There are people making amazing things around the world, are you one of them? Join the 52,126 strong! And check out scores of projects they shared this week after the jump!
Don’t miss the chance to catch up with great pieces from the community from this past week! Click the link below!
I ordered the Experimentation Kit for Arduino and I am addicted! Thank you! I have heard a lot of people talking about Arduino, but I think most people are still intimidated because they don’t know electronics or they are afraid of programming. I have been a systems engineer since 1992 and have written several web apps and iPhone apps.
Whoa! Check the new look for that Adafruit G+ Community “Makers, hackers, artists & engineers“! There are people making amazing things around the world, are you one of them? Join the 51,229 strong! And check out scores of projects they shared this week after the jump!
Don’t miss the chance to catch up with great pieces from the community from this past week! Click the link below!
I’m an old guy just getting started learning about Arduino and all the interesting things people are doing with them. Your products look to be very useful and I plan on purchasing several. I really like your tutorials. Good efficient format. Good information. Nicely done. Very much appreciated.
The Adafruit Google+ Community sailed past the 50k mark this week!
There are people making amazing things around the world, are you one of them? Join the 50466 strong! And check out scores of projects they shared this week after the jump!
Don’t miss the chance to catch up with great pieces from the community from this past week! Click the link below!
Each time I’ve made a purchase with Adafruit I’ve been extremely satisfied with their service. They always package my items well and ship very quickly. They have a great selection of components and kits, lots of well written information on using their products, and a helpful and friendly user forum with a great community. They are, by far, a great example of what a company should be.
DavidD.
There are people making amazing things around the world, are you one of them? Join the 49838 strong! And check out scores of projects they shared this week after the jump!
Don’t miss the chance to catch up with great pieces from the community from this week! Click the link below!
So many projects this week, the Adafruit community is nearly visible from space! (Well, the LEDs might have something to do with this.)
Check out a whole slew of new entries from the Adafruit 6 Second Electronics Film Festival as well as great projects from the Google+ Community, the Adafruit blog, and all of the places where our community congregates.
There are people making amazing things around the world, are you one of them? Join the 49,198 strong! And check out scores of projects they shared this week after the jump!
Buckle up, strap in — our makers, hackers, artists and engineers are going to take you on a wild journey to all of the corners of Adafruit’s fantastically creative community!
There are people making amazing things around the world, are you one of them? Join the 48,638 strong! And check out scores of projects they shared this week after the jump!
Thank you for rapid delivery of my items! One of the downsides of being stationed in Guam is that most shipments take about a month to get here, yours made it in less then 2 weeks!
Thank you very much for Adafruit and ladyada.net. You are doing an incredible thing by making hardware accessible and empowering curious minds, and it’s exciting to see that something so good is a viable business model.
Your libraries and tutorials are phenomenal. Before a few months ago, I’d mainly written MATLAB, so I very much appreciate having commands to do exactly what I want (without worrying about parsing, addressing, etc.), and the Adafruit libraries always work. I took a peek at the Electro-knit overview and was very grateful for Becky’s disclaimer: “Before you begin, look at your life, and what choices brought you to this point…” I realized I’d caught the can-do bug and indeed had no business hacking a knitting machine. Maybe someday…
I would just like to say thank you for all of the fantastic support that you offer your customers because it really helps our buying and making experience and is of a higher caliber than any other online store that I have ever used.
I just have a few positive comments about your site.
I am a 25-yr Intel programmer (C/C++/C#/Delphi), but new to Arduino/Netduino and new to OpenSource. My experiences with OpenSource in the past (for the most part) have been frustrating. My view is that I must make a living not play all day – althouhh we all like to play. I am very impressed with your site! It is so organized and thoughtfully done.
As a C# .NET developer in a large well-known IT supplier, I am so spoiled with Visual Studio and C# (those who do it, get what I am saying).
Because I now want to tinker in the world of Arduino/Netduino, for the last two weeks I have had to endure the minefield and mess found in the scattered world of Arduino. Your site is such a welcomed change to what I have seen so far. I am not sure if this because of the female roots of Adafruit (it may very-well be) but no matter the reason, I am very impressed. I have been around long enough to see the usual race-to-the-bottom-mindset, and it is refreshing in this day and age to see something done right! It is rare to find such a site these days (but there are a few).
I will be preparing some (work and user group) presentations in the next few months to expose other .NET developers (30 on my team, 30 in the user group) to Arduino and Netduino and I will gladly mention your company as a great place for buying products for learning and development.
Based on what I have seen so far, I have to say thanks for having the drive or conviction to build your business right!
Please feel free to share my comments with anyone, even online, but please do not include my email address.
I hope to start purchasing from you soon. It won’t be very much as I am just a hobbyist in this new world of Arduino, Netduino, but every customer counts developing or maintaining a brand.
Hey I am so excited to be featured on your site! Adafruit was so helpful to the project. I definitely would not have been able to complete it without the great tutorials! Thanks!
Re: The MinPOV – Quite honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, and I totally expected I’d screw it up, but I have to say I’m damned impressed. It was really easy to solder it all up; the on line directions COULDN’T have been easier to follow, although my eyes aren’t what they used to be. I used mine to make a safety vest for cycling, since I like to ride at night. I just weaved it in a black, mesh vest, and it looks great. Thanks, again!
I’m out here in Cali training for a new job for a month and have been sitting in my hotel room going totally stir crazy. So yesterday on a whim I decided my mp3 player was running out too fast.
I thought to myself I thought “self? You need an air drop of toys for the next 3 weeks in the hotel room.”
Anyway blah blah blah. Even with a weird shipping address confirmation, I got an email confirmation about 0.02 seconds after placing the order. 24 hours later(ish) the iron is a heatin’ up.
Adafruit FTW. If I need it and you’ve got it, I’m getting it from you.
I’m new in the electronics world and I just discovered AdaFruit in December
when I found the Flora. Every time I went back to your website, I found
more and more stuff and information and tutorials and finally Ask an
Engineer and I keep telling my friends and family how GREAT the website is.
LadyAda, I’m old enough to be your mother, so I hope it’s okay for me to
tell you how proud and am of all you’ve done – I’m so inspired by your
intelligence and your ambition and drive….and I was so thrilled when you
were on with President Obama this week! What you’re doing is absolutely
wonderful, and yes, you are an inspiration to girls of all ages!
So I just wanted to send you a note to say Thank You and Congratulations! I
wish you continued success, you have a good heart and a good head and you’re
making the world a better place.
Lady Ada: You rock! You have helped me get my arduino running and had some fun along the way all thanks to your tutorials. I plan on getting this arduino air born someday. Wish me luck! Johnathan
I have to thank you for responding so quickly to my question. They delivered it the other day and I now have my part and it works great. My lab will certainly purchase from your site in the future. Thank you, Ryan
As a satisfied customer and an Adafruit blog addict I’ve found myself identified with every thank u letter in the “From your mail bag” corner. As an non American customer, I felt the need to personally send a thank u letter to praise the idiot proof purchasing process (I don’t have to guess the shipping fees, Hurray !!!) and the well size aware packing, thus keeping the international shipping fees to the lowest possible.
Thank you for your quick service and quality products. I received the items yesterday and they are working perfectly! It was truly a “Geek Christmas”!!! The instructions on your website were clear, correct and easy to follow. I hope there are many transactions with your company in the upcoming months – PB
I’m just writing to say how much I *HATE* your blog….everytime I read it I either find an incredibly interesting entry or something else I just have to have (some new “toy” or “gadget” – I just love reading it !!! Keep up the great work ! I really *DO* love it… my wallet isn’t happy with me, but that’s ok – I’m having too much fun to care……Matt.
I was very pleased to hear of your new title: Entrepreneur of the Year! You are proof that you can have your cake and eat it too as far as open hardware goes as you are both successful and true to your open hardware roots. WyoLum benefits every day from your software (webide, libraries, demo code), hardware (boarduino, protoshield), your tutorials and your leadership. You are enabling a future that I want to live in and I thank you for that.
I’m looking forward to what 2013 will bring because surely you are still on the upswing.
I made an order on a Sunday evening, and changed my mind as I needed some components super fast. I sent them and email and they very nicely canceled my order (and refunded Paypal) so I could place a different order. This is great customer support – the main reason to stick to a store IMO. Of course all the tutorials they offer for free are also another reason to stick to them Thanks guys!
Think green with some last minute holiday shopping with these neat solar powered gifts. This is a list of my favorite gadgets and gizmos that either help you power something with solar.
Voltaic Systems Medium 6V 2W & Large 6V 3.4W Solar Panels – These panels come to us from Voltaic Systems, makers of fine solar-powered bags and packs. These are waterproof, scratch resistant, and UV resistant. They use a high efficiency monocrystalline cell. They output 6V at 330 mA & 550 mA via 3.5mm x 1.3mm DC jack connectors. The substrate is an aluminum / plastic composite, specifically designed to be strong and lightweight. They can easily stand up to typical outdoor use including being dropped and leaned on. They’re very high quality and suggested for projects that will be exposed to the outdoors. Adafruit also carries a smaller 6V 1W panel, and a larger 6V 3.7W panel.
USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger – Take those awesome solar panels and put them to work. Make your projects go green this summer with our specialized USB/Solar Lithium Ion Polymer Battery charger! This charger is a very unique design, perfect for outdoor projects, or DIY iPod chargers. We’ve spent over a year testing and tinkering with this charger to come up with a plug and play solution to charging batteries with the sun.
Snap Circuits® Green – Learn about energy sources and how to “think green”. Build over 125 projects and learning about environmentally friendly energy and how electricity works. Includes full-colored manual with over 100 pages and separate educational manual. Features-Hand Crank-Solar Cell-FM Radio-Energy Compartment-Rechargeable Battery-Windmill-Clock and Analog Meter. Compatible with the Snap Circuits family of electronic learning kits.
Solarbotics Zendulum – The Zendulum is a do-it-yourself, simple solderable kit. It features a spherical neodymium rare earth magnet, which emulates Newton’s cradle when infrared irradiation is applied. In English? There’s a magnetic ball that rolls back and forth when powered by a solar cell. Assemble the kit and let it live on your table or windowsill – a simple desk lamp or sunlight can provide enough juice. When powered, the ball will seemingly roll back and forth on it’s own, almost as if it’s throwing the laws of physics and gravity to the wind.
Solarbotics PumLantern Kit – a solar-charged, night-time activated light-pulsing lantern. This kit charges all day from the SCC3733 solar cell, and pumms the four ultra-mega-super-bright LEDs to cast artistic silhouettes against the walls of the lantern. The LEDs themselves are a random grab of white, blue, red, orange and green.
Thames and Kosmos Physics Solar Workshop – Physics Solar Workshop explores the topic of solar energy, focusing on photovoltaic cells. By building 12 models and conducting 30 experiments, you will learn how solar cells transform light into electrical energy, and how motors and mechanical devices can optimize the work done by this energy. You will build different types of vehicles and machines to demonstrate how gears can convert and transform power for different needs.
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – No guarantee that your package will arrive for Christmas.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
So you are inventing the next RFID-detecting analog-synth humidity-monitoring Internet-of-Things-configured space-lab-utility-pack and you just can’t wait to share it with the world. In fact, you can’t wait to use it yourself for your geo-located, reverse geo-cache, rive gauche, conceptual art happening at Cape Canaveral tonight — and the modular lasers, LEDs, and Tesla coil add-ons operated from your Android phone are going to positively *massive* at the after party on the moon!
How are you going to get out the door, much less to the helicopter waiting to airlift you to Florida with a table full of breadboards and hookup wire? “You’ve got to put it in a case, son, you’ve got to kit it right up.” Here are some great enclosures from Adafruit and beyond!
Available At Adafruit!
These new Pibow cases just arrived and they have been very popular. The Pibow is a durable and fun case for the Raspberry Pi® computer that is perfectly in touch with the ethos of the Raspberry Pi. The case is crafted out of seven layers with a transparent top and base. Each layer is laser cut from high-quality cast acrylic and once stacked they securely contain a Raspberry Pi while leaving the primary ports accessible. (read more)
Large Plastic Project Enclosure – Weatherproof with Clear Top: Store your project safe and sound in this nice weatherproof box with a clear top. We picked up this box because we like the machinable ABS plastic body and tough clear polycarbonate cover, the built in weatherproof gasket seal, and the easy-open screws that can be taken apart as many times as you wish without worrying about cracking or stripping. (read more)
Bi-Fold Compartment Parts Box: In addition to building your projects into a box or enclosure, you need a place to store the components and replacement parts for keeping your projects running — or starting to build a new one! This handy box has outer dimensions of 6.25″ x 3.5″ (159mm x 89mm) – 4.1″ including hinges (104mm), long compartments are 3.35″ x 1.15″ (85 x 29mm) and for short compartments are 1.65″ x 1.15″ (42 x 29mm). Perfect for small parts and more! We tested dozens of other latching lid boxes, this is the best one. This box is NOT anti-static, but you can use foam or anti-static bags inside if needed. (read more)
Medium waterproof OtterBox – 2000: Make your project stand up to serious abuse with an otterbox, a true waterproof drybox that is also tough enough to get run over. Made of clear polycarbonate, you’ll be able to keep an eye on any indicator LEDs. We have these in 3 sizes: small (#1000), medium (#2000) and large (#3000). They’re ideal for projects with wireless components like GPS loggers, GPRS/GSM cellular or xbee but can also act as a portable “pack & hack” project box. Comes with a lanyard and there are slots on the side for strapping the box onto something. Its a tough box so it will be hard to drill into it. (read more)
Altoids Gum sized tin: Ever since Altoids discontinued the Gum version, its been hard to get tins. So we went and got a whole mess of them custom made! These tins are exactly the same shape and size as the old Altoids gum tins but they are blank and we got the bottom flattened instead of rounded (so it fits things better). (read more)
Pi Holder milled aluminum case for Raspberry Pi: For those who are very serious about protecting their Raspberry Pi, check out this gorgeous and indestructible Raspberry Pi™ Case. It is as awesome as it is functional. Made in the U.S.A. by Barch Designs from Solid 6061-T6 Aircraft Grade Billet Aluminum which protects your Raspberry Pi from damage and also keeps your Pi running extra-cool by acting as a thermal heat sink. (read more)
Available Elsewhere!
RadioShack Project Enclosures: Next to the beautiful Rainbow PiBox cases, the Radio Shack enclosures can look a little dull — but there are many times that being dull, nondescript, and sturdy go a very long way! Mount a project to a park bench, up under desk, or nestle it into the crook of a branch in a tree — these enclosures can take it. (read more)
The Folding Arduino Lab from jasonwelsh on Thingiverse: What better way to create just the enclosure you need than to design it and 3D print it? Jasonwelsh’s project takes this idea one step further by considering the variety of his needs for his project box — and making a set of modular parts to build a box to suit all of his Arduino project needs. (read more)
Small Ball & Puck Display Cubes: Here’s an awesome tip from Becky — the Container Store has a bunch of small pre-built clear boxes that might well fit your intended project perfectly. The sports memorabilia boxes such as these ball and puck cases are particularly useful — and I saw a number of costumes at New York Comic Con that took advantage of these. (You can frost the inside of the baseball case and fill it with LEDs for a nice glowing cube effect, for example.) (read more)
LEGO project enclosure: How does the expression go? “If it’s worth building, it’s worth building with LEGOs?” For sturdiness and customization, what could be better than designing your own enclosure using a LEGO construction set. If you argue that a LEGO case isn’t classy enough for you, I would argue that you are going to the wrong sort of parties. (read more)
MAKE covered a bunch of interesting project enclosures and included this tip: “Your fancy project box deserves better than a plain ol’ plastic wall-wart. Off-the-shelf, your options are black, white, and beige. Fortunately, we know somebody who’s been there, feels your pain, and wants to show you how to class up your power supply with a custom wooden shell and matching cord.” (read more)
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Hi! Thanks so much for all of your help. I got my package a couple Wednesdays ago (have been crazy busy ever since) and it made me so happy!!! Thanks for all of your help and you reassurance that all the logistics would work out in the end – Lorah
Looking for some great gifts that won’t break the bank? Here is some great electronics that all cost less than $20.
Drawdio Kit ($17.50) - Drawdio is an electronic pencil that lets you make music while you draw! It’s great project for beginners: An easy soldering kit with instant gratification. Essentially, it’s a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a fun toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper.
Programming Arduino by Simon Monk ($15.00) - Using clear, easy-to-follow examples, Programming Arduino: Getting Started with Sketches reveals the software side of Arduino and explains how to write well-crafted sketches using the modified C language of Arduino. No prior programming experience is required! The downloadable sample programs featured in the book can be used as-is or modified to suit your purposes.
Magnetic Project Mat ($12.95) - Repairs can be tough. You don’t need missing screws making it worse. iFixit designed this mat to make repairs easier. You won’t lose screws and won’t forget which screws go where. This project mat is magnetized to hold tight onto small screws, has a dry erase surface lets you keep notes and stops mistakes, it reduces reassembly time by up to 40% while preventing errors, and the magnetic surface is safe for hard drives, and other modern electronics.
SMT Blinky POV Kit ($15) – Learn how to solder SMT components with this great kit from Wayne & Layne. Wave messages and animations through the air with this persistance-of-vision toy. Reprogram custom messages or animations by holding it up to your screen! It has 8 LEDs, a beautiful Larson Scanner mode, and is a standalone, surface-mount kit.
The Deluxe LED Menorah Kit ($13.95) – This great little LED Menorah kit from Evil Mad Science Labs is an updated take on the traditional hanukkiyah, the nine-armed Hanukkah candelabrum. Two candles are lit on the first night of Hanukkah (one “real” candle plus the lighter candle, or shamash), three on the second night, right up to nine on the eighth night.
Blinky Laser Cut Holiday Tree Ornaments ($9.95) – These are basic easy-to-build electronics kits from Spikenzie Labs. Built around laser cut and etched acrylic the snowman or holiday tree really catch the light! Sized at about 3″ wide, by 5″ tall, the snowman or holiday tree is edge-lit by 10mm flashing green and red LEDs. Comes as a kit that is very easy to solder, CR2032 battery included. The PCB is a simple RC circuit. Two LEDs one 10mm green and one red LEDs flash in an alternating pattern. Helps understand some electronics fundamentals, and a lot of fun to solder. Click here for the holiday tree version.
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Welcome to our new weekly feature Time travel Tuesday #timetravel – It’s a look back at the Adafruit, maker, science, technology and engineering world. Each week we’ll pick what was happening in the world of making – from what Adafruit was up to 1,2,3,4,5+ years ago, to stories around the web of yesteryear, to historic moments in science and beyond. As new team members join Adafruit they’ll be working on this feature so they can see where we’ve all been, with an eye to where we are going. Don’t worry – We’ll avoid paradoxes and if our calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious… info
This week Ladyada & pt wind back the clock, let’s go BACK IN TIME – enjoy!
Thanks for your great support. My son’s Ice Tube Clock works really well. He and I are so psyched!!! Hopefully he’ll get up on time tomorrow! (of course he will, we tested the alarm )
What will we do with that lovely quote from Cicero with the arrival of eBooks, eReaders, and the decline of “dead tree” publishing: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” If you are like me, a bibliophile AND a technophile, then you line the walls of your home with bookshelves and stack eReaders everywhere at hand. Get books on every device, and take your room, with lots of soul, everywhere you go in the world! Here are some excellent books for the makers in your life — some books we stock at Adafruit as well as a bunch we don’t. Thanks to a number of folks from the Adafruit community for sending in their recommendations!
Books from Adafruit
Coloring book – “Ladyada’s E is for electronics”: Ladyada’s E is for Electronics is a coloring book adventure with electronic components and their inventors. Makers of all ages can learn, color, and share common parts and historical figures throughout history. Explore the world of electronics with Ladyada as your guide! Coloring book dimensions: 8.5in x 5.5in (read more)
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson: In Makers, Wired editor and bestselling author Chris Anderson reveals that a new industrial revolution is under way. Today’s entrepreneurs, using open-source design and 3-D printing, are employing micro-manufacturing techniques to create a tsunami of products in small batches, often customized for specific customers at higher margins. Every country, to remain economically strong, must make physical products if it doesn’t want to become a nation of burger flippers and checkout clerks. Yet in America and Europe, it has become harder and harder to sustain manufacturing as entire industries, from clothing to electronics, have shifted their factories to Asia and other low-cost regions. In the United States, manufacturing employment as a percentage of total working population is at a century-long low. (read more)
Encyclopedia of Electronic Components Volume 1 by Charles Platt: Want to know how to use an electronic component? This first book of a three-volume set includes key information on electronics parts for your projects—complete with photographs, schematics, and diagrams. You’ll learn what each one does, how it works, why it’s useful, and what variants exist. No matter how much you know about electronics, you’ll find fascinating details you’ve never come across before. (read more)
Getting Started with Arduino By Massimo Banzi – 2nd Edition: A maker classic, this valuable little book offers a thorough introduction to the open-source electronics prototyping platform that’s taking the design and hobbyist world by storm. Getting Started with Arduino gives you lots of ideas for Arduino projects and helps you get going on them right away. From getting organized to putting the final touches on your prototype, all the information you need is right in the book. (read more)
Programming the Raspberry Pi: Getting Started with Python: This is the book I’m currently reading. (And enjoying.) Program your own Raspberry Pi projects! Create innovative programs and fun games on your tiny yet powerful Raspberry Pi. In this book, electronics guru Simon Monk explains the basics of Raspberry Pi application development, while providing hands-on examples and ready-to-use scripts. See how to set up hardware and software, write and debug applications, create user-friendly interfaces, and control external electronics. Do-it-yourself projects include a hangman game, an LED clock, and a software-controlled roving robot. (Read me.)
Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson: While certainly best known for his fiction — from the “invention” (or at least crystallization of “cyberpunk”) Neuromancer (1984) to his excellent near future tales such as Pattern Recognition (2003) and Zero History (2010) — the heartbeat throbbing under his work has always been his canny observation of the world we live in — and his ability to trace trajectories for where technology and culture will tangle together in the future. This collection of essays from publications ranging from WIRED to New York Times demonstrate Gibson’s strength addressing the contemporary world. As he has said before: “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” (read more)
Six Books of Euclid by Werner Oechslin: And if you are hungry for more studies of geometry, this gorgeous 19th Century illustrated primer tells geometry the way is should be told — through images that clearly declare the relationships of elements and measures to each other. Recommended by Kate Milford. (read more)
The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross: Science Fiction heavyweights join together to tackle the “techological singularity” with a co-authored novel. From the review from Paul di Fillippo: “In this milestone novel, Stross and Doctorow have risen to the perpetual SF challenge of portraying a world utterly estranged from our present, yet still somehow our must-be-acknowledged illegitimate bad seed spawn. They’ve raised the bar for all who follow in their footsteps.” (read more)
The Broken Lands by Kate Milford: A Coney Island-based prequel to the excellent The Boneshaker (2010) clockwork-Americana fantasy novel that Cory Doctorow described as a magic, latter-day Bradburian novel for young adults, The Broken Lands again demonstrates Milford’s incredible dexterity rendering her world. Not limiting herself to the “stuff” of historical fiction — clothing, activities and architecture of 19th Century Coney Island and New York City — she draws directly from the technology, culture, ideas, and mythology of the time to truly transport the reader into a different world, the past. Recommended by me! (read more)
Daemon and its sequel Freedom™ might be fast-paced action technothrillers, but there is a reason many of the people recommending this book to me are those who spend their lives working on the code and infrastructure of the Internet. There are great ideas here: webdevs, coders, network hackers, and security exploit hobbyists tend to passionately love this series. As did I! Recommended by Whosawhatsis. (read more)
Not Books As Much As Ways to Find Them!
Singularity & Co: Science fiction, fantasy, and vintage pulp, rescued from the ash bin of publishing through the creation of new eBooks and seeking to compensate the authors and estates rather than the publishers that let them fall off their backlists. An interesting project — grab a subscription for a friend to offer them the fascinating grab bag of what they are saving each month! (read more)
Small Demons: Taking a very different approach to how to socially link people to the books that they might enjoy, Small Demons traffics in tracing out the real world as it appears in books — and creating tools for you to immediately see links to, say, an audio tape from American Psycho or the brand of cigarettes in a thriller. From their “About” page: “Small Demons is a Los Angeles based company that believes powerful and interesting things can happen when you connect all the details of books.” Here’s an awesome place to start — 248 books mentioning LEGOs, including Gibson’s Spook Country, Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, and Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad. (read more)
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
I am impressed: ordered on Saturday and delivered by the US Postal Service on Monday, 2000 miles. You earned your retail markup on this order, and the USPS earned their postage, too. Thanks, — rec –
Editor’s note: our reverse engineering gift guide was written by Fabienne Serrière, also known as fbz, an amazing reverse engineer and hardware hacker. Please give her a warm welcome and read on for a great list of reverse engineering goodies!
Reverse engineering brings out the best in all gadgets. Giving life to new machines is not a new art, drawing from centuries of reuse and unlocking of obfuscated mysteries. When learned, reverse engineering brings a useful skill set and bag of tricks for use in a post zombpocalypse world. Some of us like to use our power for the LULZ and the w00t of it all, others enjoy using their purchased or acquired hardware to its full potential.
With some cabling, some tools, much reading of protocols and manuals, some practice, and an eye for the finer details, you can make hardware and firmware do your bidding. Make the seasoned or budding reverse engineer in your life very happy this holiday season with this round-up of essentials and hot new hacking hardware.
logic analyzer – For reverse engineering digital signals, it’s great for logging multi-channel events
avr programmer – An open source USB AVR programmer that’s easy to use with avrdude. You can program almost any in-circuit serial programmable chip.
ftdi friend – This ftdi chip adapter simplifies the headache of interfacing with serial data.
notetaking device – AKA paper and a writing implement…remember that?
linux laptop – We like the lenovo x series thinkpad. It’s lightweight, robust and linux friendly.
breadboards – Wire up something new…This one is “full-sized” with 830 tie points. It works well with small and medium projects.
arduino – A classic…get your prototype running in no time at all
arduino proto shield – Great for soldering stuff quickly to get your project going…and it’s on sale!
solid core wire – A must…use it to patch up your reverse engineer projects.
leatherman juice cs4 – My favorite multitool, in my favorite blue of course. It’s gotten me out of a jam and into a device many times
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
When robotics enthusiasts aren’t busy creating humanoid robots destined to bring about the end of civilization and other sinister stuff, they are more frequently found tuning robots to breakdance, chase around lines drawn on the floor, participate in basketball challenges, perform simple tasks in dangerous (to humans) environments, create art, and other great stuff less frequently reported by Hollywood. In fact, with so much attention to this latter group of activities do they really have much time to work on their Skynet projects? Here is a collection of some of the great robotic-related gifts, components and kits, out there in the world from Adafruit and beyond!
Robotics Related Kits from Adafruit
Adafruit Motor/Stepper/Servo Shield for Arduino kit: I would be remiss not to share the classic Adafruit Motor Shield for Arduino, a place where many folks get their first taste for working with servos, steppers, and DC motors. Adafruit offers excellent training resources to help you get started with this kit in our Learning System. (read more)
OpenBeam Starter Kit – Silver Aluminum: Get cracking on your robot, fixture or gantry with this luxurious extruded aluminum starter kit. You get tons of stuff, so you won’t end up frustrated and missing a component. The pieces are also pre-cut so for many small projects you won’t even need to get out your hacksaw. All extrusions are 15mm by 15mm square. Also available in Black Aluminum! (read more)
Motor party add-on pack for Arduino: Once you get a taste for working with motors, you’ll start to hunt for the specific servos, steppers, and DC motors to solve each needed function. Here’s a grab bag of a bunch of the best ones to start with! (read more)
Hummingbird Robotics Kit: The Hummingbird robotics kit is a spin-off product of Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE lab. Hummingbird is designed to enable engineering and robotics activities for ages 10 and up that involve the making of robots, kinetic sculptures, and animatronics built out of a combination of kit parts and crafting materials. Combined with a cross-platform, very easy-to-use visual programming environment, Hummingbird provides a great way to introduce kids to robotics and engineering by using construction materials that they are already familiar with. (read more)
Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver – I2C interface – PCA9685: Or maybe you need…even more motors! You want to make a cool robot, maybe a hexapod walker, or maybe just a piece of art with a lot of moving parts. Or maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. Then you realize that your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs! What now? You could give up OR you could just get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout. When we saw this chip, we quickly realized what an excellent add-on this would be. Using only two pins, control 16 free-running PWM outputs! You can even chain up 62 breakouts to control up to 992 PWM outputs (which we would really like to see since it would be glorious). (read more)
“3 Laws of Robotics” poster: This glossy poster featuring ADABOT and Asimov’s three laws of robotics measures 18 x 24 inches. Comes packed in a cardboard tube for shipping. MADE IN THE USA! (read more)
Other Robotics Kits
RoboBrrd by RoboGrrl: If you haven’t been following the world of talented young robotics designer RoboGrrl over the years, now is a great chance to dive into one of her newest projects over at Indiegogo. From her project description: “RoboBrrd is a robotic bird character that has an entertaining personality! When you build a RoboBrrd, you get hands-on experience of mechanical and electrical engineering, programming, and add a dash of your own creativity. … RoboBrrd, the cutest educational robot around, and aims to get everyone interested in robotics!” (read more)
RoboPhilo, RoboPhilo JR, and Robocrawler from Robobrothers: RoboBrothers create a number of affordable robot kits including RoboPhilo, RoboPhilo JR, and RoboCrawler, as well as many accessories such as the Philo Gripper Kit that adds the clasping hands to the Philo. While these may appear more expense than electronics kit Makers are used to, compared to the thousands of dollars for a typical robotics system, these are remarkably capable for how affordable they are. Don’t be frightened by the rudimentary website — these folks are robot designers, not web designers. (read more)
Hexbug™ Spider Hacking Kit (no Solder) by eric gregori: Rather than a robot kit that you buy and put together, this is a set of instructions for how you strip down and transform the clever Hexbug Spider toy into a versatile robot! Here’s a link to the PDF for the Spider project — and when you have completed all of the instructions, the spider can perform tasks such as following lines. (read more)
Hexy the Hexapod from ArcBotics: ArcBotics’ Hexy the Hexapod is an inexpensive, fully-articulated hexapod robot kit. From the product description: “Hexy has six legs, 19 servo motors and is powered by Arduino, while maintaining a price 4-10x less expensive than current hexapod robots. It makes complex robotics lest costly, easier to learn with the full tutorials and documentation, while being radically more fun (and cute!). At the same time its built with completely open source hardware and software, making discovery and extension as easy as building it in the first place.” (read more)
Elly the Elephant, Geno the Giraffe, and Rory the Rino from Kinetic Creatures: While these cardboard creatures might not be the first thing you think of when you think “robot,” those interested in creating complex walker robots have a lot to learn from the simple elegance of these three Kinetic Creatures. And they are darned cute — able to turn the heads of even the most technophobic, and fascinate them with how the kinetic assembly can achieve such smooth, in-character strides. While you are at it, consider grabbing the Motor Kit for automated kinetic behaviors. (read more)
OLLO and BIOLOID STEM kits from Robotis: Robotis has a tremendous range of comprehensive educational robotics offerings starting with a number of OLLO kits for those getting started with robotics on to the BIOLOID Standard and STEM kits for students looking to take their serious study of science and robotics further. The tremendous diversity of lessons and projects available in each kit puts many LEGO construction sets to shame. And for those who become more passionate about their robotics investigations, they offer the more expensive BIOLOID PREMIUM series of kits that according to the serious robotics enthusiasts I emailed for ideas is perhaps the best all-around kit on the market! (read more)
LEGO Mindstorms® NXT 2.0 from LEGO: The newest version of the premium LEGO Mindstorm® robotics kits has a number of great new additions, keeping this set as always at the forefront of robotics teaching kits. From the product description: “LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT is back and better than ever, with new robot models, even more customizable programming, and all-new technology including a color sensor! LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 combines the unlimited versatility of the LEGO building system with an intelligent microcomputer brick and intuitive drag-and-drop programming software. The new 2.0 toolkit features everything you need to create your first robot in 30 minutes and then tens of thousands of other robotic inventions that do what you want!”
(read more)
Medium Tank from Rocket Brand Studios: these Robot kits from Christopher Robinson are extremely capable, affordable Arduino tread robots that will help beginner robotics enthusiasts recognize the contributions of the various elements of the kit as they learn to code behaviors and consider how to expand their robot. (read more)
Robotics Skill Badge!
Robotics! – Skill badge, iron-on patch: You make robotics! BLEEP BLOOP! Adafruit offers a fun and exciting “badges” of achievement for electronics, science and engineering. 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. (read more)
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Hey guys I just got my blue waterproof switch and I thank you so much for putting up with my perfectionist side. I greatly appreciate everything you have done for me. Thank you. Sincerely Sean
Photography: bringing people together since the 19th century.
Today’s gift guide is all about photography. In this guide, I’m going to present a few handy tools that I’ve found useful as a working photographer. Any of these would make a great gift for the photographer in your life (or yourself!). Before we get to that stuff, though, let’s talk about cameras. I would point out that a camera is an item I think everyone should choose for themselves, because it’s a tool of self-expression. However, there are some general rules to keep in mind whether you’re buying for yourself or somebody else. If you’re looking for technical specs or reviews, there are literally hundreds of websites — my personal favorite is dpreview. As far as finding the camera that’s right, though, it’s really all a matter of personal preference. I find it useful to consider the following:
1. How intuitive is it? Are the controls easy to understand (or easily learnable)? Does it feel comfortable to use? If it’s impossible to figure out how to change the focus point or turn the flash off within 30 seconds of picking it up, put the camera down and look at another one. This is probably the most important thing. The only way to take better pictures is with practice, and the learning feedback loop is considerably smoother if the photographer is not constantly fumbling with awkward controls.
2. How comfortable is it? Can you imagine someone carrying it around for an entire day?
3. How durable is it? Will it be tossed into a bag without a second thought, or gingerly returned to the case after each use? Think about how it will be treated, and choose accordingly.
That’s it. Battery life is important (though you should always buy and carry spares), but megapixels don’t matter very much — all modern digital cameras are capable of producing film-quality 8×10 prints. Unless it’s expected that larger prints will be required, 8 megapixels is plenty. Lower Mpix counts also tend to have lower noise, so when shooting a lot in available light without flash, it can actually be an advantage.
Now that we’ve gotten the camera advice out of the way, let’s move on to the gear!
A calibrated monitor is indispensable when it comes to editing photos. On their own, most monitors have a very strong blue-to-green color cast along with poor tone and color rendition. A monitor calibrator analyzes the output of the monitor against a fixed standard, generates a corrected profile, and gives this information to your video card, where it is applied to the output.
The corrected color and tone mean that things look more like they’re supposed to, whether it’s photos you’re editing, movies you are watching, or whatever. If you spend a lot of time in front of the screen, you’ll find a calibrated display is easier to look at, because the greys and whites of the windows actually look grey and white.
Be warned: the first few times you use a calibrated monitor, the greys and whites will look reddish, because you’re used to a blue-tinted display. But eventually, you’ll wonder how you ever got on without one.
For processing of RAW images, I use Adobe Lightroom. Now, to be fair, I have a PC, so I sorta have to use it. If I had a Mac (or a Hackintosh), I would seriously consider Aperture, because it’s an excellent program too. I used to use Photoshop to convert files from RAW, but since I started using Lightroom I find I do 90% of my work in half the time, and I only use PS for more involved editing and retouching. If I just have to color-correct, crop, and downsize, I can do all of that in LR. Lightroom 4 also features support for printing and tethered shooting (for certain cameras), and the ability to upload directly to Flickr, Picasa and other photo-hosting services.
I love these little guys — they’re the only lights I use now. Ladyada uses them too! They’re well made, reliable, not too expensive. Granted, there are less expensive generic monolights out there, but I’ve never found any of them to be as durable as the Bees. And the customer service from Paul C. Buff, the manufacturer, is excellent. I also like that they offer a full line of accessories which are equally well made.
Another point to consider is that it’s very easy to make your own modifiers. Unlike many light systems, which use a custom flange/bayonet for mounting things to the light, the Bees use a a simple spring clamp, which fits inside a 3.5″ circle. If you want to attach your own modifiers, just cut the appropriately-sized hole in them with a hole saw and clamp them on.
There are three models of the classic AlienbBees light: the B400, the B800, and the B1600. The only difference between them is light output. The 400 puts out plenty of light for shooting things like products on a table or headshots, but consider upgrading to a B800 or B1600 if you plan to do large group portraits or use a large softbox (softboxes absorb a LOT of light).
Manfrotto 055XB Tripod with Quick-release Ball Head ($232 – B&H Photo)
You can buy one good tripod for $230 and keep it for life, or you can buy a $99 tripod every 12 months when your old one breaks. Aside from providing a camera platform for self-portraits, a solid tripod is very useful for landscapes and cityscapes. It’s also absolutely critical for macro shooting, where shutter speeds are rather long and vibration can be a significant problem. Speaking of macro…
Dedicated Macro Lens ($300-900, depending on focal length and manufacturer)
For folks looking to take close-up photos to the next level, you should consider buying a dedicated macro lens. Most zoom-telephoto lenses have some macro capability, but it’s limited, and the quality is often less than ideal. Dedicated macro lenses are available for nearly all SLR brands, often in several different performance tiers and focal lengths. Nikon, for example, offers a 40mm macro for cropped sensor (DX) cameras ($276), a 60mm midrange ($550) and their top-of-the-line 105mm with vibration reduction ($900). Likewise, Canon offers a 60mm ($500) and two versions of their 100mm lens — the standard version ($600) and an L version ($900), as well as some specialty lenses. Macro lenses are optimized for performance at close focusing distances and larger magnifications, which means they tend to have greater resolving power. This translates to a much sharper lens in general use.
If you plan to take pictures of subjects like flowers, lenses in the 60mm range (or the Nikon 40mm) are a good choice because they have a wider field of view. They also tend to lighter and be more compact, which is nice if you’re walking around with them all day. The downside is that you have to get closer to small subjects in order to fill the frame, which can be uncomfortable and interfere with lighting (you + your camera block the light).
For subjects which are smaller or further away, the 100mm range is useful because it gives you a greater working distance between the camera and the subject — that is, you don’t have to be right on top of the subject to take a picture of it. These lenses are also wonderful as portrait lenses, due to their large aperture (f/2.8), which allows you to throw the background completely out of focus — many of them have image stabilization too.
A nice compromise between 60 and 100mm is the highly-regarded Tamron 90mm/2.8 ($500), which is available for Nikon, Canon, Sony/Minolta and Pentax cameras, and also has image stabilization.
A nice, lightweight back for day tripping and hiking. Enough room for three or four lenses, a speedlight, memory cards, and a pocket on top for all your other stuff. It also has a built-in ‘raincoat’ you can deploy to keep your gear nice and dry.
Dedicated Hard Drive for Photos (prices vary by size — numerous vendors)
It’s a wise idea to keep all personal photos on a dedicated hard drive, physically separate from your OS and applications. Store all originals and edits on this drive, and don’t use it for anything else. At least once a year, it’s a good idea to buy a new one, copy the most recent photos onto it, then remove and store the original in a secure place (like a safe or safe-deposit box at a bank). These are your original photos, so you should take care of them.
If you’re going the safe deposit box route, consider buying a smaller 2.5″ laptop harddrive, which takes up less space. Remember that this drive is only used for storing and loading photos, and not for constant use, so you can get away with a 5400RPM model and/or a 16MB cache.
Great for shooting small stuff on a tabletop, and particularly useful for shooting video. The reflectors can be used to bounce light back into a scene and to provide fill light. You can use the disc without a reflective covering as a diffuser, or use it with a cover to cast a shadow. You can also mount a speedlight on the boom arm to put a light source in an otherwise difficult spot, or use the clips to mount a small acrylic mirror, for a focused fill effect.
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Gobble Gobble day is this week, which means the hotly anticipated (by us!) and dreaded (by you!) holiday shopping season is beginning. Luckily for you we’re making it easier this year with our 2012 Adafruit Gift Guide series. Each day until Christmas we’ll roll out a different theme, everything from wearable electronics to Arduino shields, from 3D printers to photography to gift certificates from sites Adafruit likes!
Here are a few of my favorite Arduino Shields. If you are building a wish list, or are looking for a good gift for an Arduino fan, you can’t go wrong with these.
Adafruit 1.8″ 18-bit Color TFT Shield w/microSD and Joystick - This lovely little shield is the best way to add a small, colorful and bright display to any project. We took our popular 1.8″ TFT breakout board and remixed it into an Arduino shield complete with microSD card slot and a 5-way joystick navigation switch (with a nice plastic knob)! Since the display uses only 4 pins to communicate and has its own pixel-addressable frame buffer, it can be used easily to add a display & interface without exhausting the memory or pins.
Wayne & Layne’s Video Game Shield Kit – The Video Game Shield is an Arduino add-on shield to make your own video games, including graphics, text, sound effects, and music! Using the power of open source, this Shield includes everything you need to make awesome black-and-white video games on your TV. It supports up to two Nintendo Wii Nunchuck controllers for an easy and familiar interface.
Arduino WiFi Shield – The Arduino WiFi Shield connects your Arduino to the internet wirelessly. Connect it to your wireless network by following a few simple instructions and start controlling your world through the internet. As always with Arduino, every element of the platform – hardware, software and documentation – is freely available and open-source. This means you can learn exactly how it’s made and use its design as the starting point for your own circuits.
Adafruit PN532 NFC/RFID Controller Shield for Arduino + Extras – We’ve taken our popular Adafruit PN532 breakout board and turned it into a shield – the perfect tool for any 13.56MHz RFID or NFC application. The Adafruit NFC shield uses the PN532 chip-set (the most popular NFC chip on the market) and is what is embedded in pretty much every phone or device that does NFC. It can pretty much do it all, such as read and write to tags and cards, communicate with phones (say for payment processing), and ‘act’ like a NFC tag. If you want to do any sort of embedded NFC work, this is the chip you’ll want to use!
RGB LCD Shield Kit w/ 16×2 Character Display – Only 2 pins used! – This new Adafruit shield makes it easy to use a 16×2 Character LCD. We really like both the RGB positive and RGB negative LCDs that we stock in the shop. Unfortunately, these LCDs do 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!
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
You need a hail and hearty “Well Done”, you have gone well beyond the call of duty.
I appreciate your prompt response and that you maintained your cool and professional manner in spite of several opportunities to do otherwise. You have done well.
If you are not already the “Czar of Adafruit Support” you should be at least be anointed the “Prince of Professionalism”.
Keep up the good work. Thanks for all of the help.
To date, designer PrettySmallThings might have received more attention for her scale models, but her 3D printed purses (check out this great chainmail clutch!) are also quite inspired both as objects and as design solutions!
Another design in my pursuit of 3d printed purses – though this one serves equally well as a pencil case.
It’s a quick print, a sleek design, and functional to boot. The zip top closure makes a satisfying zippy noise, and holds everything closed nicely. Kudos to gabielfp’s awesome roll top box and emmett’s bracelet that served as my inspiration.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has thrilled us at Adafruit with its passion and dedication to making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed that our community integrating electronics projects into 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you take 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 EL Wire and LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you have a cool project you’ve made that joins the traditions of 3D printing and electronics, be sure to send it in to be featured here!
I am a retired Family Doctor age 68 and enjoying electronics for the first time since I was a teenager. Having bought a few items now from your company I wanted to pass on my gratitude for a fantastic company and web site. I have learned and am learning more electronics from going through your tutorials than any other way. Arduino is great but going through your tutorials has made it way better. What is unique about your store is the fact that whatever I buy from you has a great web page usually with code or instructions to benefit from the item to its full extent. That is why I will continue purchasing through your site. It is easy to but cheap bits of electronics but unless the use is fully understood it is a wasted purchase. I must admit to even getting the information on some items purchased elsewhere, but that kind of sharing that you do just brings back the customer anyway so it works regardless. Thanks again and keep up the good work Limor and gang.
your website has too much useful information available, i’m having trouble going through it all. i’ll never have time to work on all the projects that i have in mind. please keep up the great work!! awesome products too!
Adafruit, I like what you’re doing with the Raspberry Pi. The Arduino has been a great start for a lot of people, but it’s a very limited experience. For those who want to move along to the next level, the Pi represents a great stepping stone. It still has a lot of simplicity and accessibility to lowest level hardware, like the Arduino, but it has the sophistication and power to do a lot more interesting things, and it costs about the same.
So, great pick, and I look forward to you guys developing a whole lot of things that work in conjunction with the Pi.
Just wanted to shout out to the awesome folks at Adafruit. I bought a few Mintyboost kits, one for me and
one to go through with a friend to teach him soldering. Well I put mine together and sure enough it wasn’t working.
I went back and bridged D- and D+ (I have an iPhone4) and I kept getting the “Not compatible” message. I rechecked
everything and even pulled out the camera and took photos, thinking I would have to post for help. Well after reading
ALL of the “read before posting” I finally double checked the new batteries. They were only putting out 1.3 V. Swapped
fresh batteries and it totally works now. I haven’t rechecked the voltages now that it’s working but I was getting 3.1 V out of
D-D+ and 5V. I should be 2V correct? Anyway, thanks for what is possibly the best customer service in any industry.
I wanted to let you know my robotics club was impressed how how quickly you were able to help me remove the item from my order. In the future I’ll check your site first for my parts. Thanks again!
David
Printable catalog (PDF) or (EPUB)
all thanks to your tutorials. I plan on getting this arduino air born someday. Wish me luck!
photo by Travis Goodspeed
A calibrated monitor is indispensable when it comes to editing photos. On their own, most monitors have a very strong blue-to-green color cast along with poor tone and color rendition. A monitor calibrator analyzes the output of the monitor against a fixed standard, generates a corrected profile, and gives this information to your video card, where it is applied to the output.
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