Becky Stern is joining Adafruit as the director of our wearable electronics group – here’s her post on MAKE and on her site…

I’m ecstatic to announce my new position at Adafruit Industries, heading up the wearable electronics group. It feels great to finally be able to tell you all about my new chapter starting today. Here’s my farewell post on MAKE with a little recap of my greatest hits in the four years I made CRAFT videos, blogged my socks off, and co-hosted Make: Live.

Please welcome Becky everyone! We added her to our Adafruit G+ team circle.

“Very useful “by MakerMaker
Incredibly handy for anyone working in electronics. Perfect for engineers and non-engineers alike.

“Just what this hobbyist needs” by JoshuaUnwin
I love the clean look and focused tools in this app. It has earned a spot on my first home screen…

Circuit Playground simplifies electronics reference & calculation so you can have more fun hacking, making, & building your projects! This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad.

• Decipher resistor & capacitor codes with ease
• Calculate power, resistance, current, and voltage with the Ohm’s Law & Power Calc modules
• Quickly convert between decimal, hexadecimal, binary or even ASCII characters
• Calculate values for multiple resistors or capacitors in series & parallel configurations
• Store, search, and view PDF datasheets
• Access exclusive sneak peaks, deals & discounts at Adafruit Industries

All that, plus updates with additional features & enhancements – MANY NEW CALCULATORS AND TOOLS being added! Not on iOS? An Android version is in the works For now, if you’d like to support a cool Android app and developer check out ElectroDroid. Please scroll down here and watch the HD video below about Circuit Playground and check out the screen shots!

Circuit Playground - Made with love by Adafruit, Collin Cunningham, Limor Fried, Daigo Kawasaki, Mosfet and Phillip Torrone

NEW PRODUCT – iNecklace Valentine’s day edition. And by “edition” we mean that we include a special laser cut plastic red gel that make the necklace glow a wonderful pink color. All orders for the iNecklace until 2/14/2012 will include this nice add-on for that special someone. Give the gift of open-source hardware, give the gift of pulsating blinky.

In stock and shipping now.

Today we’re announcing our new open-source wearable electronics platform and series of accessories. We rarely announce something until it’s shipping to customers, but you’ll see a lot of these out in the world from our testers as they show off some projects – so we wanted to post about this now.

For the last few years Ladyada has been thinking about everything she wanted in a wearable electronics platform for Adafruit’s community of makers, hackers, crafters, artists, designers and engineers. After months of planning, designing and working with partners around the world for the best materials and accessories, we can share what we’re up to. The hardware is now in the hands of our staff and testers!

We call it the FLORA.

Adafruit created the FLORA from scratch after many months of research and we really think we came up with something that will empower some amazing wearable projects.

The FLORA is not the first wearable Arduino / Arduino-compatible. Leah Buechley’s LilyPad was developed in 2007 – we wanted to also make something that’s wearable, but it needed to be a completely new platform for our accessories/modules and goals for the project.

We’ll have updates and more big news soon in the wearable electronics space, so please stay tuned to the Adafruit blog. We have a product page you can sign up for soon, you can sign up to be notified when we have the first round of units ready. As always we’ll have great pricing for educators, resellers and hackerspaces.

We’ve put together a list of features/decisions that we hope will answer many of the questions about the FLORA. Please feel free to post up any questions in the comments. There may be some minor revisions to the hardware since we are in beta and working with our testers in the field. We wanted to share our thought/design process, we hope it helps others when designing hardware.

The FLORA FAQ

The FLORA is small (1.75″ diameter). We wanted the smallest possible board for our wearable platform.

It’s based on our experiences shipping our own, shipping, customer-tested Atmega32u4 Breakout Board.

The FLORA comes with projects at launch, the FLORA addressable and chain-able 4,000 mcd RGB LED pixels and premium stainless steel thread.

Here’s a quick video! (HD version).

The FLORA has built-in USB support. Built in USB means you plug it in to program it, it just shows up. No additional purchases are needed! Works with Mac, Windows, Linux, any USB cable works great. Currently the PCB comes with a mini B connector but future versions may change to microUSB. Either will work great.

The FLORA has USB HID support, so it can act like a mouse, keyboard, MIDI, etc. to attach directly to cellphones. Our iPhone/iPad/Android app coming soon.

The FLORA’s modules include: Bluetooth, GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, compass module, flex sensor, piezo, IR LED, push button, embroidered + capacitive keypad, OLED and more.

The FLORA has a small but easy to use onboard reset button to reboot the system.

The FLORA is fabric friendly. The FLORA does not use FTDI headers (built in USB support) headers of any kind sticking out can grab and tear fabric.

The FLORA has an onboard 3.3v 100mA regulator with protection schottky diode and USB fuse so that power is consistent and can power common 3.3v modules and sensors.

The FLORA has onboard polarized 2 JST battery connector with protection schottky diode for use with external battery packs from 3.5v to 16v DC in. Can be used with LiIon/LiPoly, LiFe, alkaline or rechargeable NiMh/NiCad batteries of any size.

The FLORA does not have a LiPo charger included by design, this allows safe use with multiple battery types and reduces risk of fire as it is not recommended to charge these batteries on fabric.

The FLORA has onboard power switch connected to 2A power FET for safe and efficient battery on/off control. Often FETs are not included in other designs that leads to switch failure as small SMT switches are rated for only 20mA current use.

The FLORA power system is specifically designed to allow easy control and power of a large quantity of digital RGB LED pixels such as the FLORA pixel series of accessories.

The FLORA is extremely beginner-friendly – it is difficult to destroy the FLORA by connecting a battery backwards due to polarized connector and protection diodes. The onboard regulator means that even connecting a 9V battery will not result in damage or tears.

The FLORA has 4 indicator LEDs: power good, digital signal LED for bootloader feedback, data rx/tx.

The FLORA has an ICSP connector for easy reprograming for advanced users.

The FLORA has 14 sewing tap pads for attachment and electrical connections. Data buses are interleaved with power and ground pads for easy module and sensor attachments without worrying about overlapping traces which are not possible with conductive thread.

The FLORA works with the Adafruit-fixed Leonardo bootloader (not released) and will work with any future released Leonardo-compatible bootloader. FLORA is currently using our Adafruit bootloader and Adafruit USB vendor ID.

The FLORA comes with Adafruit’s support, tutorials and projects. Adafruit has dozens of projects that will be released with the FLORA in 2012 and has staff 100% dedicated to creating tutorials and projects for use with the FLORA.

The FLORA is made in NYC at Adafruit, it was designed by Limor Fried (Ladyada) she is an Electrical Engineer with a proven track record of providing over 26 high-quality libraries for Arduino/Arduino IDE, over 100 tutorials, open-source code and contributions to the Arduino project. She was a member of the MIT wearables group and likes to sew.

We hope you’ll be as excited about FLORA as we are. Post any questions in the comments! We’ll stop back throughout the day to answer them!

Adafruit Industries – “Ladyada’s E is for Electronics” A to Z of Electronics coloring book! has been something we’ve been working on for awhile, we needed to take a break over the holidays but now we’re progressing nicely. This page is our work-in-progress page that you can check out to see things as-they-happen. You’ll see sketches, drafts and notes between Limor, Phil and Robert.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day @ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a United States federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around the time of King’s birthday, January 15. The floating holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, though the act predated the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by 15 years.

King was the chief spokesman for nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed on January 20, 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

Adafruit will be open taking orders, postal service will not go out until 1/17/12

The weekly show-and-tell is tonight at 9:30pm ET! We are back from our trip to the Arduino factory and can’t wait to see you!

NEW INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BE ON THE SHOW AND TELL. If you are on Google+ and want to join, post a message/comment on Limor’s post on Google+ and say you want to show off a project and she will add you the “Show and Tell” circle. Then just look for the hangout announcement on the very same page later for your invite. There’s an 8 to 10 (at the same time) people limit per hangout, so if it’s full try later or just pop by next week same time. Some weeks are packed!

At 9:30pm ET you will see a link to the hang out. Just keep your mics muted until we call on you and have your project ready.

For those who just want to watch, you’ll be able to watch it live on Google+ ‘s broadcast feature on Ladyada’s page AND it will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube automatically (1st test is up). The Muppets and the Dalai Lama are up if you want to see other types of hangout examples.

Google is allowing some accounts to broadcast and record – Ladyada is trying this out, with your help

Previously we broadcasted the hangouts on Google to Ustream using their Producer tool to capture the hangout. We’re still using Ustream for “ASK AN ENGINEER”.

So if anything goes wrong, it’s all very new, but that’s also part of the fun

SEE you soon!

Ladyada, Kevin and PT did a tour of the Arduino factory in beautiful Torino, Italy. We took many photos, some videos and more. On this weekend’s ASK AN ENGINEER we will go photo by photo (and video) and talk about all the wonderful machines, tools and people that make the Arduino. Tune in TONIGHT at 10pm ET 1/14/12.

We’d like to also thank everyone at the Arduino team and supporting company’s for being so kind and generous during our stay.

Phil even got to visit his ancestral hometown, home of “TORRONE”.

For now, feel free to enjoy the slideshow (and photo set). Ciao!

Ladyada, Kevin and PT did a tour of the Arduino factory in beautiful Torino, Italy. We took many photos, some videos and more. On this weekend’s ASK AN ENGINEER we will go photo by photo (and video) and talk about all the wonderful machines, tools and people that make the Arduino. Tune in this Saturday at 10pm ET 1/14/12.

We’d like to also thank everyone at the Arduino team and supporting company’s for being so kind and generous during our stay.

Phil even got to visit his ancestral hometown, home of “TORRONE”.

For now, feel free to enjoy the slideshow (and photo set). Ciao!

‘Badges’ Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas – College 2.0 – The Chronicle of Higher Education via Massimo!

The spread of a seemingly playful alternative to traditional diplomas, inspired by Boy Scout achievement patches and video-game power-ups, suggests that the standard certification system no longer works in today’s fast-changing job market.

Educational upstarts across the Web are adopting systems of “badges” to certify skills and abilities. If scouting focuses on outdoorsy skills like tying knots, these badges denote areas employers might look for, like mentorship or digital video editing. Many of the new digital badges are easy to attain—intentionally so—to keep students motivated, while others signal mastery of fine-grained skills that are not formally recognized in a traditional classroom.

At the free online-education provider Khan Academy, for instance, students get a “Great Listener” badge for watching 30 minutes of videos from its collection of thousands of short educational clips. With enough of those badges, paired with badges earned for passing standardized tests administered on the site, users can earn the distinction of “Master of Algebra” or other “Challenge Patches.”

Read more.

Adafruit offers fun and exciting “badges” of achievement for electronics, science and engineering. Please visit our badge section to purchase badges or contact us for more information on how educators can participate. We believe everyone should be able to be rewarded for learning a useful skill, a badge is just one of the many ways to show and share. From the “I CAN USE A LASER CUTTER” or “I CAN SOLDER” to “I LEARNED MICRO-CONTROLLERS” Adafruit has designed open-source badges to reward students, beginners and individuals who are learning with Adafruit products.

See our badges here

No show-and-tell or ASK AN ENGINEER this week! The Adafruit team has a quick trip to return from and will not be online for show-and-tell or ASK AN ENGINEER this week, BUT the next show will be MASSIVE and a lot of fun! See you next week!

Spend New Years with Adafruit – a special 2 hour ASK AN ENGINEER! 12/31/11 We’ll do the show from 10pm ET until Midnight! Ring in the new year with electronics, art, design and open source! We will debut the Adafruit X2 Time Ball! We’ll have more details and fun soon, SEE YOU THERE!

From the mail bag!

I just wanted to write and tell you how much I appreciate you and your products.  I’ve really enjoyed all of the things I’ve built and the quality of your kits, and the instructions on your web site, and the discussion forums, it’s all just awesome.  You really have made a difference. My heartfelt thanks for all that you do – William.

REMINDER: MONDAY IS A US HOLIDAY – ALL PACKAGES WILL SHIP ON TUESDAY 12/27/11. Adafruit is not closed for holidays. Aafruit will be taking orders 24/7 as usual, we’ll be shipping packages around the clock and taking care of support throughout the holidays. UPS and Postal services are closed, so any package may be “shipped” but will not leave our factory until Tuesday 12/27/11.

UPS overnight (USA orders):
Place orders by – December 21, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner. This means place your orders today, choose overnight / Next day UPS!

Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!

Reminder! Here are your 2011 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Orders usually ship within 1 to 2 business days!

United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders):
Place orders by Wednesday – December 14, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS ground (USA orders):
Place orders by Wednesday – December 14, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS 3-day (USA orders):
Place orders by Friday – December 16, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS 2-day (USA orders):
Place orders by Monday – December 19, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS overnight (USA orders):
Place orders by Tuesday – December 21, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.

UPS International:
Place orders by Monday – December 12, 2011. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

USPS First class mail international (International orders):
Place orders by Friday – November 25, 2011. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/23/11.

USPS Express mail international(International orders):
Place orders by Friday – December 9, 2011. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!

Limor “Ladyada” Fried will be debuting a new project tonight LIVE on Google+ hangout. There’s a new feature which allows broadcast AND record on certain Google+ accounts and she’s going to try out this new feature. If you’re on Google+ just add her and we’ll SEE you tonight!

Reminder! Here are your 2011 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Orders usually ship within 1 to 2 business days!

United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders):
Place orders by Wednesday – December 14, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS ground (USA orders):
Place orders by Wednesday – December 14, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS 3-day (USA orders):
Place orders by Friday – December 16, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS 2-day (USA orders):
Place orders by Monday – December 19, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS overnight (USA orders):
Place orders by Tuesday – December 21, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.

UPS International:
Place orders by Monday – December 12, 2011. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

USPS First class mail international (International orders):
Place orders by Friday – November 25, 2011. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/23/11.

USPS Express mail international(International orders):
Place orders by Friday – December 9, 2011. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!

Reminder! Here are your 2011 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Orders usually ship within 1 to 2 business days!

United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders):
Place orders by Wednesday – December 14, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS ground (USA orders):
Place orders by Wednesday – December 14, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS 3-day (USA orders):
Place orders by Friday – December 16, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS 2-day (USA orders):
Place orders by Monday – December 19, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

UPS overnight (USA orders):
Place orders by Tuesday – December 21, 2011 – Arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.

UPS International:
Place orders by Monday – December 12, 2011. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

USPS First class mail international (International orders):
Place orders by Friday – November 25, 2011. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/23/11.

USPS Express mail international(International orders):
Place orders by Friday – December 9, 2011. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/23/2011 or sooner.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!

Fun interview with our Ladyada by TJ McCue! Open Source Electronics DIY Kits with Adafruit @ Forbes.

The cover of Time as Person of the Year can’t be far away for Limor Fried. As the founder of one of the most popular open source hardware companies, inventor, maker, and visionary Ms. Fried has to be on the radar for that famous list.
 
If you’ve seen the “Minty Boost” Altoid ™ tin that can serve as a supplemental battery pack for your iPod or cell phone, then you’ve seen her work. That little tin is the proverbial iceberg and only a sliver of what’s been going on at Adafruit, Limor’s open-source hardware company that supplier makers with assembled and kit versions of cool electronics projects.

Limor Fried is also known as “LadyAda” in many hacker and maker circles. She is a teacher, mentor, tutor, sharing her knowledge and passion. That outreach has become the core of Adafruit.

Read more!

Adafruit has the new Arduino R3s in stock and they will ship in all new orders placed today 12/1/11 (December 1st) in ALL boards, packs and stand-alone units going forward.

What’s new in the Arduino Uno R3? Ladyada put together a guide to help everyone to assist everyone.

There are a few changes in the Uno (R3) here is what they are:

1. The USB controller chip has moved from an atmega8u2 (8K flash) to an atmega16u2 (16K flash). This does not mean that you have more flash or RAM for your sketches this upgrade is for the USB interface chip only. In theory this will mean that it will be easier to have low level USB interfaces such as MIDI/Joystick/Keyboard available. However these are only theoretical at this time, there is no example code or firmware which will actually do this.
2. There are three more breakout pins on the PCB, next to the AREF pin there is are two I2C pins (SDA/SCL) – this is a duplication of the Analog 4 and 5 pins. There is not an extra I2C interface or anything, its just that they made a copy of those pins there for future shields since the I2C pins are in a different place on Mega. There is also an IOREF pin which is next to the Reset pin – this is to let shields know what the running I/O pin voltage is on the board (for the UNO, its 5V). Again, this is a duplication of the power pin, it does not add voltage level shifting to the UNO.
3. The RESET button has moved to be next to the USB connector, this makes it easier to press when a shield is on top.

Here is what didn’t change in the UNO:

1. Processor size and speed – its the same ATMega328P running at 16MHz that we’ve had since the Duemilanove. Your code will not run faster or better on the R3
2. Same number of pins – no extra pins are added EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE MORE BREAKOUTS (see above!)
3. Board size and shape – same size as before
4. Shield compatibility – Every shield that works and plugs into the UNO R1/R2 should be able to work fine with the R3
5. Driver – the driver is the same
6. Upload speed – same upload speed and technique

All of our Adafruit shields work with R3. If you have any questions, post up in the comments – we’ll do our best to get them right away!

If you want to pick up an Arduino R3 now, visit the store!

The Holiday hours at Adafruit this week are really simple – we are open. On Thursday (Thanksgiving day) in the USA orders can be placed but will not ship until Friday (or Monday) when the Postal service and UPS resume their usual shipping schedule. For UPS orders only “Air” orders will go out on Friday. UPS Ground will go out on Monday.

Happy Holidays!

Adafruit Perma-Proto Half-sized Breadboard PCB – 3 Pack! Customers have asked us to carry basic perf-board, but we never liked the look of most basic perf: its always crummy quality, with pads that flake off and no labeling. Then we thought about how people actually prototype – usually starting with a solderless breadboard and then transferring the parts to a more permanent PCB. That’s when we realized what people would really like is a proto board that makes it easy!

This proto-board is the PCB you always wish you had, but never realized it! We took the basic layout of a half-sized breadboard and turned that into a beautiful PCB. The top side has a while silkscreen, and the same markings you’re familiar with, to make transferring components easy. The bottom has the 5-hole pad design that matches a classic breadboard, with 4 power bus lines on the sides, and no mask so you can easily cut traces when necessary. All holes are thru-plated for strength – these wont peel off with rework. The finish is a gold plate so it wont oxidize like bare copper! There are also two mounting holes so you can attach the PCB to your project box

These are so handy, we decided to put them in a pack of 3. Once you use a Perma-Proto board, you’ll never go back!

In stock and shipping now!

Makerbot is on the cover TimeOut New York magazine and our Adafruit iCufflinks are in the gift guide inside. Is this the first time open source hardware has hit the cover of a magazine?

Great news, we’re thrilled to announce that we have added Google Checkout as a payment option for your orders at Adafruit. It’s FAST and easy. You don’t need to make an account at Adafruit – just shop and check out. We did a soft-launch over the last few days and customers love it, so we’re now pleased to announce it! We of course always have Visa, Amex, Mastercard, Paypal (bank transfer for large orders), POs for schools/orgs/etc and now Google Checkout!

We are posting some sneak previews of some things we are working on at Adafruit on our new G+ page – if you want to see them, just add the Adafruit Industries on Google+. In the next couple weeks, we’ll also offer up some more discounts and goodies for folks who add/follow like we did before.

NEW PRODUCT – Silver Bipolar Earrings – NPN / PNP. Perhaps we are a little BIASED, but we think that these silver earrings are the perfect mix of pretty and geeky. Made of quality sterling silver (not cheap BASE metal!), one drop has an NPN symbol stamped on it, the other a PNP. These are definitely not your COMMON electronics-themed jewelry. Simple and classic, they go with all the CURRENT fashion. When donning these, you will certainly GAIN a look of elegance!

Lovingly made by Nicholas & Felice in Philomath, Oregon. You can see their other items on Etsy.

In stock and shipping now!

Dustyn Roberts, Making things move…

Dustyn Roberts is a traditionally trained engineer with non-traditional ideas of how practical engineering can be taught. She started her career at Honeybee Robotics as an engineer on the Sample Manipulation System project for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, scheduled for launch in 2011. In 2006 she founded Dustyn Robots after consulting for two artists during their residency at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in NYC. She continued consulting projects for students and artists while working full time at Honeybee, and eventually moved to consulting full time on projects ranging from gait analysis to designing guided parachute systems. In 2007, she developed a course for NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program called Mechanisms and Things That Move that led to the book you are now holding in your hands. She also participated in the pilot of Battle of the Geeks where her team designed and launched a rocket across a canyon in Africa, and has attracted media attention by Time Out New York, IEEE Spectrum, and local organizations.

Dustyn holds a BS in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University with minors in Robotics and Business and an MS in Biomechanics & Movement Science from the University of Delaware. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her wife, Lorena, and cat, Simba.

That’s right Dustyn will be here at the Adafruit factory for SHOW-AND-TELL and ASK AN ENGINEER. Saturday, November 12th, 2011 – starting at 9:30pm!

Making Things Move reveals practical mechanical design principles to readers who may have no background in engineering and shows how to apply those principles through a wide range of sample projects, from art installations to toys to labor-saving devices.

This book is for anyone who has ever wanted to make something that moves but didn’t know where to start. Maybe you’re a sculptor who wants your artwork to spin around on a pedestal, or a musician who wants to make custom musical instruments that come alive. Whatever the case may be, this book will show you how to turn your ideas into reality.

Makers no longer need to have a machine shop in their garage or an arsenal of spare parts lying around. You can make 3D models using free software, then actually get them printed in 3D at any number of online shops. Heck, you can even make your own 3D printer! Or cut just about any 2D shape you want out of a variety of materials at Ponoko. Combine these with off the shelf parts and simple hand tools and the possibilities are endless.

A unique guide to practical mechanical design principles and their applicationsIn Making Things Move, you’ll learn how to build moving mechanisms through non-technical explanations, examples, and do-it-yourself projects–from art installations to toys to labor-saving devices. The projects include a drawing machine, a mini wind turbine, a mousetrap powered car, and more, but the applications of the examples are limited only by your imagination. A breadth of topics is covered ranging from how to attach couplers and shafts to a motor, to converting between rotary and linear motion.

Each chapter features photographs, drawings, and screenshots of the components and systems involved. Emphasis is placed on using off-the-shelf components whenever possible, and most projects also use readily available metals, plastics, wood, and cardboard, as well as accessible fabrication techniques such as laser cutting. Small projects in each chapter are designed to engage you in applying the material in the chapter at hand. Later in the book, more involved projects incorporate material from several chapters.

• Focuses on practical applications and results, not abstract engineering theories
• Contains more than a dozen topic-focused projects and three large-scale projects incorporating lessons from the whole book
• Features shopping lists and guides to off-the-shelf components for the projects
• Incorporates discussions of new fabrication techniques such as laser cutting and 3D printing, and how you can gain access
• Includes online component for continuing education with the book’s companion website and blog (makingthingsmove.com)

Veterans day is 11/11/2011 – Adafruit will be open and taking orders, free shipping to any military base as always… Postal orders will ship out on the 12th. UPS orders will still ship on the 11th!

We did a fun experiment with google+ ‘s new pages for companies. We now have the Adafruit Industries page, it worked out great! If you missed out on this one, don’t worry – we’ll do it again!

Adafruit Industries – Google+.

I never thought I’d stray from wanting to be a systems administrator. I wanted to be a computer scientist, but then I took the Electronics project in 4-H and bought your MiniPOV3 Kit. It was the first thing I had ever soldered and I picked the skill up quickly. Later I learned more about micro controllers whilst trying to program it and eventually, that project won me my first Grand Champion (basically best in the project area) I had ever gotten. After that the bug bit me. I built the TV-B-Gone twice, an FM radio transmitter, an RFID lock for my bedroom (one for my front door is in the works). That original kit is why I want to be an engineer, I took my high school’s EE program and soaked it up like a sponge. Now I want to double major in EE and Chemical Engineering. I just figured you should know, what you said is true. You are making the Makers, I now know exactly what I want to do, and I would never have had the resources if it hadn’t been for Make Magazine and Adafruit giving me the opportunity to learn about this.

We did a fun experiment with google+ ‘s new pages for companies. We now have the Adafruit Industries page, it worked out great! If you missed out on this one, don’t worry – we’ll do it again!

We did a fun experiment with google+ ‘s new pages for companies. We now have the Adafruit Industries page, it worked out great! If you missed out on this one, don’t worry – we’ll do it again!

NEW PRODUCT – OWI Robotic Arm Edge – Robot arm [OWI-535]. Riding the wings of the award winning Robotic Arm Trainer, OWI has made robotic arm technology more affordable without compromising quality. With Robotic Arm Edge, command the gripper to open and close, wrist motion of 120 degrees, an extensive elbow range of 300 degrees, base rotation of 270 degrees, base motion of 180 degrees, vertical reach of 15 inches, horizontal reach of 12.6 inches, and lifting capacity of 100g. This is a pretty complicated arm to build, but we’re happy with the quality and the arm. Many hackers and makers have used it with our Adafruit Motorshield. CHOKING HAZARD — Small parts. Not for children. We only suggest this product for adults and/or kids with adult supervision.

Some of the added features include a search light design on the gripper and a safety gear audible indicator is included on all five gear boxes to prevent any potential injury or gear breakage during operation. How does this equate to fun? Total command and visual manipulation using the 5s: five switch wired controller, five motors, and five joints. Night time play is possible and extended life on the gearbox to prolong your control and predictions of the robot’s behavior. 4xD Batteries Required (not included).

• Command the Robotic Arm Edge with for multiple movements and functions
• Robotic arm gripper opens and closes
• Movement includes radial wrist motion of 120°, an extensive elbow range of motion of 300°, base rotation of 270°, base motion of 180°
• No Soldering Required

Hall of Fame Inventor George Devol Endorses the Robotic Arm Edge.

We do not stock the USB interface at this time or the CD with curriculum, both of these are available on the manufacturers website.

How to use the robot arm with an Adafruit Motorshield by Chris Anderson.

In stock and shipping now!

We now have a better, faster, easier “Notify me when in stock” on Adafruit product pages. If you’re logged in it’s just one click, if you’re just browsing put your name & email and you’re good to go. You’ll only get one email once we put the item in stock. For example, here’s the Beagle Bone!

A few months ago, we reached out to our community and asked what DIY parts and pieces you wished you could find at your local RadioShack store. We were overwhelmed with the response, and promised to bring in a top list of suggestions from you – including Arduino.

Today, we’re pleased to be able to tell you that the first batch of Arduino boards and shields have left the RadioShack distribution centers en route to our thousands of local stores. Now you can easily find a RadioShack store and get the parts you need to finish that awesome project, instead of having to order it online and wait.

We won’t just be carrying a single board, either – no way! Below is the full list of boards and shields that you can expect to find:

Microcontrollers:

• Arduino Uno REV 3 (2760128): This is the latest revision of the basic Arduino USB board. It connects to the computer with a standard USB cable and contains everything else you need to program and use the board. It can be extended with a variety of shields: custom daughter-boards with specific features.
• Arduino Mega 2560 REV3 (2760127): The version of the Mega released with the Uno, this version features the Atmega2560, which has twice the memory.
• Arduino Mega ADK (2760129): Based on the Mega 2560, this version has a USB host interface to connect with Android based phones.

Shields:

• Arduino Ethernet Shield Without PoE Module (2760130): The Arduino Ethernet Shield allows an Arduino board to connect to the internet.
• Arduino Motor Shield (2760131): This shield allows an Arduino board to control DC motors and read encoders.
• Arduino SD Shield (2760132): The SD Card Shield v2.1 for Arduino is a break out board for a standard SD Card. Now you can add mass storage and data logging to your project!
• Arduino Proto Shield (2760140): The Proto Shield Kit allows you to move your projects from a breadboard to an Arduino-compatible PCB. Included are a number of common components.

We also have a large assortment of Parallax boards and shields, as well as an awesome selection of other DIY parts, pieces, and tools. You probably already know where the closest RadioShack store is, but if not, you can use our handy RadioShack Store Locator.

Now that Arduino boards and shields are available at your local RadioShack store, what will YOU build with them? Check out the awesome projects that have been shared at the Great Create or share your own project.

Cats Of Engineering (more photos added).

Focus stacking assistant for EOS cameras @ Circuits@Home. Oleg writes…

One of my favorite shooting techniques is focus stacking. Many pictures on Circuits@Home site are made using this technique. I use Helicon Focus for post processing and even though this program has camera control built-in, it obviously requires a computer close to the object of shooting. In order to be able to control my camera in the field, I wanted to replace a laptop with simple lightweight controller able to move focus of camera lens and take pictures between steps. In this article, I will show how to build one from Arduino, USB Host Shield and several small parts.

Oleg was also on our recent show and tell!

NEW BOOK – Making Things Talk, Second Edition by Tom Igoe. Using Sensors, Networks, and Arduino to see, hear, and feel your world. Make microcontrollers, PCs, servers, and smartphones talk to each other.

Building electronic projects that interact with the physical world is good fun. But when the devices you’ve built start to talk to each other, things really get interesting. With 33 easy-to-build projects, Making Things Talk shows you how to get your gadgets to communicate with you and your environment. It’s perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest.

Maybe you’re a science teacher who wants to show students how to monitor the weather in several locations at once. Or a sculptor looking to stage a room of choreographed mechanical sculptures. In this expanded edition, you’ll learn how to form networks of smart devices that share data and respond to commands.

• Call your home thermostat with a smartphone and change the temperature.
• Create your own game controllers that communicate over a network.
• Use ZigBee, Bluetooth, Infrared, and plain old radio to transmit sensor data wirelessly.
• Work with Arduino 1.0, Processing, and PHP—three easy-to-use, open source environments.
• Write programs to send data across the Internet, based on physical activity in your home, office, or backyard.

Whether you want to connect simple home sensors to the Internet, or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other gadgets, this book explains exactly what you need.

Updates to the book are already on http://www.makingthingstalk.com/

In stock and shipping now!

HOW TO TUESDAY! – No-sew EL wire luna fairy wings costume tutorial! This week’s comes from a special guest, Branden Hall!

I have always loved making things. This came fairly naturally since my parents are both supreme makers in their own right. Afer all they taught themselves how to do lost-wax casting so they could make their own wedding rings! Over the last decade though, I’ve done most of my creating with 1s and 0s – lots of software and some generative art, but not many physical objects. That started to change when I got my hands on Issue #1 of Make magazine.

In the years since then I’ve aquired the makings of a halfway decent wood shop and electronics bench, but mostly I’ve just tinkered. I’ve learned a lot and had quite a bit of fun, but haven’t produced many finished projects. I was aquiring the skills, but hadn’t found that proverbial “itch” to scratch.

That changed in 2011 when my wife and I decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary by attending Burning Man. Being that it’s held in the middle of the desert, it gets really dark out there at night. Because of this it’s very important to be lit up so that you’re visible to the other people, cyclists and vehicles. So there was my muse – I wanted to make something for my wife that lit up, was easy to wear, and looked cool. How about some EL wire wings?

Read more!

EL wire starter pack – Aqua 2.5 meter (8.2 ft). We bumped up the EL to 2.5 meters (the max that the EL inverter is designed for) and now it comes with one end pre-soldered so you can plug it in immediately. Of course, we still include the copper tape and heatshrink so you can work with the EL wire and mod it for your project. All at the same price as before!

In stock, shippin’ now.

In the Adafruit forums… RiderNet V2 – an All-Weather Arduino-Managed WiFi network for horses and ponies. Incredible, read about the entire project in the forums. Kris, nicely done.

NEW PRODUCT – Discover Electronics Kit – 2.0. Discover Electronics Kit contains everything you need to learn the basics of electronics and make your own projects. It contains the most common electronics components as well as a prototyping breadboard for you to get started right away. Easy full color diagrams teach you how to bring your own ideas to life.The Discover electronics kit uses standard components. All of these parts can be used by the beginner or the advanced user. As you grow and learn all of the parts in the kit are still useful in more advanced projects and can be expanded on by using additional parts.

Requires 4 AA batteries. NOT INCLUDED

The kit comes with clear, solderless breadboard and a simple battery pack. Clearly labeled parts and simple directions means you can have your first circuit up and running in minutes.

The manual explains whats going on inside. Illustrations aid in understanding.

Not just an electronics kit; online resources turn the kit into a video course pack.

You can double check your work against the photographs.

Sparkle Labs is made up of designers and teachers. The Discover Electronics Kit is designed to make learning electronics easy and fun. It is a curated selection of the basic parts to get started and learning right away. They are standard components and are still useful when you are ready to build your own projects. More then just a kit, it is an online, video course which you can access here: Discover Electronics Course.

More photos here.

Includes:

• Transparent Solderless Breadboard
• AA Battery Holder
• 2 Alligator clips
• 2 NPN Transistors
• 2 Diodes
• 2 5V Voltage Regulators
• 2 Photoresistors
• 10 LEDs (Various Cool Colors)
• Speaker
• DIP Switch
• 1k, 10k, and 100k Potentiometer
• 556 Timer IC
• 2 Buttons
• Jumper Wires
• Multiple Value Resistors
• Multiple Value Ceramic and Electrolytic Capacitors
• 32 page Instruction Manual

This kit is RoHS compliant – Parts do not contain lead, cadmium or other harmful elements.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – Geiger Counter Kit – Radiation Sensor. Detect particles and/or make a cool random number generator with this handsome Geiger counter kit. This easy-to-make pack of parts turns a simple Geiger-Muller tube (included) into a portable blink, beeping radiation detector. You can also connect an FTDI friend to the header, to get serial output for datalogging on your computer.

We put this kit together in a couple of hours and hand lots of fun bringing it around and listening for ticking sounds near our smoke detectors, bananas, countertops, Brazil nuts, chunks of Uranium, etc. It includes all components (PCB, tube, & parts) but you will need basic soldering tools and two AAA batteries to complete it.

Best of all, it’s 100% Open Source Hardware!

In stock and shipping now!

3 cool jobs on the Adafruit jobs board this week!

Office Manager at littleBits in New York.
Web and documentation intern at littleBits in New York.
Industrial/ Product Designer at littleBits in New York.

We had an “Electronic Halloween” contest last week and announced the winner on “Ask an Engineer” last night – and here it is! Congrats M Leone! You won $150 in the Adafruit store!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! If you entered the contest we’re giving you a gift too, we’ll be emailing everyone this week. Thank you to everyone who entered! After the jump, the rest of the awesome entries!

Ada Lovelace Day.

Who is your heroine?

Do you remember which women have influenced you over the years?

Perhaps your maths teacher, one of your university lecturers, or a colleague?

This Ada Lovelace Day on October 7, share your story about a woman — whether an engineer, a scientist, a technologist or mathematician — who has inspired you to become who you are today. Write a blog post, record a podcast, film a video, draw a comic, or pick any other way to talk about the women who have been guiding lights in your life. Give your heroine the credit she deserves!

Coming soon! Adafruit Motorshield on TV “How Hard Can It Be?” and it’s on the National Geographic Channel…. Vince writes in!

Some of you may know me from my projects in Popular Science magazine, or the videos that I make for Tango Echo, but recently I got the chance to do something even more fun. I hosted a three part special on National Geographic Channel in which we did our DIY best at some big engineering challenges – Flying a house with balloons, exploring the deep ocean with a DIY remotely operated vehicle, and flying a home made rocket to over 50,000 ft.

It has the potential to be a great show for the Maker community. We, the hosts, are actually doing all of the work on these projects and you’re watching our successes and failures as they happen. There’s also enough fun and TV magic thrown in to (hopefully) save it from being incredibly boring. We’re pulling for this to get picked up for a season – if you watch it and like it, please let them know at comments@natgeochannel.com.

The balloon house, which was intended to recreate the animated film Up, was an unexpected sensation around the world, even getting the lead off story on Good Morning America the day after we flew.

The ROV wasn’t as successful a project, but it was at least a nail biter until the bitter end. I was soldering in the parking lot until literally the last second and I did my best to break up the tension on the boat by vomiting over the side, constantly.

The rocket was just flat out, full power, AWESOME. As my co-host Gocke put it, imagine a telephone pole taking off – calculations show that it was doing Mach 1 by the time it had eclipsed it’s own length. We had to get approval from the FAA and all branches of the military to even attempt this.

This video is just one of the test rockets we built on the way to the big one.

On the ROV episode, I used a number of parts from Adafruit. I controlled the relays that drove the trolling motors with the motor shield and I used two Arduinos – one down on the sub and one on the boat in a control box – that communicated via a serial connection over about 2 miles of fiber optic cable. You’ll actually see some of those parts being assembled in my Hawaiian hotel room on the show tonight – 7pm EST / PST on the National Geographic Channel.

The first two episodes have already premiered, but there will be encore presentations:

Up House – Wed October 12 at 7pm ET/PT
Homemade Rocket – Wed October 19 at 7pm ET/PT
DIY Robo-Sub – Wed October 26 at 7pm ET/PT

NEW PRODUCT – Adalight – DIY Ambient Monitor Lighting Project Pack. Build your own ambient-light addition for a monitor or media PC television with the Adalight project pack! This project pack is for our “Adalight” project tutorial. By running the Processing code on your computer, the halo of LEDs will follow the screen colors to provide an awesome ambient light display that adds pop to TV shows, movies or games!

This pack contains:

• A strand of 25 x 12mm LED pixels
• 5V 2A power adapter
• 2.1mm female power jack

You’ll also need an Arduino (or compatible) and a USB cable, those are not included! You will also need some basic soldering tools and some wire, see the tutorial page for instructions.

In stock and shipping now!

The MajorDecibel Project Review: Adafruit: The Best Arduino Tutorials and Support. The The MajorDecibel Project Review writes -

I thought I would write a quick tribute to Adafruit. This is one of those sites that I wasn’t aware of when I got started, but only found when searching for general tutorials on the internet. Adafruit is a supplier of some really cool kits, and some great parts. In fact, I may have to revise my previous posting to include this one.

While their parts selection may not be nearly as wide as say, RobotShop, and is by no means intended to compete with the likes of Mouser or Digi-Key (their business is geared to the hobbyist exclusively), they do a fine job. Where they do score a home run is in the support and clear level of care when it comes to the products that they do sell. Interested in buying an LED strip? Cool, you’re going to get a clear tutorial with that. That goes for most of the things they sell, with all the support you need in the forums, which are frequented by layada herself.

For these reasons, I strongly recommend that you check them out, and if you aren’t ready to buy just yet (but you will be), at the very least do yourself the favour they’ve done for you (still with me?) and check out their tutorials.

Thank you!

We needed to collect a list of Arduino libraries for some prep work for the Arduino team’s 1.0 launch. We currently have 25 Arduino libraries!

https://github.com/adafruit/PCD8544-Nokia-5110-LCD-library
https://github.com/adafruit/RGB-matrix-Panel
https://github.com/adafruit/TSL2561-Arduino-Library
https://github.com/adafruit/HL1606-LED-Strip-PWM
https://github.com/adafruit/TFTLCD-Library
https://github.com/adafruit/LPD8806
https://github.com/adafruit/SPI_VFD
https://github.com/adafruit/ST7735-Library
https://github.com/adafruit/VC0706-Serial-Camera-Library
https://github.com/adafruit/PN532
https://github.com/adafruit/WS2801-Library
https://github.com/adafruit/BMP085-Library
https://github.com/adafruit/LPD6803-RGB-Pixels
https://github.com/adafruit/RTClib
https://github.com/adafruit/NEC-remote-control-library
https://github.com/adafruit/DHT-sensor-library
https://github.com/adafruit/MAX6675-library
https://github.com/adafruit/Touch-Screen-Library
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Motor-Shield-library
https://github.com/adafruit/ST7565-LCD
https://github.com/adafruit/HL1606-LED-Strip
https://github.com/adafruit/SSD1306
https://github.com/adafruit/MCP23008-library

There’s also the LiquidCrystal and SD libraries that we maintain too, but it’s part of the main distro. Looking forward to the next 25!