Over the past couple of weeks, Adafruit staffers Tony Sherwood and I carved out some of our free time to put together a “A Red Bull Creation 2013 Qualifier Entry” working from the fun LED strips and “turbull encabulator” shield the Red Bull Creation team had sent us to play around with.

Our goal from early on was to create something cute and actually engaging to play with that we could eventually give back to the Adafruit community. We seized on the idea of an RGB color picker, the “Koloric Konfabulator” and then featured “Ladyada’s E is for Electronics” — Adafruit awesome Creative Commons coloring book — as the material for participants to color. Check out our video showing how it works!

Koloric Konfabulator by The Difference Engines

• created by tony sherwood and matt griffin
• special thanks to michael curry, peter yee, leia & alex, risa, and adafruit
• knob design by michael curry
• music by bartlebeats

To learn more about ladyada’s “e is for electronics” coloring book, shared under Creative Commons, visit here: http://adafruit.com/coloringbook

Read more.

Featured Adafruit Project!

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! (read more)

How to Get Started with DIY Electronics Projects.

We feature a lot of different DIY electronics projects on Lifehacker, but the barrier for entry might seem high at a glance. However, it’s not nearly as difficult as it looks. Here’s how to get started.

Features our coloring book!

On Saturday, I dropped off some supplies at a Hurricane Sandy shelter at Rutgers University. Included among the items were 20 of the Adafruit coloring books, each bundled in a bag, along with a pack of crayons (above). Phil (pt) was kind enough to overnight the coloring books to me, so that I could include them in my care package. It felt really great to do something to help out my New Jersey neighbors, many of whom are still without power or access to their homes, and in some cases have lost everything.

I’d like to encourage you to donate as well, either with your time or with funds. The Newark Star Ledger has put together a list of ways to donate to help victims of Sandy here in NJ. There’s also a list of local organizations in the Trenton/Philadelphia area who are helping out. You can also check out the Sandy charity list at Charity Navigator.

Finally, I’d like to give many thanks to all the people around the world who have already given their support! Thank you on behalf of the Garden State!

Most of us on the East Coast are hunkering down for the next few days as Hurricane Sandy runs it’s course. If you have little kids, it can be tough to keep them occupied with rainy day activities. If you’re looking for something to add to your rainy day list, be sure to check out our “E is for Electronics” coloring book.

The book is available for purchase in the shop, and also available as a free download.

Print out a copy today and beat the rainy day blues!

Quickly following the French translation, Ladyada’s “E is for Electronics” Coloring Book has been translated into Spanish!

Limor “Ladyada” Fried y su empresa Adafruit son uno de nuestros principales referentes (y de gran parte del planeta) en el ámbito de la electrónica y el hardware libre. Su apuesta por los dispositivos de código abierto y la difusión de contenidos bajo licencias libres son un espejo en el que nos gustaría poder llegar a vernos reflejados algún día.

Entre toda esa ingente cantidad de material y documentación que vuelcan a la red semanalmente, nos ha llamado especialmente la atención “Ladyada’s E is for Electronics”, un estupendo libro de colorear que permite a públicos de todas las edades iniciarse en el ámbito de la electrónica de la forma más agradable y pedagógica posible.

Este libro de colorear ha sido publicado bajo licencia Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. La misma que utilizamos para Tutomics. Somos muy conscientes de que el mejor método educativo es predicar con el ejemplo y hemos decidido traducir los contenidos de este libro al Español para universalizarlo un poco más (ver la versión francesa en bzhlab.wikidot.com/coloriageelec), haciendo un guiño a tod*s aquell*s que nos habéis apoyado durante esta primera ronda.

Inmediatamente, después de escribir este post vamos a enviar la traducción a las oficinas de Adafruit en Nueva York para que puedan maquetar los textos y publicarlos en formato PDF. ¡Quién sabe! Puede que incluso podamos disponer en breve de la edición impresa en español de este libro.

This is why we do open source, folks. =] Ladyada’s “E is for Electronics” French translation via @hugobiwan

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!

Here’s an excerpt:

“A diode lets electrons flow in only one direction. It works like a switch: when current is flowing one way, the switch is on, but when current tries to flow the other way, the switch turns off. Sir John Ambrose Fleming is best known for inventing the diode, originally called the kenotron.”

Coloring book dimensions: 8.5in x 5.5in

MADE IN THE USA! 

4 year old reading from “Ladyada’s E is for Electronics” coloring book (video)… Tom (her Dad) writes in…

[Here is] My daughter, who is 4.5 years old, wanted to read from the coloring book as a way to say thank you! You may not always know it but this sort of thing will stay with her forever. Thank you!

Turn up the volume, it’s not only super-cute, it’s the future, it’s inspiring.

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!

Here’s an excerpt:

“A diode lets electrons flow in only one direction. It works like a switch: when current is flowing one way, the switch is on, but when current tries to flow the other way, the switch turns off. Sir John Ambrose Fleming is best known for inventing the diode, originally called the kenotron.”

Coloring book dimensions: 8.5in x 5.5in

MADE IN THE USA!

This is the first ever open-source electronics coloring book! Adafruit’s coloring books are manufactured in the USA by a family owned and operated business, we use non-toxic soy based, water soluble and environmentally friendly printing supplies. The equipment used is solar powered! Adafruit knows you have a lot of choices as to where you spend your money and time, we hope our open-source values, commitment to green technologies and partners in the USA helps make the decision easier and fun! Crayons not included.

Read more.

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!

Here’s an excerpt:

“A diode lets electrons flow in only one direction. It works like a switch: when current is flowing one way, the switch is on, but when current tries to flow the other way, the switch turns off. Sir John Ambrose Fleming is best known for inventing the diode, originally called the kenotron.”

Coloring book dimensions: 8.5in x 5.5in

MADE IN THE USA!

This is the first ever open-source electronics coloring book! Adafruit’s coloring books are manufactured in the USA by a family owned and operated business, we use non-toxic soy based, water soluble and environmentally friendly printing supplies. The equipment used is solar powered! Adafruit knows you have a lot of choices as to where you spend your money and time, we hope our open-source values, commitment to green technologies and partners in the USA helps make the decision easier and fun! Crayons not included.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!

Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!

Limor,
 
My 9yr old son, is having fun coloring in your new “E is for Electronics” book today. It is so GREAT what you all do at Adafruit for all skill levels in electronics but especially beginners. Now with this coloring book it helps engage children of all ages. Thanks SO MUCH!
 
Alex says, “I like the coloring book and it was fun to color and learn about batteries and breadboards.” Alex would be very exited to see his work on Adafruit. He really liked the description for ground in a circuit being like measuring how tall  you are from your feet on the ground to the top of your head. That really made it easy for Alex to understand the term “ground” in electronics.

I included the ground page if  you want to post it too. He sure is having fun with this coloring book. Thanks for making this book!

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!

Here’s an excerpt:

“A diode lets electrons flow in only one direction. It works like a switch: when current is flowing one way, the switch is on, but when current tries to flow the other way, the switch turns off. Sir John Ambrose Fleming is best known for inventing the diode, originally called the kenotron.”

Coloring book dimensions: 8.5in x 5.5in

MADE IN THE USA!

Crayons not included.

In stock and shipping now.

My daughter getting to work on her @adafruit E is for Electronics coloring book. twitter.com/johnedgarpark/…

— John Edgar Park (@johnedgarpark) October 10, 2012

“E is for Electronics” coloring book making the rounds…

We sent Dave a preview copy of “Ladyada’s E is for Electronics” coloring book -

Awesome book and a very big hit in this house with both my 5yr old & 7yr old. Wish I recorded all 4 of them fighting over which color crayon is the closest to Lady Ada’s hair. A very big thank you from me & the kids for sharing this with us early and a special thank you from my youngest as she recognized the Adafruit logo and said “Daddy can you tell Adafruit thank you for me”… attached a picture of my 3rd youngest showing off her enjoyment with the book.

L, M and O added to the work-in-progress page for our “Ladyada’s e is for electronics” coloring book! Pictured above, L for LED, M for mosfet and multimeter and O for Ohm!

Updates to “Ladyada’s E is for Electronics” A to Z of Electronics coloring book! J, G, H and J inked up!

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.

A for Ampere – preview of the open source electronics coloring book, Ladyada’s E is for electronics! We’ll post more images and information soon, we’re exciting that this project is moving along again! We hope to have it out by the holidays.

Here’s the list of letters and words!

a – amperes
b – battery / breadboard
c – capacitor
d – diode
e – electronics
f – fpga/frequency/fet
g – ground
h – hertz
i – current/infrared/inductor
j – joule
k – kelvin
l – led
m – motor/microcontroller/multimeter/mos/mosfet the cat
n – noise/npn
o – ohm/oscilloscope/opamp
p – potentiometer/pcb
q – quartz / quantum field effect transistor
r – resistor/relay
s – switch/silcon/soldering iron
t – transistor
u – ultraviolet/usb/uart
v – voltage
w – wire/watt
x – xtal
y – yagi antenna
z – zener