Shared by winsettr on Printables:
Self-balancing bat, print in place and optionally glue the teeth on (as far forward as possible); have also uploaded a single tooth if you would like the bat to spin. Also included a version with a hole to hang the bat, should balance on the knot.
Fold the wings until the bat flies level.
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!
Celebrate Dia de los Muertos at the National Museum of the American Indian in NYC. Learn about the history of the holiday, join in on family-friendly activities, and stay for Cetiliztli Nauhcampa, who will present traditional dances around the community ofrenda.
Science fiction postulates possible futures based on technological innovation. Even when the extrapolated future is hundreds, thousands, or millions of years down the line, the premises of science fiction books have an inherent knowability. Science fiction books like Dune and Foundation push the boundaries of what technology can do to humanity, taking scale and physiological transformation to extremes. But even in these stories, there is an inherent knowability to the universe. The exact opposite is true of cosmic horror stories. Here’s more on cosmic horror from the Los Angeles Review of Books:
To appreciate the cosmic mystery that Lovecraft so obsessively tried to convey and conjure to hideous life in his stories, we are invited to consider human knowledge as a flat plane in the middle of black depths of outer space. The plane is thin, fragile, and ever-tilting, like a huge pane of glass. Everything within that plane has been explained and understood: terrestrial biology, classical physics, physiology, large swaths of human history. But as soon as you step near the edges, you face the abysmal immensity of all that is unknown: numberless galaxies, planets, and stars that have existed for billions of years; white dwarfs-cum-black holes dense enough to bend time; an infinite kaleidoscopic expanse, potentially just one of many infinite expanses in a hydra-headed multiverse that perpetually begs the question of its own sentience.
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.
See more on YouTube!
Catch up with us on our blog (https://ift.tt/sn82ouZ), in our learn system (https://ift.tt/8HAwb0Y), or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/adafruit).
We have seen a handheld PlayStation 2 and now we have handheld XBox. This project from Redherring32 hacks the original 2001 console down to a more managable size. While it’s not petite by handheld standards it is impressive!
The aesthetic (and battery life) is reminding me of a GameGear. More via Gizmodo:
The project required him to trim an original Xbox motherboard down to size, which took him four whole months to do. Now, he’s providing a guide for anybody who wants to do the same.
The designer told me the shell is an original design 3D-printed from industrial-level plastic. Redherring provided the files if you wish to print one yourself. Inside, the pared-down motherboard is combined with 12 custom PCBs for all the various controls and components. The project is fully open source, and you can download all the files for your own handheld on the creator’s GitHub.
And get project details and updates from Redherring32 on Twitter, GitHub and the ButBuilt Guide
Create your own handheld with the Super Game Pi from the Ruiz Brothers on Learn.Adafruit
This week’s EYE ON NPI knows where New York Hottest Club is at, it’s the Teledyne FLIR Lepton® 3.1R Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera, a bite-sized full-featured video camera for remote thermal measurements.
With a resolution of 160×120 pixels, remote temperature measurements of -40°C to +300°C, and the size of a coin, this camera can be embedded into any kind of product, whether it’s running Linux, RTOS or a plain old microcontroller. Thermal cameras are multi-purpose, with usage in medical, industrial, construction, maintenance and security industries.
Use them to make sure equipment is running at the right temperature and not overheating, that insulation for a room is performing adequately, locating people or animals, or detecting fevers without touching.
FLIR makes the best low-cost, small-size thermal cameras and they’re available off-the-shelf at DigiKey for quick integration. Each camera outputs either a simple grayscale-valued frame or one with a false-color RGB888 palette – the palette can be configured over I2C.
The Lepton 3.1R is one of a series of cameras available from FLIR, including the Lepton 2 and 3.5. What’s great is all have the same physical pinout and shape that can plug into a socket.
This is great for manufacturing yield and field repair: the expensive module is placed last in the manufacturing line so earlier yield issues don’t affect it. Also you can swap different resolution/FOV modules to customize for the end-user. For example, the Lepton 2 is a little less expensive but has only 80×60 pixels. Or you can upgrade to the Lepton 3.5 with similar resolution but a narrower FOV. Note that the FOV will affect the distortion greatly: a wider FOV requires a lens to focus the IR emissions but will fisheye the middle and compress the edges.
There’s software from Teledyne FLIR that will “de-warp” the 3.1R’s output, using Open CV, to give you more realistic imagery.
To learn how to work with these modules, we recommend the Lepton engineering integration guide. Unlike the simplest thermal camera modules and sensors, which use only I2C, or the most complex USB-video output devices, the Leptons use a combination on I2C for configuration – called the CCI Command and Control Interface – and SPI for VoSPI – a.k.a. video over SPI.
This makes them possible to integrate with a wide range of microcontrollers or microcomputers.
As mentioned before, you don’t solder the cameras to the PCB. Instead they are plugged into a common Molex 1050281001 socket which is only $1 at DigiKey and comes on a pick-and-place reel.
If you want to get started very quickly, DigiKey and GroupGets have partnered up to offer a wide range of breakout boards, USB adapters and dev-boards that feature the Teledyne FLIR Leptons.
GroupGets also published firmware and example code to get you started with their products so you can quickly evaluate the Lepton and make sure it will work and what resolution/FOV is ideal: simply swap the different models in and out of the Molex socket.
GroupGets also works with makers to get their prototypes to market, working with DigiKey for part sourcing so if you have an idea and need a help making it to production check them out!
If you need a high-quality thermal camera that is plug-and-play, easy to integrate and at a great cost, the Teledyne FLIR Lepton 3.1R Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera is hot hot HOT and in stock right now for immediate purchase from DigiKey.
Order today, pick up an eval board too, and you can be measuring the world around you by tomorrow afternoon.
See the video below:
See the manufacturer’s video:
The CircuitPython community reached a big milestone together! There are 503 CircuitPython Libraries!
The CircuitPython Library Bundle and Community Library Bundle contain all the current libraries available for CircuitPython. CircuitPython libraries are separate files designed to work with CircuitPython code. CircuitPython programs require a lot of information to run.
CircuitPython is so simple to use because most of this information is processed in the background and stored in libraries. Some libraries are built into CircuitPython. Others are downloaded and stored on your CIRCUITPY drive in a folder called lib.
The full list of all the CircuitPython libraries contained in the library bundle can be found on the circuitpython.org libraries page.
Previous Milestones:
It’s been over 30 years since we were introduced to Marty McFly, Dr. Emmett Brown, and the rest of the memorable characters of Back To The Future. ScreenRant shares how the trilogy became so successful.
In 1990, the Back to the Future franchise avoided a major trilogy problem that other series often fall victim to. Back to the Future has been widely considered one of the best movies of all time, ever since it was released in 1985. Not only is the original film widely regarded as a classic, its two sequels have also been heavily praised in the decades since they were released. The quality of the Back to the Future franchise is so high that it even avoided a very common problem sequels often run into.
Protect and secure your Raspberry Pi 5 with Raspberry Pi Bumper, a snap-on silicone cover that protects the bottom and edges of the board.
Features
The correct answer to the question “What is the funniest science fiction book?” is Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But what is the second funniest science fiction book? Or the third? Are there any other funny science fiction books? The answer is yes. And here are a bunch, from Epic Reads:
Two words: space pirates. As in, the 17-year-old protagonist, Ana, was raised by them. She also has a best friend who’s an android called D09. And don’t forget about Jax, a pilot with the driest wit in the galaxy. This [Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston] has it all. Really.
Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him.
mircemk shares the details on how this self-balancing cube was made. Check out the full projects on instructables.
Self-balancing devices are electronic devices that use sensors and motors to keep themselves balanced while in use. They uses gyroscopic sensors and accelerometers to detect the movement of the balanced object and adjust the speed and direction of the wheels accordingly, allowing to control the device through shifts in their weight.
This time I will present you a project in which the balanced object is a 3D printed plastic cube, inside which the reaction wheels and control electronics are located.
Professor Gillian Forrester of the University of Sussex recruited more than 1600 visitors to the Science Museum to research human biases and preferences for handedness. Find out why most people write with their right hand and more.
Many creatures across the animal kingdom prefer to use one side of the body over another, just as humans do: 90 per cent of people using their right hands as their ‘write hands.’
Every person should have a 50-50 chance of being left or right biased so why do we prefer to be lopsided in the way that we behave, and our brains work?
It could take months to years for astronauts to journey to Mars and back, but what if there was a way to make the trip shorter? NASA and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are figuring out how to use nuclear engines for future Mars missions. via Space
This relatively long transit time is a result of the use of traditional chemical rocket fuel. An alternative technology to the chemically propelled rockets the agency develops now is called nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses nuclear fission and could one day power a rocket that makes the trip in just half the time.
Emveor_1584590 shared this project on Printables!
This is a small and portable abacus for your children! Designed for easy printing and a sturdy build, the Posts are printed separatedly and assembled to prevent them from breaking at the layer lines. Print 10 chips for each post and a cap to prevent the chips from falling out while being transported.
BUILD TIPS: Just press the post into the base by the narrow side of the post. You will usuallyt need 10 chips for each post. The tolerances on the post are meant to make it hard to remove, but i would suggest printing a single post first to make sure the fit is just right. Increase Flow by 5% if the posts is too loose, or falls off easily, and decrease flow by 5% if the post doesnt fit in.
Download files: https://www.printables.com/model/989685-mini-abacus
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!
This convenient adapter lets you plug a USB Type C 3.1 5V cable into something with a 5.5mm / 2.1mm DC barrel socket.
Works great with any device or cable with 5.5mm / 2.1mm DC barrel socket. Since USB C is reversible you can flip it for a left angle or right angle. You’ll get 20V DC output, at up to 3A (or whatever the power adapter can do)
Please Note: The adapter has “19.5V” embossed but this isn’t a valid and known USB PD option, they mean 20V.
Don Wilcher uses a Raspberry Pi Pico to build an adjustable clock with an LED display then integrate the clock with a vintage Radio Shack Science Fair Microcomputer Trainer programmed to function as a 7-bit binary counter.
Long before the Heathkit 6800 microcomputer learning system, the Arduino Uno, or the Basic Stamp, there was Radio Shack’s Science Fair Microcomputer Trainer kit. Introduced in 1985, this easy-to-program kit was intended to teach users how microcomputers worked.
In this project article, we’ll upgrade this vintage microcomputer by building and adding an adjustable Raspberry Pi Pico clock with an LED display. After assembling the hardware, we’ll program the trainer to operate as a 7-bit binary counter. Before any of that, though, let’s spend some time learning about the trainer’s features—and, in particular, about the TMS1100 microcontroller at its core.
Don adds a Raspberry Pi Pico programmed in MicroPython, making an adjustable digital clock.
Read the details in the post here.
On the heels of #SepTandy, Adafruit is celebrating #ShackToberFest, a celebration of all things Radio Shack and Tandy. Tag your social media posts #ShackToberFest!
The Houston Museum of Natural Science has a neat immersive exhibit showing connections between chemistry and physics and what’s new in today’s science.
Scientists are making new discoveries on a daily basis—from the nano-scale and smaller, to the galactic scale and larger. The all-new and considerably expanded Welch Hall: Matter & Motion, presented by the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation, will address these latest developments, and lay the groundwork for the basic chemistry and physics principles required to understand today’s leading-edge science. Highlights of the new hall include “The Houston Connection” interactive timeline, a walk-inside human brain, the “Quarks to Quasars” immersive theater, the gigantic Periodic Table of the Elements “dance floor,” the 16th century “laboratory” of an alchemist, and many more surprises.
