#electronicsmaker

[adafruit]

Festival of Lights… A 'USB Stick' Sparkle Motion WLED driver ✨💡🔌🌟

To wrap up this year, we're doing 8 days (maybe!) of light-filled designs. We started with the Sparkle Motion Mini

which can drive thousands of shimmering RGB LEDs. Next, we were going through some of our NeoPixel samples today and found some "LED Christmas light kit" with star LEDs, its basically these stars

with a little USB plug that has IR, a crummy mic, a tactile switch to cycle modes manually, and a tiny microcontroller that turns the LED selections to different patterns - kinda like this:

The idea is cute - but the implementation could be improved with a lil sparkle motion

! we made a PCB that would fit into the same plastic enclosure but with an ESP32 instead. it's got an IR receiver, ICS-43434 I2S digital microphone

https://www.digikey.com/short/mmv3tthz

gpio 0 button in the 'right' place, 5V 2A fuse, USB-serial converter for uploading/debugging, and two level-shifted outputs. We can probably get the case in quantity or have this be a 'DIY replacement' that folks can use to make their existing setups WLED/xLights friendly.

[adafruit]

PCM510x MCLK-less I2S DAC with line level out 🎧💻

We're starting to stock a lot of chips that are able to do digital I2S out, which makes for great-quality audio playback. That's great when you have enough processing power to decode WAVs or MP3s in real-time. However, we could really use some better DACs in the shop. We like the UDA1334A

..., but that's technically discontinued - it's great because it doesn't require an MCLK that some boards like the Raspberry Pi don't have and doesn't need I2C configuration either. The PCM510x is a good family, too; it ranges from the inexpensive PCM5100 (https://www.digikey.com/short/z50cnp0h) to the PCM5102 (https://www.digikey.com/short/80z2nh3h) which has high quality output at a higher cost. This breakout could use any of the family chips & gives you all the GPIO needed with a 3.5mm headphone jack for line-level output.

[adafruit]

🚨 New This Week at Adafruit! 🚨

🌟 Adafruit INA3221 - Triple 0-26VDC, ±3.2A Power Monitor - STEMMA QT / Qwiic 💼 Engineer Professional Silicone-Tip Solder Sucker ⚡️ USB Type C PD to 5.5mm/2.1mm Barrel Jack Adapter - 20V 🔌 USB C to USB C Cable w/ 100W Watt Display - 2m Black Woven

Shop now! 🛒 https://adafruit.com

[adafruit]

Festival of Lights - Night #4 1.8" Round TFT with Captouch ✨💡📲👈🎨

To wrap up this year, we're doing 8 days of light-filled designs. We started with the Sparkle Motion Mini

which can drive thousands of shimmering RGB LEDs. Then, we did the Sparkle Motion stick, a USB-pluggable version

. On the third night, a 1.28" round TFT display

. Today, we're doing another TFT display, this time a 360x360 pixel IPS TFT that is also round and comes with a captouch display. we're going with SMT headers for breadboard-friendly usage and EYESPI for a compact connection. since we think folks may want a compact mounting solution, we put some SMT nuts on the back so the display PCB is perfectly round.

[adafruit]

WE ARE LIVE! Desk of Ladyada - Simple Storage, Scope Stack, + Super Silent Steppers

Updates include CircuitPython goals for next year (video coming soon) and workspace upgrades. IKEA ALEX drawers replaced Gridfinity for storage, and a new scope cart was added. Progress on the silent Trinamic TMC2209 breakout and Metro RP2350.

[adafruit]

Desk of Ladyada - Sample Sunday and Solar Soft-Start 🔋🔧🪛 https://youtu.be/3Tz-R3F3EYU

Prototypes are in! Tested our USB/Solar/DC to 5V booster—note: loads 200mA need a workaround, but it’s a win for the price. Also tested cables & a spinning motor for holiday vibes! SOIC debugging clips—perfect for 0.3" SOICs on Metro RP2350 boards!

[adafruit]

A level shifter just for pixels 🔌✨💡

After noodling with some WS2811s and TM1814, we really wish we had a board that would level-shift our NeoPixel signals from 3V to 5V or give us an inverted data line. So, we designed this board. It uses an AP3602

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/diodes-incorporated/AP3602AKTR-G1/5305823

charge pump to give a clean 5V reference voltage from 3~5V. A 74HCT2G34

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nexperia-usa-inc/74HCT2G34GW-125/1300830

shifts two signals - we call them DAT and CLK, but it could be anything really - to 5V from 1.8~5V. Finally there's an 74LVC1G04

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/SN74LVC1G04DBVR/385716

inverted data output line for TM1814 and other weird chips. Terminal blocks on either side make this a no-solder board. There's also a single disableable 1.5mm NeoPixel on the DAT line for testing the WS281x signal coming through OK. Coming soon.

[adafruit]

RGBW cafe lights with TM1814 chips 🌈💡✨

More! We got a set of weatherproof cafe lights with RGBW LEDs for a 'pure' white color light. However, they don't use the WS281x chipset for the control signal. Instead, it's TM1814, which is kind of similar but has a few key differences. One is you have to send an 8-byte 'global brightness' setting to start, and then you have to continuously send a signal over every 400ms, and to top it off, the signal is inverted! After some PIO twiddling, we did get them working pretty nicely with an RP2040

Make us think - we should craft a NeoPixel signal shifter board with an optional inverted output! Coming soon!