Hi everybody! This is Mike Stone. Please feel free to call me Mike in the forums.
I’m a geek of diverse history: I trained as a draftsman just before CAD made that trade obsolete, learned CAD, then became a computer programmer, actor, dancer, street mime, and stagehand, with occasional gigs working in machine shops. I’ve run industrial CNC machinery, written back-end software for web-based businesses, run spotlights for KISS and Les Miserables, run roller coasters, and robbed trains.
On the electronics side, I think microcontrollers are way cool, but my true love is for analog circuits. It’s an area where individual Makers have significant advantages over corporations that crank products out by the thousand. Closely related to that is my fascination with construction techniques. It’s amazing how many options are available when you stop thinking fully-routed PCBs are the ‘right’ way to do it.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
