there are illuminated letters spelling out “Light Up the World.” They are LEDs, a technology that is superseding the incandescent designs that Latimer helped to perfect — and that Ran Yan, the museum’s director, said she was certain that Latimer would have had ideas to improve had LEDs existed in his day.
Learn more about the museum and how to plan your visit here:
The Lewis Latimer House is a historic house museum situated in Flushing, New York. The museum is dedicated to raising awareness about the fascinating life of Lewis Howard Latimer, an African American inventor, electrical pioneer, artist, and much more! At the museum, you can learn about Latimer’s life and engage in local community events. Furthermore, we offer virtual STEAM education opportunities for students of all ages! Learn more about Latimer by visiting us at LLHM and through our virtual programming for students and adults!
Shared by nathanandjenilee on Thingiverse:
I added options for holes since I need to mount my turn signal light onto something that won’t take zipties. The original model works exactly as before, but you can turn on the options for holes in the parameters. There is also an option for an oval mount instead of a rectangle, which is designed for a cargo rack passenger seat.
Remixed from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1644520
Download the files and learn more
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
In Netflix’s Sweet Tooth society has been overtaken by ‘The Sick’. When characters first contract the illness the first symptom is a telltale pinkie wiggle.
Unless the actors all had immaculate pinkie dexterity, something had to create that effect. Was it CGI, a prop finger…? Nope! it was a “pinky-wiggling machine” powered by an old hard drive. Via Polygon:
Achieving that effect unaided was not always easy, but for anyone who found it difficult, Sweet Tooth’s effects team developed a bespoke pinkie-wiggling machine using the spin of a laptop’s hard drive. “That was the motor,” Mickle said, “and they connected that, basically taped it to a wire that went up someone’s arm and they just animated the hard drive and it would actually [shake their finger].”
See it here demoed by actress Aliza Vellani (spoilers):
Browse through all that’s new here!
Seeed Studio Round Touchscreen Display for Xiao / QT Py: Seeed Studio Round Display for XIAO is an expansion board compatible with all XIAO development boards. It features a fully covered touch screen on one side, designed as a 39mm disc. It contains an onboard RTC holder, charge chip, and MicroSD card slot within its compact size, perfect for interactive displays in smart homes, wearables, and more.
Adafruit Switchable USB Type A to C Breakout Board: We don’t quite know what to call this doohicky – some folks refer to it as a USB Condom but that’s specifically for when the data lines on a USB port are disabled so that a device charges without data access. This board is a little more advanced: you can manually switch each of the 4 wires on or off for a variety of uses.
Adafruit CH9328 UART to HID Keyboard Breakout: We love using chips with ‘native USB’ peripherals – that’s the magic silicon that lets a microcontroller act like an HID keyboard or mouse or disk drive or MIDI synth. It’s a standard addition on SAMD21, RP2040, and even the latest ESP32-S2 and ESP32-S3 boards. But what about when you have a classic ATmega328 Uno? or an original ESP32 or ESP8266? Maybe even a single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi? We would say “sorry…that’s not possible” UNTIL NOW!
The CH9328 is a funky chip that is basically a programmed microcontroller that enumerates as an every-day HID keyboard and can convert ASCII or 8-byte raw reports, read over a standard serial port UART, into keypresses. So, you can emulate a keyboard even if your chip doesn’t have native USB! You do need a hardware or software serial port: some way to generate 9600 baud 3V-logic signal that the CH9328 can read.
Stay in the loop at Adafruit.com/New!
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Xykit shared this project on Thingiverse!
A resting place for that book your are in the middle of reading. This 3D printable book holder / drawer cabinet can be made into a variety of configurations. Just keep it on your end table, night stand, or coffee table. Tuck your reading glasses in the cubby, and add some drawer stackers to store pens, a highlighter, the remote, or little trinkets nearby. The drawers are accessible from either side of the cabinet and come with two variants, with and without alignment top pins. Stack them up and let gravity hold them in place, or for a more permanent connection we recommend gluing the boxes together with super glue or epoxy.
The main foot print is approximately 175mm x 175mm, the height will vary depending on how many drawers you add and whether or not you use the base.All pieces are positioned in the their intended Support-Free printing position.
Download files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6627287
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
Fun build from Italian engineer Luigi Morelli
We insert a 8-program IR-controlled play of lights with Arduino on an electric guitar, filter the residual noise and off to the stage!
See the full details here on Hackster.io
A swift rundown of some great innovations in calculation from Jason Weisberger on BoingBoing:
Mechanical calculators are fascinating. They represent the early ingenuity and groundbreaking prowess that paved the way for modern computing. While the iPhone or Android device you are likely reading this on is exponentially more powerful and useful, these devices are where it all began! Mechanical calculators demonstrate the incredible progression of technological innovation and highlight the human drive to solve problems and improve efficiency in mathematical computations.
Super fun list about about fictional bookstores and libraries. Earlier this year my kids (finally) moved out of the destructive phase and we now can rent library books on the regular. I had forgotten the magic of these spaces and it’s been such a joy to rediscover them through a different lens. Each library has its own distinct character and feeling, enough so that my almost four-year-olds are discerning enough to request to visit different branches depending on the day. It doesn’t take much to transform a regular library into a fantastical one, which is why the setting of a library is so ripe for sci-fi and fantasy stories. Still, of course, some stories do it better than others! I was happy to see the library (of the Neitherlands) from Lev Grossman’s The Magicians included here. Though, as the author of the post Cole Rush notes, it’s not exactly the most peaceful or charming place.
Readers can never truly get enough of books, and the proof is in the pages: Even when we’re reading to escape to another world, we love when we encounter the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of places packed with shelves of old and new books. Bookshops and libraries tend to make appearances in many of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy tales, and they’re always a welcome addition to any fictional world. I never pass up a chance to explore a bookshop, even when I’m right in the middle of a story!
See the full list here on ReactorMag.com
We’ve got the New nEw NEW for you right here:
You’ll need a good pair of tweezers when soldering delicate surface-mount (SMD/SMT) components. These are a great pair of precision, heat-resistant tweezers. They’ve got a metal body and ceramic inset tips, so they are anti-magnetic and will not bend with use. The tips are fine and pointy to pick up components without risk of scratching, and because they are ceramic, they are also excellent for holding parts during hot air rework or if you’re going to get close with your soldering iron.
You’ll need a good pair of tweezers when soldering delicate surface-mount (SMD/SMT) components. These are a great pair of precision, heat-resistant tweezers. They’ve got a metal body and ceramic inset tips, so they are anti-magnetic and will not bend with use. The tips are fine and pointy to pick up components without risk of scratching, and because they are ceramic, they are also excellent for holding parts during hot air rework or if you’re going to get close with your soldering iron.
On/Off Round Key Lock – 12mm Diameter
MAJOR KEY ALERT 🔑🔑🔑 we now stock ‘Key Lock Switches’! These mechanical switches don’t use a button, lever, or magnet to open and close the contacts. Instead, a literal key is used. This low-cost but effective key lock switch is nice and compact: you only need to drill a 12mm / 0.5″ diameter hole in your mounting plate.
Momentary On/Off Round Key Lock Switch – 12mm Diameter
Insert the ‘bike lock’ style key and rotate it one turn clockwise. Now, the two contacts on the back are electrically connected and locked. Rotate it back counter-clockwise to disconnect the switches. This makes for an excellent ‘On-Off’ switch that requires the key to activate.
5.5mm/2.1mm DC Barrel Polarity Reversing Cable
Once in a while, we find products with center negative DC power jacks, and they really make us mad because who keeps around both positive and negative polarity versions of every voltage? Now, hopefully, USB Power Delivery will solve this long term, but until then, this 2.1mm DC polarity reversal adapter will have to do!
Pimoroni NVMe Base Duo for Raspberry Pi 5 – PIM704
Add two super-fast NVMe SSDs to your Raspberry Pi 5! Ideal if you need redundancy or just a load more storage on your RPi. Pimoroni’s NVMe Base Duo is a PCIe Gen 2 extension board for Raspberry Pi 5. To use it, simply populate it with one or two M-key NVMe SSDs (2230 to 2280 sizes supported) and mount it under (or over) your Pi for a compact and fast storage solution. It even comes with rubber feet!
Espressif ESP32-S3-EYE – ESP32-S3 Camera Board
Ever wanted to dabble in face and/or speech recognition? Espressif’s ESP-S3-EYE is a miniature AI development board. It is based on the ESP32-S3 SoC and ESP-WHO, Espressif’s AI development framework. It features a 2-Megapixel camera, an LCD display, and a microphone, which are used for image recognition and audio processing.
Adafruit TSMP96000 “Code Learning” Infrared IR Receiver Breakout – STEMMA JST PH 2mm
For classic 38KHz infrared remote signal reading, we’ve got a lovely STEMMA IR Receiver. But if you want to read infrared signals from remotes with different carrier signals, especially when you don’t know the frequency, this Adafruit TSMP96000 “Code Learning” Infrared IR Receiver Breakout has the ability to detect IR signals from 20 to 60KHz and provide the carrier signal for analysis. This is used for “code learning” situations where you want your device to work with any IR remote control.
Adafruit I2C Controlled + Keypad Shield Kit for 16×2 LCD
We really like the range of LCDs we stock in the shop, such as our classic blue & white and the fancy RGB negative and RGB positive. Unfortunately, these LCDs require quite a few digital pins: 6 to control the LCD and then another 3 to control the RGB backlight for a total of 9 pins. That’s half of the pins available on a classic Arduino!
Visit www.adafruit.com/new for more info.
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Sign-up for the Adafruit weekly Newsletter here: https://www.adafruit.com/newsletter
New nEw NEWs From Adafruit is an email newsletter sent out once a week to subscribers only. It features new products, special offers, exciting original content, and more. Sign-up NOW for the Adafruit weekly Newsletter here: https://www.adafruit.com/newsletter
