Interested in making neat stuff with an Arduino but not sure where to start? This kit includes all the pieces needed to complete 11 different circuits, along with a experimenter’s guide booklet & breadboard layout sheets. Basically everything you need to be playing within minutes of its arrival. No soldering required!
The Adafruit “midnight hacker” is a Leatherman Squirt ES4 and a very handy, unique key-chain size multi-tool. The E4 sets you up with 20GA, 18GA, 16GA, 14GA and 12GA wire strippers and electrical wire cutters to handle all kinds of precise jobs. The gripping edges on the ES4’s spring-action pliers help you get a firm grasp on fuses, small cables, and many hard-to-reach items.
Tools:
420HC Clip Point Knife
Spring-action Needlenose Pliers
Medium Screwdriver
Flat/Phillips Screwdriver
Wood/Metal File
Wire Cutters
Wire Strippers: 20GA, 18GA, 16GA, 14GA, and 12GA
Scissors
Bottle Opener
Features:
Etched with our laser, says “midnight hacker”
Stainless Steel with Anodized Aluminum Handle Scales
Stainless Steel Body
Outside-accessible Tools
Key Ring Attachment
Available color: Black, dark, cold – like our heart
For the Duel nature sculpure, I wanted to have a ‘breathing’ pattern where all the LEDs vary in brightness in a natural/organic way. A good example is the ’sleep indicator’ LED on recent Macs/Powerbooks. (There’s even a patent!) The problem is that, while the patent claims its a simple sinusoid (see the patent for the image), programming in a sinusoid doesn’t look nearly as good. So I decided to get the real waveform with a kludgy reverse engineering attempt:
I used a MIDIsense instead of a simple voltage divider because I want to extract the absolute LED brightness pattern and a photocell voltage divider acts ‘inversely’ (well, 1/R) instead of linearly (ie, just R). (The MIDIsense has an opamp to linearize the resistive sensor output)
There it is! There is a bit of ‘noise’ on the peaks because I’m picking up some of the PWM artifacts through the diffused white plastic.
We were searching for some 3.3K 1/8W resistors for our MintyBoosts and noticed something NEW! SORT BY PRICE. This is the latest gauntlet thrown in MOUSER Vs. DIGIKEY WAR FOR DIODE DISTRIBUTION DOMINATION. This day will be forever remembered by all 8-20-2010, the day we got sort. This is massive and game changing, the biggest news in the world, ever.
NEW PRODUCT – Thermocouple Type-K Glass Braid Insulated – K. Thermocouples are best used for measuring temperatures that can go above 100 degC. This is a bare wires bead-probe which can measure air or surface temperatures. Most inexpensive thermocouples have a vinyl covering which can melt at around 200 degC, this one uses a fiberglass braid so it can be used in high temperature measurements such as heaters and ovens.
NEW PRODUCT -Thermocouple Amplifier (MAX6675) breakout board. Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference. The MAX6675 does everything for you, and can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller, even one without an analog input. This breakout board has the chip and bypass capacitor assembled and tested. Comes with a 2 pin terminal block (for connecting to the thermocouple) and pin header (to plug into any breadboard or perfboard). Goes great with our 1m K-type thermocouple.
Works with any K type thermocouple
0 to 1024 degree C output in 0.25 degree increments
The Power Switch Tail is a smart alternative to slicing apart power cords to wire up your own relays. Its a compact 120V 3-pronged extension cord, with a relay board embedded in the middle. Connect to the relay using two screw terminals and activate by providing a 5V signal (40mA current draw). The relay can switch 10 Amp resistive loads such as heaters, small skillets, lights, etc. An LED indicator above the terminals will help you with debugging.
Ideal for people making their own controllable lights, SMT reflow plates, boilers or heaters, coffee roasters, home automation projects, etc. We even include a NPN transistor and 10K resistor so you can control the relay with a single microcontroller pin, as most cannot provide 40mA.
Please note, this is a safer alternative to wiring up your own relays but still requires common sense and knowledge of electrical circuits. Stay within the rated limit of the relay and use only resistive loads. Do not leave DIY electrical projects unattended or where they can get wet! This product is intended to be used by advanced hobbyists who are comfortable working with power supplies.
Looking to learn the basics of electricity in a fun way? Manga Guide to Electricity by Kazuhiro Fujitaki. Now in stock in the Adafruit store and shipping immediately!
Rereko is just your average high-school girl from Electopia, the land of electricity, but she’s totally failed her final electricity exam! Now she has to go to summer school on Earth. And this time, she has to pass. Luckily, her ever-patient tutor Hikaru is there to help. Join them in the pages of The Manga Guide to Electricity as Rereko examines everyday electrical devices like flashlights, heaters, and circuit breakers, and learns the meaning of abstract concepts like voltage, potential, current, resistance, conductivity, and electrostatic force.
The real-world examples that you’ll find in The Manga Guide to Electricity will teach you:
What electricity is, how it works, how it’s created, and how it can be used
The relationship between voltage, current, and resistance (Ohm’s law)
Key electrical concepts like inductance and capacitance
How complicated components like transformers, semiconductors, diodes, and transistors work
How electricity produces heat and the relationship between current and magnetic fields
If thinking about how electricity works really fries your brain, let The Manga Guide to Electricity teach you all things electrical in a shockingly fun way.
About the Author
Kazuhiro Fujitaki is a lecturer at the Tokyo Metropolitan Vocational Skills Development Center. He has written a number of books on electrical engineering and runs a website offering useful information about Japan’s qualifying examinations for electrical technicians.
Premium Female/Female Jumper Wires – 25 x 6ID: 266 – $6.00 Handy for making wire harnesses or jumpering between headers on PCB’s. These premium jumper wires are a little over 6″ (150mm) long and come in a 25 pack of 5 colors – Red, Yellow, White, Blue and Black. They have 0.1″ sockets on either end and fit cleanly next to each other on standard-pitch 0.1″ (2.54mm) header. You get 25 for $6 *this* is one of the best deals online!
In stock and shipping immediately from the Adafruit store!
Theo Kamecke was for many years a film maker of award-winning documentaries whose subjects ranged from astronauts to coal miners, rodeo cowboys to nuclear scientists. He was in mission control during the first moonwalk and has been attacked by wasps in the heart of the Amazon. In the course of making films he often encountered physical objects and materials which fascinated him and usually managed to bring some back from his travels, with no particular purpose in mind. While perusing some stacks of electronic circuit boards one day, that changed, and the purpose was found.
He saw in the graphic patterns of electronic circuitry with their endless variety the same beauty we perceive in seashells, in crystals, in the grain of wood or even in the tree itself. All these are, after all, forms derived from function, so if we find beauty in them it is not because they were designed to please the eye. He saw that the aesthetic qualities of the circuitry graphics could, like hieroglyphs, be resolved into an inscrutable language or like colors, into a palette of mood.
And so in this spirit-treating a “manmade” electronic circuit as simply a newly evolved form of nature, Kamecke began creating sculpture surfaced with the graphics of circuitry, and he uses the traditional techniques of marquetry which in another century might have been employed with fine veneers. Though the material itself is the essence of hi-tech, the created works deliberately make no reference to that, hinting instead at ancient or familiar human cultures and at the feelings which separate us from the machine.
The sculptures of this series have been created from actual electronic circuitry (metal laminated to permanently dyed epoxy-fiberglass) applied in traditional marquetry technique to hardwood forms, with exquisite craftsmanship. They have the appearance of metal over polished black stone.
There is a Gadget Freak Design Contest at MAKE – we think many of our readers and customers could easily win this!
Can you build a cool gadget that you think you could sell?
Check out the MAKE/Design News Gadget Freak Design Contest, Sponsored by Alibre, Allied Electronics, and Texas Instruments. Create a gadget and document your build. Important: Your gadget must incorporate electronic components and involve sensing, motion, timing and/or networking elements). The Contest winner gets $1000 and a chance to sell their gadget in kit form in the Makers Market (with setup and monthly fees waived for 6 months).
How to Enter
To enter in the Gadget Freak Design Contest, click on the “Enter Here” link below. You will be asked to include a project description/build instructions/bill of materials and visual documentation of your gadget. Please note that video is not required but strongly recommended. Be sure to add your project photos to the contest Flickr group so you can share your awesome ideas with the world.
Amazing Prizes!
Grand Prize (1 Winner) – $1,000 in the form of a pre-paid credit card + A storefront in the Makers Market*
Second Prize (1 Winner) – $500 in the form of a pre-paid credit card.
Third Prize (2 Winners) – $100 Maker Shed Gift Certificate
The entire schedule for The Next HOPE has been finalized and is now viewable online in either grid or summary mode. We have three scheduled tracks and one unscheduled one which will result in well over 100 hour long presentations. We had more submissions this year than ever before and also more preregistrants so this looks like the biggest HOPE in history. It’s not too late to take advantage of preregistration before it closes within the next week or two.
By popular request – Adafruit now has a catalog – a printable PDF. We automagically generate it each time we have new products and also each month. It’s linked on every single page at the bottom of the left side navigation & product list – download / view it / print it / share it – Printable catalog (PDF).
Make: television is up for an Emmy award and the winners will be announced tonight! We’re up against Martha Stewart, This Old House, and two Style network shows. Wish us luck! Producer Richard Hudson, Make: publisher Dale Dougherty, myself and my wife Erin will be attending. I’ve got a tux and everything! I’ll be tweeting @johnedgarpark and try to get some photos.
Printable catalog (PDF)
I used a MIDIsense instead of a simple voltage divider because I want to extract the absolute LED brightness pattern and a photocell voltage divider acts ‘inversely’ (well, 1/R) instead of linearly (ie, just R). (The MIDIsense has an opamp to linearize the resistive sensor output)
