Build your own plug-and-play IoT weather station at home using the Pico W!
Power up your low voltage development board directly with this solar panel.
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This is going to be easier than you thought (or at least much easier than I thought)! Today we will create a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B UPS PiJuice System that will be completely powered by a Solar Panel. It's coming up to winter over here so I...
This Weather Station with Arduino was designed for the South Australia Catholic Education STEM Weather Station Challenge. We were lucky enough to be asked to build one of the basic kits provided to schools across South Australia for entry i...
Every day, Solar energy bombards Earth with about 173,000 terawatts of power. That's close to the yearly electricity bill for Planet Earth. Solar energy is free power from the stars. So the question stands, why aren't we using it more? Pric...
Video gaming has evolved tremendously over the last decade, console games produce near real-life graphics, and playing with friends across the globe is easier than sending a text message. This is all well and good, but there are those of us...
Say you want to build a sun-tracking solar panel. You could add a tiny computer, like an Arduino, to control it. That might be all you need. But what if you need to connect to it to control it from somewhere else? Connecting it into your ho...
If you want a high-end robotics platform that is easy to expand with it does not get better than goBILDA! GoBILDA is a complete build system designed for makers, students, and educators. From curated kits, to many structural alum...
Feel restricted by your connectivity? Want to send data from a remote node 10km away from civilization? Or ~3km when you are in a built-up civilization. Feel the urge for Liberation? Then I have the solution for you! Using only hardware bu...
The Infinity Mirror Kit is a desk-top display that creates a dazzling optical illusion - a tunnel of light that tears through space! Note: This tutorial is for the Infinity Kit V1. We updated have updated to the Infinity Kit V2 as of ...
A soldering station is a multipurpose power soldering device designed for electronic components soldering and they find homes on any modern makers desk. They also are widely used in electronics repair workshops, electronic laboratories, in ...
The Slim Case for the Raspberry Pi 3A+ provides protection for your Raspberry Pi without adding unnecessary bulk. Best of all it keeps everything sleek and tidy without hiding the board itself. The Slim Case was designed and manufactur...
The Slim Case for the Raspberry Pi 3B+ provides protection for your Raspberry Pi without adding unnecessary bulk. Best of all it keeps everything sleek and tidy without hiding the board itself. The Slim Case was designed and manufactur...
The Slim Case for the Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W and Zero WH provides protection for your Raspberry Pi without adding unnecessary bulk. Best of all it keeps everything sleek and tidy without hiding the board itself. The Slim Case was de...
We had a lot of fun making this speed build video for the Paris Flyer CarouSol Kit by Solarbotics. If you aren't already familiar, Solarbotics makes a great line of DIY electronics kits made from laser cut materials. They range from quite s...
Now that we've taken a look at MakeBlock's beginner kit, the mBot (take a look at the previous article here), let's take our skills to the next level with the Ranger. The Ranger adds much more modularity and customisation to the kit. From e...
The aptly named Ultimate Kit 2.0 is the final kit in the line-up of educational robots from Makeblock. With over 160 independent mechanical parts and modules, the Ultimate Kit 2.0 answers the call for almost limitless creative freedom. Matc...
The :MOVE MINI allows you to turn your micro:bit into a simple robot! In this guide, we will give you some tips and tricks for assembling the :MOVE mini. This is a DIY assembly item and takes 30-60 minutes to fully assemble. There is a grea...
Introduction Welcome to the guide for the Makerverse Load Cell kit. With this hardware you will be able to make a set of scales capable of measuring weights up to 3kg with a precision as low as 0.1g! To follow along you will need: ...
So you have just received your OctoPi kit and you are looking to get it up and running. All you need to do is grab out all the parts you received and around 20 minutes of time. To connect your OctoPi to the network you need to decide what ...
The Infinity Mirror Kit was made possible by all the people who backed our Kickstarter! Kits are where it's at. With our Desktop Infinity Mirror Kit you'll get to make something wonderful with your hands, all in the span ...
The Infinity Mirror Kit V2 is a desktop display that creates a dazzling optical illusion - a tunnel of light that tears through space! The Infinity Mirror Kit V2 entered production in October 2018, and now ships with an Adaf...
The new Gizmos and Gadgets revision 2.0 from littleBits is here and we've decided to review the kit for any budding inventors (or inventor's parents) out there. The v1.0 kit was impressive enough, we were interested to see what littleBits c...
If you’re looking for a platform to create your ideal data-logger, then look no further than Particle. Whether it be that you want to build a weather station, or a movement detection system, thanks to Particle’s 3G and Wi-Fi boa...
Show of hands, who loves Raspberry Pi? We all do, and one of the most common questions we get asked is which Raspberry Pi kit is going to best suit my project, which one has the right components in it etc. So today we’re going to be l...
If you’ve ever created a project that uses batteries, you’ll be well aware how hard it can be to decide on elements in the project which can affect the battery life. You end up ‘umming’ and ‘ahhing’ for a...
Now that we have dipped our toes into the Chibitronics environment, let's take a look at a more in-depth kit and see what kind of projects it offers. The Chibitronics STEM starter kit comes with: 1 Circuit Stic...
What is a Paper Circuit? STEM technology has evolved into all kinds of fantastic forms with many brands bringing craft and electronics together in new and innovative ways. There’s plenty of products which make use of ‘paper cir...
Who should follow this tutorial? If this is your first experience with Raspberry Pi, and you're using a starter kit for a Raspberry Pi Zero W, then this tutorial is for you. We'll plug everything into where it needs to be, install an ...
With winter currently in full swing, there's a particularly annoying 3D printing problem that is rearing its ugly head, Warping. For those who don't know, warping is what happens when parts of a printed model shrink due to cold drafts acros...
Note: With the rollout of TTNv3, the "Setup" section of this guide no longer works - but we're keeping it here for posterity. Let us know on our forums if you need help getting started with the new method. In our two previous Pycom article...
Electroluminescent wire, often referred to as EL wire, is a thin copper wire coated in phosphor which will produce light when alternating current is applied to it. The light emits a similar feel as if it were a neon light or ...
"Yes, I would recommend this a friend." That's the verdict of 90% of people who pick up the Rule your Room Kit from littleBits. We love it so much, we're most definitely recommending it to you and your family. But you don't need to take ...
Have you ever heard people talk about how amazing the Internet of Things is and how you can leverage the power of the internet by creating IoT devices, but not really known how to get started? This tutorial is for you! We’re going to ...
In case you haven’t heard, the Internet of Things (IoT) is upon us. More and more devices everyday are being connected to the internet to communicate to people and other devices. Particle have seen the DIY/maker community’s desi...
A radio transceiver is a device that can both transmit and receive radio signals, making it the perfect tool for communication on the go and remote projects! The PiicoDev Transceiver™ is a 915MHz radio that can send short messages up...
When making a box with a laser cutter, its entirely possible to make your design as a single flat drawing through careful planning and measurement – but who wants to do that!? This is a guide to making a box quickly and easily using F...
IntroductionWelcome to the guide for the Makerverse Audio Kit. This kit will allow you to build a music player, a musical keyboard, and a sound effect soundboard! To follow along you will need: The Makerverse Audio Kit The Makerverse ...
IntroductionWelcome to the guide for the Makerverse Essentials Kit. This kit provides the fundamental hardware required to construct many of the kits in the Makerverse Kits range along with providing hardware which will continue to be usef...
Welcome to the Sparkfun Inventors Kit (SIK) Ver 4.0 tutorial page. In this beginner’s tutorial, we will explore the basics of microcontroller programming and circuit electronics through a series of projects that are provided in the&nb...
From breadboarding to soldering, the way we connect our components is critical to ending up with a working circuit. Before the new-age tech startups like littleBits and innoBits came along with their magnetic clip-together building blocks, ...
Introduction We’re going from zero to hero. Starting from nothing we’ll get a WiPy communicating with Adafruit IO, an IoT service out on the Internet. We’ll be able to send data from the device to the cloud and control th...
So, you have set up your shiny new resin 3D printer and now want to produce beautiful models. Well, this tutorial will tell you exactly what to do from filling the tank, starting a print via USB then the removal, cleaning, and final UV ligh...
Let us set our codes free into the world wide web and design codes which access real world data! This real-world data will represent the current reality of the world around us. Application Programming Interface requests is the method that a...
RetroPie is a fantastic system, and once you map your input device, it will take those mappings and apply them to all of the emulators on RetroPie. If you’re new to RetroPie and want to find out a bit more, take a read of our Gaming ...
In this tutorial, we will learn how to code for the Onion Omega2 on our PC, and then wirelessly upload our code using the ATOM text editor. The ATOM text editor is a powerful and easy to use text editor developed by the team at Github...
What if I told you that you could have the power to detect a lightning strike from 40km away? You'd probably think I've gone mad watching too many Marvel movies. But it is true! All thanks to the DFRobot Gravity: Lightning Sensor. Accessib...
What’s even better than the world’s most popular microcomputer sitting on your desk? When it’s sitting there in a case which protects it, makes it easier to use, and gives your desk some style. If you buy a Raspberry Pi i...
Educators everywhere are lining up to have the most recent, high-tech teaching tools to introduce STEM learning in the classroom. With the rate that modern technology is advancing, educators can often feel overwhelmed with the sheer number ...
Welcome to the Python Workshop, where you will learn everything you need to hit the ground running with the worlds most popular programming language Python. My name is Tim and am a passionate maker and cherish free exchange of knowledge. I ...
What a glorious time we live in, where, as technology continues to evolve, so too does the ability to learn more about it and get hands on with concepts that would otherwise be out of reach, especially for young minds. Today, we’re go...
Introduction This guide will help you read weather data from your PiicoDev® Atmospheric Sensor and a Raspberry Pi single-board computer To follow along, it's best to have: A Raspberry Pi (model 3, 4, Zero ...
It is time for an Airplane Tracking Raspberry Pi! The final setup here will let you personally collect data on the exact whereabouts of airplanes over 400km away. It will update one to four times each minute. Be passenger planes, cargo air...
There is some wild weather approaching! We need a way to give ourselves an early warning when a disaster strikes! In this project, we will use the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express to make an all in one Disaster Detection Station that wil...
School zone sign There are lots of maker and Internet of Things (IoT) projects that need a high quality mobile Internet connection. While technologies like Sigfox and LoRa are going to be a big part of our future, in a lot of places cellu...
Recently, we got a brand new Dual Extruder v3 Tool Head from LulzBot and took a dive into the design of it, mainly, what makes it so great for Dual Extrusion with our 3D Printers. First, a quick recap, Dual Extruding is the process of using...
In the dynamic and ever-evolving world of open source technology, the PiicoDev community really stands out to me as a curious and humble one. While the project's main repositories on GitHub serve as the heart of our collective endeavor, it...
Ever wanted a pocket computer with a Full HD screen (1080x1920)? Love tiny GPIO screens like this 3.5 Inch from Waveshare but want one that is a little bigger and higher resolution so that it is easier to read? Or want a really premi...
We're going to get started with the Fire-EdUp Platform and begin calculating Fire Danger Level, and Fire Behaviour Index. To follow along you'll need: A Fire-EdUp Platform A Micro-USB Cable A Computer with Thonny installed. ...
A new day is upon us, and it is glorious. After all, it’s not often that a new Raspberry Pi board is released. As you’re probably aware, the current iteration of the popular Raspberry Pi microcomputer is the Raspberry Pi 3. It h...
If you’re in the education sector or keep up to date with the latest STEM learning tools, then you’ve most likely heard of Sphero. It’s one of the most popular educational products which fuses robotics with imagination and...
Hey there, are you loving the vintage gaming experience that is RetroPie? Wait, you haven’t heard of RetroPie. No! You’d better go and check out our Gaming Kit for RetroPie tutorial ASAP. Oh good, you now know the awesomeness t...
A big project request for the Raspberry Pi is the ability to make a digital sign, that loops images/videos/other media fullscreen with no interactivity. This can be a great way to display dashboards, promotional videos and other media. For ...
Our Slim Case for the Arduino Uno allows you to keep your Arduino safe and protected from damage or shorts, while still allowing access to all the pins! In this guide, we will show you how to assemble your new Slim Case. Every Slim Case for...
What We'll AchieveThis guide will help you set up a Plant_io controller to automatically irrigate a plant of your choice. This example focuses on germinating seeds, but this is only one option. Along the way we'll: Assemble a hardware pl...
In another tutorial we looked at the Photon board from Particle, and whilst Wi-Fi is awesome for many applications, it restricts you to a localised connection. Particle have once again come to rescue and provided us with a cellular solution...
By now you are aware that when it comes to measuring electronic signals, oscilloscopes are what you are going to be using. However, if you were providing a circuit with a particular signal, a function generator is the perfect tool for tha...
Nothing beats bright shiny colourful lights and adding an extra dimension only makes them better. This guide demonstrates the fastest and most customizable way to have WS2812B grids of fully addressable LED Nodes come alive. Exactly ...
The ability to connect your test equipment to a local PC is invaluable. It allows monitoring and the use of your equipment via a PC interface. That includes coveted mouse/keyboard control! This control centre capability is essential when yo...
Kits are a pretty nifty idea for someone starting out in maker electronics. For this beginner-friendly article, we are just going to take a look at three of our great kits for the Arduino Uno. All three are all solder-free electronics ...
It has finally happened, they figured it out! The new frontier of Colour Electronic Paper is here and I'm very impressed. People have been demanding this ever since the first E-Paper readers hit the market in the noughties. That black and ...
Remote control of your 3D printer is a particularly appealing concept, especially if you've been forced into printing via USB in the past. Using your new 3D printer should be as simple as plugging it in, uploading some G-Code and pressing '...
Both Python and MicroPython are powerhouse programming languages. Each of them is capable of supporting your programming needs to almost the limits of your imagination. Both languages are transportable, open-source, growing in popularity, c...
Note: With the rollout of TTNv3, the "Setup" section of this guide no longer works - but we're keeping it here for posterity. Let us know on our forums if you need help getting started with the new method. In the lasts article we looked at...
In this guide we'll create a simple HTTP server using a Raspberry Pi Pico W. This server will be accessible from within a local WiFi network and can be used to read sensors and control hardware - in our case we'll drive an LED and read the...
If you're looking for a benchtop power supply, but you're unsure of what you should be looking for in a decent supply for your workspace, we have got you covered with this guide. We will look at the specifications to look out for in a power...
Espressif is a constantly ground-breaking company that produces lots of really cool development modules which includes the ESP32. ESP32 Boards, ESP32 Dev-Kits, and ESP32 Modules (the part that gets soldered to the Board/PCB) are all about ...
Looking for the best way to get into robotics? Checkout Makeblock's mBot. This all in one robot is the perfect introduction to basic robotics, with its simple yet robust design, mBot is built with education in mind. The mBot kits modul...
LittleBits have launched a global network of organizations to share and spread the word of littleBits. It's all to put the power of electronics in the hands of everyone. The 'chapters' are simply locations such as maker spaces and libraries...
How many young people are able to assemble a computer, from scratch? Sure, adults can do it. There are even IT professionals and avid PC enthusiasts that take it to the next level; customizing everything down to the color of the Power LED a...
Hello, and welcome to our tutorial where we’ll be looking at two different types of soldering irons and which one is going to be best for your workshop. We’ll be specifically looking at soldering irons, not how to solder, so for...
The full example-code is reproduced at the bottom of this article. Performing manual measurements (in bulk) is for suckers and undergraduate students. Thankfully, most lab gear comes with a digital interface like USB or Serial and you can ...
Resin 3D printers are an immensely powerful tool in the hands of a maker and they have never been more accessible. This will be a rundown on this technology, contrasting it to filament 3D printing and an explanation of tools whilst tea...
The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a powerful new feature that lets you run a Linux terminal from within windows. You may wonder why you would want this, but it actually is great for developers. A lot of Web and open source toolchains...
Life’s better in colour right? Then why are you still using boring old regular LEDs in your project, when you could be using addressable RGB LEDs. Now LEDS that have Red, Green, and Blue integrated in a single package are nothing new,...
In this getting started guide we’ll use the Pytrack from Pycom to detect our location on Earth using the onboard GPS module and use the accelerometer to control a 3D model on the PC. I put a WiPy onto my Pytrack, connected it to ...
The Problem: You may find that while setting up RetroPie on your Raspberry Pi that pairing new Bluetooth controllers results in something like: During the "Please choose the security mode - Try the first one, then second if that fails",...
Perhaps you’ve read our Gaming Kit for RetroPie tutorial on how to setup a RetroPie console and wondered what’s required to actually build one, or heard about it and not been sure what you need. Well, today is your lucky day bec...
Progressing further into the epic programming language of Python the instinctive next step should be user defined functions. Now as a quick refresher, a function in Python is a block of code which only runs when it is called. It is organise...
Welcome to 'Zero to Maker,' a workshop that will walk through and introduce a ton of tools and skills to help Makers of all skill levels! In this series, Jaryd and Liam will be completing projects as a part of the 2024 Fab Academy and...
Welcome to the final Project Set of the Sparkfun Inventors Kit! This Project Set focuses on Robotics with the final Circuit being an Autonomously Driving Vehicle! New components introduced in this tutorial are: DC Motor/Gearbox Mo...
Once you setup your printer and finish printing your first rocktopus, you will inevitably want to move onto more ambitious prints right away. It’s understandable, all the possibilities all at once, I get it. We are going to step you ...
Part of the joy that is Raspberry Pi is getting stuck into it at a slightly lower level and finding out exactly what you can do with it if you take a look under the hood. One of the most popular experiments to do with your Raspberry Pi is o...
Arduino Projects with an LCD (Using Sparkfun RedBoard) Welcome to Project Set 4 in the Sparkfun Inventors Kit Guide! In this tutorial, we will look into using Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD's) to print data. This ability allows us to remotel...
Now that your RedBoard is set up on its baseplate and the Arduino IDE is installed on your computer, we can begin our first Arduino-based Project Set! The First Project Set explores light and the type of electrical component we will be usin...
The multimeter is one of the essential tools in your electronics toolkit. These battery operated devices combine several measurement functions into one easy to use device. You can get Analog or Digital multimeters, each displaying your meas...
Often the last consideration in a maker project, the DC power supply is the heartbeat of many electrical projects and the correct selection requires some consideration. Power supplies go by a lot of different names, you can call them Wall ...
Bluetooth is a low-power radio technology used to link devices wirelessly. Most commonly recognised as the way to link a mobile phone to a car or speaker, it has many uses beyond that. The "low power" aspect is not a shortcoming, as a large...
What do we mean when we talk about the "Internet of Things"? Mostly we're talking about tiny computers that have access to the internet and do some useful work. Unlike the computers we're used to holding in our hands, they don't have a touc...
We’re in a golden age of connectivity, the internet we know today has given us the tools to connect anything to anything, and now with the platform brought to us by Particle, DIYers everywhere can connect the creations up to this va...
This will be a guide giving an overview of Cura, the open-source 3D printing slicing application from the smart cats at Ultimaker. Put simply Ultimaker Cura is a software which allows you to turn the computer file of your design into a reci...
Introduction This guide will help you read barometric pressure from your PiicoDev® Pressure Sensor and a Raspberry Pi Pico To follow along, it's best to have: A Raspberry Pi Pico with pins soldered (pointing down) A PiicoDev Press...
Introduction This guide will help you read weather data (Temperature, Air Pressure and Humidity) from your PiicoDev Atmospheric Sensor and a Micro:bit. To follow along, it's best to have: A Micro:bit v2 (v1 does not...
As technology gets smaller and more powerful, wearables and portable devices are becoming more common in our everyday lives. Makers are looking to make projects portable and with that comes the need for high capacity batteries that are reli...
Let's get started with the PiicoDev® Capacitive Touch Sensor. In this guide, we'll connect the PiicoDev Capacitive Touch Sensor to our Raspberry Pi and get it working with some example code to detect touch events. We'll also remix the c...
Let's get started with the PiicoDev® Magnetometer. In this guide we'll connect the Magnetometer to our Raspberry Pi, get it working as a compass, and read the magnetic field strength of a nearby magnet. Finally, we'll remix the code to ...
Arduino Projects with Motion (Using Sparkfun RedBoard) Welcome to the Third Project Set from the Sparkfun Inventors Kit V4.0 Guide! In this tutorial, we will explore the operation of a Servo Motor and an UltraSonic Sensor in combination wi...
Laser cutting is a very fast production and manufacturing method that has one limitation. You can only cut flat surfaces! Well don’t let that stop you from creating 3D objects and sculptures with a laser cutter, Fusion360 has a great ...
This tutorial will show you how to update the software on your Rigol Oscilloscope. This will unlock the latest features as well as solve some bugs. What you will need. Rigol Digital OscilloScope (1054Z or 1104Z) USB thumb drive (any wi...
Let's get started with the PiicoDev® Capacitive Touch Sensor. In this guide, we'll connect the PiicoDev Capacitive Touch Sensor to our Micro:bit V2 and get it working with some example code to detect touch events. We'll also remix the c...
The Makey Makey introduces the concept of using everday objects like fruit, lead pencil drawings, play dough etc. to interact with your computer via USB. The Makey Makey acts like a HID device over USB, which means that it behaves just like...
Imagine being a builder without a hammer, or a car without a brake, this is kind of useful, but nowhere near as useful as it could be. This is like being a maker/DIY’er/enthusiast without being able to solder. Sure you can breadboard ...
How does your workspace look? Could it be tidier? I know that mine always could be, but with the daily addition of different tools, components, boards and general tech, it can be hard to keep on top of it all. Then when it comes to working ...
This guide will teach you exactly how to use a Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer to independently control 4 relays. A Relay is an electrically operated switch. This is all possible thanks to the PiRelay V2 HAT from SB Components. These re...
Welcome to the Raspberry Pi Pico Workshop, where you will learn everything you need to know to hit the ground running and start making your own projects with the Raspberry Pi Pico and MicroPython. This workshop is designed for complete beg...
The Micro:bit is a feature-packed development board that’s perfect for the classroom or the beginner programmer. Each Micro:bit has a built-in radio that can transmit and receive signals sent from other Micro:bits. The radio has a ran...
In this guide we'll show you how to make a small improvement to the Fire-EdUp Platform to automatically capture temperature data. This will save us having to input the data manually - and could in theory be extended to many more calculatio...
Today we’re going to take a look at how to get started and setup that fancy Raspberry Pi you’ve just bought. If you’re still not sure exactly how the Raspberry Pi works, or what it can do, check out ‘What is a Ra...
Hello and welcome to another tutorial on the joys of RetroPie. Today we’re going to look at making RetroPie even better. If you’ve had the chance to play around with the RetroPie system, you’ll have noticed that whilst it ...
There are three levels of firmware upgrades that are required on Pycom gear. First, performing an upgrade on the firmware of any of the Pycom microcontrollers is a simple affair. Download the Pycom Firmware Update application as linked in t...
Welcome to the next step of understanding in your programming escapades with Python. This guide will introduce an overview of all keywords within Python, provide an understanding of what exactly a keyword is and how to make simple codes wit...
Introduction Let's read colour data from a PiicoDev® Colour Sensor with a Raspberry Pi and create a colour sorting machine. This guide will cover connecting the hardware, downloading some example code and remixing it. To follow along,...
Project Set 2 – Sound Welcome to the second Project Set from the Sparkfun Inventors Kit V4.0 Guide! In our last Project Set, we explored the basics of the Arduino IDE, some electrical and electronic concepts and looked at vario...
Have you heard of Makey Makey? If not, you’re about to have your mind blown! Makey Makey is an incredible way to bring imagination, creativity, and technology together. If you’re not sure what Makey Makey is, check out our Let's...
This guide will teach you how to control up to 992 5V Servos through the GPIO pins on your Raspberry Pi! But more practically, without stacking multiple HATS (Hardware Attached on Top), this guide will teach exactly how to control sixt...
Back at it again with tips for IoT devices when connecting with Mobile networks. Quickly to explain The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects (things) that are blessed with sensors, software, and other technolog...
This tutorial works great for Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, however if you need a Video Kiosk/Digital Sign for the newer Pi Models, we've written this guide on how to do it. One of the most requested projects for Raspberry Pi is how to set ...
Being productive and efficient on a computer has become synonymous with dual-screens. Being able to run two application and have both take up a whole screen or run four text documents each taking up an A4 sized half screen really improves e...
Filament grinding is very unlikely to occur if your running an Ultimaker S5 3D Printer with Ultimaker materials or 3rd party supported materials. Filament grinding occurs when the knurled feeder gear slips against the filament instead of sm...
Introduction Let's read colour data from a PiicoDev® Colour Sensor with a Raspberry Pi Pico, and create a colour sorting machine. This guide will cover connecting the hardware, downloading some example code and remixing it. ...
Introduction Let's read colour data from a PiicoDev® Colour Sensor with a Micro:bit V2, and create a colour sorting machine. This guide will cover connecting the hardware, downloading some example code and remixing it. To f...
Media centres are everywhere nowadays, from smart TV’s with built in media apps, to standalone lounge room boxes to watch all your favourite shows on. With the new features found on the Raspberry Pi 3, it makes sense for it to become...
So you've got your brand new RetroPie gaming kit setup, but you've got no idea how to save your games. No one wants to be starting afresh each and every time they jump onto their Pi for some light gaming. I've put together this handy guide ...
We get a lot of interest from parents and educators surrounding littleBits and innobits. Especially the difference between the two products. Both are magnetically connected electronic building blocks. Both products empower people to invent ...
So you’ve got Eagle installed and you’re itching to get creating? If not and you’re wondering what’s going on, check out our Drawing Schematics With Eagle tutorial, otherwise this won’t make much sense. EAGLE ...
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to identify and communicate with tags. Each RFID module emits radio waves that energise the passive tag, which then responds with its own identifying number or data, as reque...
So, you’re looking for the right way to power your breadboard? You’ve found that your Arduino Uno just doesn’t quite have the juice to power up your circuit. It's likely that the microcontroller can output around 400mA whe...
Note: With the rollout of TTNv3, the "Setup" section of this guide no longer works - but we're keeping it here for posterity. Let us know on our forums if you need help getting started with the new method. Since you’ve got your new P...
In November of 2017, our friends over at LulzBot released a major software update to their Slicing software, Cura. In this tutorial, we will look at what Cura is and does, the process of installing Cura 2 onto a PC already running Cura 21.x...
This guide will demonstrate exactly how to control Standard Stepper Motors and DC Motors with a Raspberry Pi Single-Board Computer. To do this as seamlessly as possible we will utilise a HAT. HAT stands for Hardware Attached on Top. HAT bo...
Note: With the rollout of TTNv3, the "Setup" section of this guide no longer works - but we're keeping it here for posterity. Let us know on our forums if you need help getting started with the new method. Connecting your Pycom Lopy4 or an...
Whenever you want to print larger than your 3D printer build space you are going to find yourself wanting to combine 3D printed parts together. Furthermore, as you wrap your head around 3D printing, you learn to save on filament by printing...
Variable resistors come in all shapes and sizes, and they all do the same basic job. They allow you precisely control voltage/current flow within a circuit. The most common type of variable resistor we see in DIY electronics is the Potentio...
So, after almost a week of researching, cross-referencing, double checking, and image hunting, I’m excited to show you guys my take on the history of Arduino, and the evolution of the Arduino hardware into what it is today. With so m...
Makeblock is a company with education at the forefront of its priorities. They introduce mechanical design, and software development to robotics in a way analogous to Lego, that is to say, they aim to educate the student by encouraging crea...
Continuing our Python journey deeper into this dynamo of a programming language we will take a leap into variables and types. Variables are one of the most fundamental concepts and exist in pretty much all programming languages. Variables a...
Makey Makey is a compact circuit board which allows you to create circuits using anything you like and connect them up to a computer. You use alligator clips to connect things to the Makey Makey, and then your Makey Makey connectors to a co...
UPDATE: This tutorial has been updated for the Krypton release of Kodi (Version 17) If you have built yourself a home media center using a Raspberry Pi, you're one step ahead of most people out there. The pure joy that comes from having a ...
With the newest update to Raspberry Pi OS (Debian Version 11 - nicknamed ‘Bullseye’) there have been some changes to the terminal commands which control attached cameras. This is one of the biggest changes with the new up...
Raspberry Pi Compute Modules have developed in tandem with the many generations of Raspberry Pi single-board computers. These boards are in every right a microprocessor just like their bigger cousins however they are a very different form f...
Amid all the new controllers that 8Bitdo have brought out and the mountain of Raspberry Pi cases and accessories that are available, we’ve bundled everything together to create the ultimate RetroPie gaming console. If you’ve bee...
When you first look at the Photon, it’s staggering that such a small device could possess the incredible functionality that it does, but not only does it bring an impress spec sheet to the table, but the true power is unlocked in the ...
So we have vertical graphing of voltage and horizontal sweep, but our signal is just going to go bananas on our screen if we don't sweep at the same point in the waveform. That's where triggers come in, allowing us multiple ways to fix ou...
In this article, we'll program a Micro:bit v2 using a web browser. We'll connect a Micro:bit to our computer, open python.microbit.org and begin coding our first script. Contents What You'll Need Connect your Micro:bit Open the Progr...
Note: With the rollout of TTNv3, the "Setup" section of this guide no longer works - but we're keeping it here for posterity. Let us know on our forums if you need help getting started with the new method. Any good LoRaWAN device can send ...
Resistors are the hardworking underdogs of the electrical circuit world. You have probably added a 4.7k or 330-ohm resistor into your circuit without thinking about why we use those values, let alone what the resistor is doing. We are going...
The Micro:bit has the ability to measure temperature by sensing the temperature of the silicon die inside the main CPU. This works because the Micro:bit runs cold, and the temperature of the CPU is usually a good approximation of ...
Have you ever used an Arduino board, and wanted to hook it straight up to a JST connected LiPo battery but knew it wouldn’t work? Or maybe you wanted a microcontroller with built-in wireless capabilities? Well, Adafruit has developed...
The ESP8266 is the Serial to Wi-Fi SOC gaining steam back in August of 2014, no doubt you've heard of it; if not used one yourself. Since then, hundreds of IoT devices were built on this originally-undocumented device. With those projects a...
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to identify and communicate with tags. Each RFID module emits radio waves that energise the passive tag, which then responds with its own identifying number or data, as reque...
Of the many great objects you can create using any 3D printer lithophanes are definitely up there. Traditionally lithophanes were an etched or moulded artwork created on a very thin translucent porcelain that can been seen clearly only...
Toolheads for your 3D printer come in all shapes and sizes. The different models available from Lulzbot are all designed with a specific purpose in mind, usually to add a filament type to your 3D printing repertoire. Dual extruders enable y...
Wouldn't it be great to have a single image, that encapsulated a tonne of handy 3D printing tips and information to hang on the wall behind your 3D Printer? Well, we agree so much so that we've gone ahead and created this infographic/cheat ...
Pimironi Picade Pan-Tilt Hat lets you mount and control a pan-tilt module right on top of your Raspberry Pi palm-sized computer. Setting up a Pan and Tilt system has never been easier with absolutely no soldering required! Pe...
Now that we are all on track with our Slicer software, having just installed Cura 2 and upgraded our printer firmware, let's work on turning some 3D Model files into G-Code for our 3D Printer to create. We're going to be using our LulzBot M...
There are many different ways to use your mobile phone to remotely control and manage any Raspberry Pi and one of the best options out there to date is the phone application RaspController (you can also find it for free in the Google P...
Ever had the issue where you have dozens of old phone chargers and appliance plug packs piled up in a rats nest of AC-to-DC mayhem? We tend to breeze right past these square, black power supplies, not knowing what's happening under the hood...
This guide will demonstrate exactly how to control any large DC Motors that we stock with a Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer, through code or through a Bluetooth Controller. To clarify (in my mind) a large DC Motors runs at 12+ Volt...
Let's get set up with scripting in Thonny for the Micro:bit. We'll install Thonny, configure for Micro:bit, and write our first script. All you'll need to follow along is a Micro:bit v2 GO kit Contents Install Thonny Set u...
This will be an overview, initial setup and first print guide for the Ultimaker 2 and Ultimaker 2 Extended . Quick links for the contents of this guide is seen below. Printer Overview Printer Characteristics ...
One of the greatest features of the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express is its MakeCode compatibility. MakeCode is an exciting coding interface that makes coding accessible for those with little or no exposure to how coding works or how it ...
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to identify and communicate with tags. Each RFID module emits radio waves that energise the passive tag, which then responds with its own identifying number or data, as reque...
Check out our Getting started with micro:bit video if you'd like to see a quick tutorial on writing a program, start-to-finish, with a micro:bit. In a Nutshell The micro:bit is a versatile and classroom-friendly, programmable ele...
warning: this guide is dated and kept for legacy reasons. Links may not work. Welcome to part 1 of our Cadsoft Eagle tutorial. Put your hand up if you’ve always wanted to take the clunky, delicate circuit you’ve c...
[Update – Until there is correct compatibility of OPEN-CV with the new Raspberry Pi ‘Bullseye’ OS I highly recommend at this stage flashing and using the previous Raspberry Pi ‘Buster’ OS onto yo...
Speed or Perfection? That choice is what an understanding of Layer Heights whenever Resin 3D printing is going to provide you. Any Traditional Resin 3D Printer worth its salt will let you print with Layer Heights between 10 Micron to 100 Mi...
Want to setup a wireless XBee network between some Arduinos and your PC? We're going to show you how. We will be using Series 1 XBee modules alongside some XBee Explorer USB modules from Sparkfun to set up our own Personal Area Network (PAN...
Fused filament fabrication and transparent prints! No, surely you mean SLA prints. And true you can get excellent transparent prints effectively using SLA however consumer-grade fused filament fabrication can be mistaken for glass when corr...
[Update – Until there is correct compatibility of OPEN-CV with the new Raspberry Pi ‘Bullseye’ OS I highly recommend at this stage flashing and using the previous Raspberry Pi ‘Buster’ OS ...
The Pysense expansion board from Pycom has many sensors. In Pycom Pytrack Getting Started, I showed how with some Processing code we can see the real-time position of the board in 3D. That project works with the Pysense too. How about we sh...
The Adafruit Circuit Playground Express comes equipped with an onboard microphone that is capable of sensing both amplitude and frequency. This tutorial will walk through a quick sketch using MakeCode to turn the lights on the board into a ...
Welcome to our beginners tutorial on analog electronics. Living in the digital age that we do, it’s easy to disregard the world of discrete analog components, however these concepts form the basis for everything from your mobile phon...
Hey guys, today is the day where we introduce you to another piece of mind-blowingly awesome technology known as Teensy. Simply put, Teensy is a brand of microcontroller development boards created by PJRC and designed by the co-owner, Pau...
The Adafruit Circuit Playground Express comes equipped with an analog light sensor, but it can be used for much more than just sensing light or darkness! The light sensor has a similar spectral response to the human eye. Its connected to an...
Let's do some creative projects to get familiar with the GlowBit™ rainbow and micro:bit. The animation runs for 10 seconds, and can be started by pressing either of the micro:bit's buttons In this guide we will: Wi...
Layer Exposure Time is the crucial parameter that when dialed in will change average 3D resin printed components into awesome, crispy, final results that capture every single detail of the CAD model. As a general rule for Normal Layer ...
Love your Raspberry Pi but wish it had even more connectivity akin to your mobile phone. Then the Waveshare 4G HAT is the solution for you! HAT simply means Hardware attached On Top. With this installed on your Raspberry Pi Single Board Co...
Introduction This guide will help you read distance data from your PiicoDev® Distance Sensor and a Raspberry Pi single-board computer To follow along, it's best to have: A Raspberry Pi (model 3, 4, Zero W) This tutorial will u...
Introduction This guide will help you read light intensity data from your PiicoDev® Ambient Light Sensor and a Raspberry Pi single-board computer To follow along, it's best to have: A Raspberry Pi (model 3, 4, Zero W) This tut...
OctoPrint Integration is one of my favourite new features in Cura 2.6+: LulzBot Edition. In short, this integration means that you can print and control your 3D Printer via it's OctoPrint server. All from within your slicer window on your P...
A super quick article for those who just got their hands on the Raspberry Pi Pico and want to keep it safe and snug in a case. Either with a resin printer or fused filament printer both can produce excellent cases. It was very pleasant prot...
We want to show you how great Fritzing is when it comes to going from your breadboarded prototype to a polished, Etchable PCB design. We are going to utilize a completed circuit we used for our SPI Arduino tutorial that uses a shift registe...
I’ll level with you; the idea of microcontrollers and wireless networks was a little daunting to me initially. How on earth was I going to connect and control it with Wi-Fi?! But when I eventually I waded into the world of networking ...
If you’re a musician or have had anything to do with the entertainment industry, you may have heard of the term MIDI before. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and was created in the mid-80’s as a way to standa...
There is a new Raspberry Pi! The long-awaited upgrade to the Rasberry Pi 1 Model A+ (Rpi1 A+). In this article, we are going to look at how much improvement the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ (Rpi3 A+) is over the Rpi1 A+ as well as how ...
The New Version of the Raspberry Pi 4 has started going out to makers everywhere. If you are wanting to upgrade your old RPi3 project to take advantage of all the cool new features there are a few steps we are going to have to take first to...
In the attempt to give the most comprehensive and truly easy to understand reference pages for the programming language of Python it is only natural to talk about built-in functions. A function in Python is a block of code which only runs w...
8Bitdo have brought joy to many retro-gaming enthusiasts with their SF30 Pro Bluetooth controller. It’s a fantastic piece of gear, and one of our favourite controllers to use with a RetroPie setup. We’ve covered off on our thoug...
NiMH is an abbreviation for Nickel-Metal Hydride. NiMH batteries are some of the most common rechargeable batteries we see in consumer electronics. Due to their superior chemistry, NiMH batteries have taken over Nickel Cadmium Battery appli...
Welcome to the exciting world of laser cutting! For all those makers out there looking to start creating with a laser cutter, this tutorial will have the basic information you need to get started! We recently added a Laser Cutting Service t...
Let me introduce a new 3D printable case for the Raspberry Pi Pico and the PiicoDev ecosystem. There are variants of the case, one which allows you to wall-mount the system and another variation that makes it possible to charge the dev...
Introduction This guide will help you read motion data from your PiicoDev® Motion Sensor with a Raspberry Pi single-board computer. To follow along, it's best to have: A Raspberry Pi (model 3, 4, Zero or Zero W) This tutorial ...
This will be a quick 101 on how to use the Raspberry Pi Imager so that you can Flash a new Micro-SD Card. Everything you need to use this Software will be found in this article. The contents of this guide can be seen below. - Download Loc...
A popular question that we get all the time is ‘How do I choose a speaker or amplifier to go with my project?’. It’s a good question, and if you’re not familiar with the terminology, it can seem a bit daunting to kno...
Introduction This guide will help you read temperature data from your PiicoDev® Precision Temperature Sensor and a Raspberry Pi single-board computer To follow along, it's best to have: A Raspberry Pi (model 3, 4, Zero or Zer...
Dual Extruding with FDM 3D Printers is typically reserved for the most expert-level makers. By adding the ability to print with 2 materials, you open yourself up to a spread of conditions that simply didn't exist with a single extruder setu...
The PiicoDev Magnetometer unlocks a lot of sensing abilities for your project. In this guide we'll walk through how to sense an angle with a small magnet and print the angle on a PiicoDev OLED. This guide covers what the sensor is r...
There are a wide range of filaments available in FDM 3D printing; it’s easy to get lost in all the abbreviations, acronyms, and temperatures. We’ve decided to bring together the most relevant information when selecting fila...
This Tutorial is all about the MicroPython Programming Language. We will discuss what MicroPython is, why you will want to use it in your projects and we will share some resources to help you learn further! What is MicroPython? MicroPyt...
Every good E-Textiles or Wearables project needs to start somewhere, and the natural starting point for any project is choosing the right microcontroller. There are many good choices out there, and we will compare a few of the best and brig...
Time to flex some of the coding muscles we have gained. Using the knowledge we have with Python, this guide will go through the creation of interesting and dynamic graphic animations. The first codes in this tutorial are generators for geo...
There has been uncovered a new worthwhile step on the Python Journey thanks to the help of my co-worker and forum superstar Owen. That step is the Flask Web App Framework for Python. This framework is going to allow you to do thin...
Is it hot in here, or is it just my Raspberry Pi? A Raspberry Pi sitting on a desk doing nothing is kind of boring. However, a Raspberry Pi that can measure the temperature and make decisions based off that information is awesome! The Rasp...
The Raspberry Pi is an amazing piece of technology, and it’s the platform of choice for all kinds of projects. Something that makes it great is the integration of complex hardware that is taken care of for you. For example, if you wan...
Note: With the rollout of TTNv3, the "Setup" section of this guide no longer works - but we're keeping it here for posterity. Let us know on our forums if you need help getting started with the new method. warning: this is a "nano" gateway...
To fully equip ourselves on our Python odyssey we will take a leap into Operators and their Precedence. Python is undoubtedly a Homeric programming language, epic in its possible applications and vast in its potentials. Operators ...
The eternal question of ‘does it print in more colours?’ is often one of the most common community desires. And yes you can! One of the best ways that this need is delivered is through dual-extrusion printing. Dual-extrusion pri...
This guide will teach you how to control any small and big servos with a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (worth noting any Raspberry Pi Board with GPIO pins can be able to be used in this scenario. Servos are an immensely useful way to turn ele...
There are so many types of cameras modules and lenses that are plug-and-play for Raspberry Pi Single Board Computers and that number is steadily increasing. From day to night, you can keep track, photograph, and record your surrou...
Here is a solution so you can turn your Raspberry Pi handheld computer on and off from the power plug (power cycle it) just like any other appliance in your home! And it can all be done through only one setting. With a normally set-up Rasp...
Near Field Communication (NFC) is used all and everywhere. As it stands there are over two billion NFC-enabled devices (many of them smartphones) in use today. This basically means over 20% of the world’s population has access t...
It is time for a high-quality, complete package, 1920x1200 (HD) display set up with a Raspberry Pi Single-Board Computer. In regards to touch screens with Raspberry Pi have looked at Tiny GPIO HAT LCD displays, medium-sized AMOLED maker di...
Welcome to the next step on this Python voyage. Today we will be creating graphical user interfaces using the powerful Tkinter library. Graphical user interfaces are referred to as GUI and can be pronounced as Gooey. GUI is a visual way of ...
Welcome to the Raspberry Pi Workshop for Beginners! Here you'll be able to follow along with our series of bite-sized videos that cover everything you'll need to know to get started with your Raspberry Pi, and start making awesome project...
Welcome to the Arduino Workshop, where you'll be able to follow our guided course which covers everything you'll need to know in order to create your own Arduino projects and become a leveled up maker. My name is Sam and along with being ...
Welcome to the C Programming Workshop for Makers! Here you'll be able to follow along with our series of easily digestible videos that cover everything you'll need to know to on your way with C programming and start making awesome projects....
[Update – Until there is correct compatibility of OPEN-CV with the new Raspberry Pi ‘Bullseye’ OS I highly recommend at this stage flashing and using the previous Raspberry Pi ‘Buster’ OS onto your Mi...
Ultimaker Cura is an excellent slicing software to get the best out of your 3D printers and make the greatest models it possibly can, but it can do so much more! Cura is a brilliant means to inspire and expand your own creativity particular...
So, you want Python to do something very functional but do not feel like writing heaps of code to achieve that functionality? Then look no further, this guide will teach you exactly how to do that by utilising Python Packages. Python P...
Let's get started with the PiicoDev® OLED Module SSD1306. In this guide, we'll connect the PiicoDev OLED to our Raspberry Pi and get it working with some example code to display text, shapes, and animations. To follo...
IntroductionIn this guide, we'll get a Raspberry Pi Pico W to send and receive data to the cloud using the MQTT protocol. To follow along, all you'll need is: A Raspberry Pi Pico W Understand how to connect the Pico W to WiFi Underst...
In the Plant_io Basic Setup Guide we assembled the Plant_io platform to automatically irrigate plants, and sprouted some seeds. As the project runs, a log file is updated with data captured at each interval. This simple log allows us ...
Welcome to the benchmarking arena! We are going to put eleven microcontrollers to the test and see how they hold up against a set of fiendish tasks that we devised to push them beyond their limits. We chose most of our candidates based on t...
Today will be all about controlling Fully Addressable LED Lights using any Espressif ESP32 Development Board and your mobile Phone all through WIFI! All possible by WLED. There are many ways to use your mobile phone to remotely...
Let's unlock Biometric Control on our Raspberry Pi Single Board Computers! Biometric Technology uses unique physical or behavioral attributes that are individual to each person and not (easily) replicable. Extraordinarily everyone on Earth...
Where do I start? If you’re new to programming Python is a great place to start! I’ve seen Python taught to primary school age children and I have used Python in a Machine Intelligence course at university. It’s no wonder...
Force-sensitive resistors (FSR) are remarkable electrical components and are proper unsung heroes in the Makers World. Name me a better variable touch input device which has basically no moving parts, all whilst being available in such a t...
Geophones are devices that generate electric signals proportional to the particle velocity in a sound/compression wave. More simply a Geophone is a super low frequency microphone for the ground. Geophones are used around the world to measu...
Today we're pulling out the breadboard, getting up and running with an RTC module then finishing up by making ourselves a clock that will keep the correct time even when we pull the plug. To achieve this we will be combining three main com...
This is an update to an older guide done so that we can provide you with the fastest, most modern, and best way to set up your system. Nothing beats bright shiny colourful lights and this guide demonstrates the fastest and most customizab...
In this guide, we go over some common ways of adding motion to your project with actuators such as stepper motors, servos and linear actuators, to help you choose which one is most appropriate for your situation. The start of this guide c...
The aim of this project was to use the sun to charge some batteries with 1W and 2W Seeed solar panels. The DFRobot Solar LiPo Charger and a Sunflower Solar Power Manager were purchased. Initially, this was unsuccessful because I did no...
I wanted to build a weather station. After some googling I found a great ‘how to’ guide using a raspberry pi.
I was also interested in learning Python, so I decided to dive right in...
I wanted to build a weather station. After some googling I found a great ‘how to’ guide using a raspberry pi.
I was also interested in learning Python, so I decided to dive right in...
The aim of this project was to provide a cost effective and basic weather station for my backyard that can upload readings to Weather Underground. Part 2 of the project will be using this local data to trigger activities in and around my ho...
I’ve always been fascinated by LED screens and seeing beautiful colours mix and merge to create vibrant displays. I also love games, so what better way to combine the two than a giant LED pixel matrix which can play games, display aud...
This project will measure atmospheric conditions (Temperature, Humidity, Air Pressure) and log them to an SD card over a long period (months!) while running off a few AA or AAA cells. Usually, projects powered by an Arduino Uno are quite p...
I’ve had a Current Cost Power Monitor for a number of years which worked well until we put solar on the roof. The Current Cost can’t determine which direction the power is flowing and so power generation and con...
I’ve had a Current Cost Power Monitor for a number of years which worked well until we put solar on the roof. The Current Cost can’t determine which direction the power is flowing and so power generation and con...
[Update – Until there is correct compatibility of NPM with the new Raspberry Pi ‘Bullseye’ OS I highly recommend at this stage flashing and using the previous Raspberry Pi ‘Buster’ OS onto your Micro-...
This project uses a Raspberry Pi and TFT display panel to provide a desk clock that also monitors our Home Solar and Battery system, and the weather, in one neat unit.
We recently installed a Solar Panel system and a Tesla Powerwall...
We recently installed a Solar Panel system and a Tesla Powerwall...
Hey, My son is turning 1 and I wanted to setup a retro gaming station for him to learn to game through the ages. I went with RetroPie as it is well documented and supports a range of emulators - and it's easy to setup.My RetroPie Gaming Ki...
Have you ever wanted to make a Weatherproof Weather and Air Quality System that transmits its edge-collected data long-range through LoRa (up to a 10Km range) and then have that data automatically uploaded to the Internet to be gorgeously ...
My brother-in-law has a dairy farm in Victoria and many hours per week are wasted traversing the farm to check water tank levels, opening/closing valves, and other small tasks that could easily be remotely monitored and controlled. It was ...
Recently I finished my first Particle Photon project. It’s basically a temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure monitor all in one! I’m not a programmer, but I know enough to tweak code when necessary. I have, on...
The aim of my project was to make a small display to show information such as the clock, weather, calendar, etc. I liked the idea of making a magic mirror, but wanted to try something more unique, less expensive, and easier to assemble (no ...
This mini cube is made up of six 4x4 WS2812B panels giving a total of 96 individually addressable RGB LEDs. Buried inside the cube is an ATTiny85 microcontroller powered by a 120mAh Lithium-Ion battery. It also contains a mercury switch and...
In the area I live, there are often kangaroos that jump in front of traffic, often from blind spots, and can get themselves into harm's way. I wanted to build a low-cost solution that can alert drivers to kangaroos in these blind spots to r...
I recently picked up a used BMW E46 and noticed the door panel trims were all hanging on by some duct tape. When I went to inspect, I noticed that all the clips had been broken and replaced with silicone rubber to try and hold it to the doo...
Since I was young, I've always loved to explore. Over the years, I've tinkered with RC cars and played with planes, which were always plenty of fun. But I always dreamed of going out further - out into the real world, far beyond the confine...
Converting a Mule into an articulated 4 wheel vehicle. A 'Mule' is/was a hand trolley with a motorised elevatable platform. What for? Just for fun, want to be able to control it using the R2D2 droid inventor app via LittleBits boards, why ...
A simple, and affordable build that produces sharp, and consistent heat-bends. A nichrome wire heats a channel. Place the acrylic over the channel, wait for it to reach temperature, and pull the hingeing section to create a bend.
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This project creates a functional 12-volt portable battery case for camping or other outdoor activities.The battery box provides a 12V cigarette lighter socket for running lights with an on/off switch for ease of use. There is also an Ander...
For $50 and some dedication a retro gaming console can be yours and with HDMI you can play it with any modern TV or monitor. Instead of using bulky and space taking cartridges and discs it's all on the console. For this build, we're going ...
I had first seen smart mirrors online several years ago and have been meaning to create one ever since, my requirements were to be able to see the time, weather, calendar and news. The great thing about it is the unlimited possibility for c...
Hyperweb is a collaborative interactive sculpture installation at Vivid in Sydney. I designed and built a crowd sensing weather station that is used to control an audio "soundscape" within the piece. It also triggers light show events that ...
This project uses a US100 ultrasonic distance sensor to detect instances of a garage tilt door being left open and sends an alert via the IFTTT mobile app. Additionally, the device logs temperature and pressure to a Thingspeak channel using...
I'm an amateur musician but a pretty serious classical & jazz pianist, and this project arose out of my interest in exploring the difference between writing music for synthesisers and music for piano. I work as a mathematician, so...
This project started life as an alarm clock for my son made to look like the time circuit from the Back to the Future movies. The display can show the time in various formats, including the one from the movies of course. It's configurable v...
Now that we have decked out our Lulzbot Taz 6 3D Printer with a really nice looking acrylic enclosure, I'm just about ready to turn on some serious 3D printing work. But before I dive into that endless pool of fun, it's a good time to take ...
Once you go down the retro gaming rabbit hole, that's it, you're not getting out without putting together your own gaming console. It all began with my hacked PSP, which I was running emulators on. Then I wanted to run them on my big screen...
My first arcade cabinet. Built from scratch using mdf panels, a donated monitor and speakers. Powered by Raspberry Pi 3 running the free image "RetroPie". I have put on ab...
My first arcade cabinet. Built from scratch using mdf panels, a donated monitor and speakers. Powered by Raspberry Pi 3 running the free image "RetroPie". I have put on ab...
Introduction Searching for solar panels and related items on the Core Electronics website; I came across the Solarbotics GraviTrack Marble Machine Kit. I thought the kit would be a good educational tool for the grandkids. The kit was a hit...
Do you get nightmares of losing your YouTube Subscribers? If you do, you are not the only one. Luckily I have made this "YouTube Desktop Notifier" to keep me up-to-date with my channels Subscriber and View Counts. This very simple DIY ...
Introduction: Hi everybody. Over the past few weeks, I have been working on an intuitive system that makes working and tinkering with the Piicodev ecosystem even easier! Everybody interested in electronics knows about the universal circui...
Despite having two high-quality variable (but analog) benchtop power supplies, I decided you can never have too many. I also specifically wanted a fixed, multi-output supply for standard project voltages such as 3.3V, 5V, 9V, 12V, ...
Despite having two high-quality variable (but analog) benchtop power supplies, I decided you can never have too many. I also specifically wanted a fixed, multi-output supply for standard project voltages such as 3.3V, 5V, 9V, 12V, ...
This project has been a long and tricky one for me, I purchased my robot arm kit from Jaycar many years ago with the intention of controlling it from the start. I used to work with industrial robots, so when I saw this robot kit for sale I...
I was interested in creating a RPi Cluster to learn about how they work. After getting the clusterhat and Pi Zero Ws I set about creating the images for 5 sd cards. This seemed a waste so I scrapped that idea and setup the image for one sd ...
Wands are cool, right? That's what Trinity, Adele, and April were thinking of our recent littleBits Workshop, down at the Core Electronics Knowledge Factory. Their inspiration for this project came straight from the films, in particular, th...
The idea was to leverage the light transmitting properties of clear acrylic sheeting and pass LED light through it; interfering the transmission using laser cut edges which would cause the light to highlight the lines thereby creating a pai...
The objective of this project was to create an Internet of Things (IoT) device that could give pet access to a food bowl when a text message command was sent from a remote location. I had never done an IoT project before, so I wanted to ke...
The inspiration for this project stems back to my childhood when I was curious to find out how the mechanical barometer worked.
The inspiration for this project stems back to my childhood when I was curious to find out how the mechanical barometer worked.
It is real and here it is! Including everything you need to make one a Luma 1 for yourself! So allow me to introduce you properly to the Luminator Mark 1. I'm talking all the ins and outs of this inside-out neo disco ball so you can ...
I was down at a local game shop recently and noticed their range of chess boards and decided to try my hand at a simple little project. I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, Chess and 3D Printing. So I decided to combine them all together into a fun...
This project came about for a number of reasons. Firstly, we wanted a real showpiece for the school's Resource Centre. It's a real talking point and when people find out that it was made almost enti...
This project came about for a number of reasons. Firstly, we wanted a real showpiece for the school's Resource Centre. It's a real talking point and when people find out that it was made almost enti...
An infinity mirror creates a striking optical illusion - a tunnel of light that seems to tear through space. I built this infinity-mirror table using some addressable LEDs, a Particle Photon and easily obtainable timber supplies. Check out...
After seeing how much fun people had using the Makey Makey as a gaming controller for our RetroPie setup, I decided that more fun, simple projects that can be made using household materials were in order. So today I present to you the piano...
This project is a simple stopwatch with a little bit of a twist! It operates like a conventional stopwatch… you can start and stop it, you can record lap times and you can review the lap times once you hit stop. The twist is th...
I am an amateur musician, coder, and electronics maker. When I found out that the Novation Launchpad (mine is a mini MK3) can be programmed, I was excited about creating unique music. The idea is to use the Launchpad to play a game and use ...
Introduction So now everything is available in this day and age, and all those childhood dreams can now come true as parts, technology and software has come a long way. I had recently taken up the hobby, RC planes. Eventually I learnt ho...
This project is about adding a wireless Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 or ESP32 v2 with Adafruit Featherwing 128x64 OLED to interface with the self-assembled MightyOhm Geiger Kit.
My partner wanted to assist with additional space for possums to live in as trees are being lost in the neighbourhood causing possums to move into unwanted areas. She asked me if there was any way to see if the possums were using the box we...
Ever wanted to know exactly what bird is near you by only the sound but simultaneously have zero ideas about birds? Fear not, here is the solution for you! A fully fletched Bird Call AI System that runs completely on a Raspberry Pi Single ...
I love the ESP line-up. I started by messing around with the ESP8266 and I completely fell in love with it. The 8266 is all I ever wanted from a microcontroller: WIFI connectivity, a decent amount of GPIO, a deep-sleep mode for batter...
Summary A Raspberry Pi 3B is used to collect digital counts from an electronic rain gauge (1mm of rain per reed switch closure by magnetic see-saw). It has been running without issues for over 12 months. A UPS powers the Pi so it is immune...
This project is to allow remote control of my pool and associated lights with a dedicated display inthe house, a phone application and Amazon Alexa. Any and/or all of these input devices may be usedto control the pool. The pool temperature ...
Who says you can't have it all? Good looks and a great sound! My name is 'Holman" and I'm a Bluetooth speaker in the form of mans best friend - a dog of course! Why is my name Holman? Well, that's the name of the manufacturer of the PVC pi...
Introduction My passion hobby is night-time time-lapse photography and astrophotography/nightscapes. This means a lot of time spent outside in the dead of winter overnight and an issue that I faced was dew condensing on the lens. This is...
As part of a larger home automation project, I wanted the ability to control some mains power outlets remotely. To achieve this, I interfaced the transmitter from an inexpensive 433MHz mains remote control kit with a raspberry pi zero w (vi...
Introduction This began as an idea after building a very basic single-channel unit. Commercial smart watering systems use a Wifi connection to the internet and get weather reports to determine the level of watering required. These systems...
How-to guides are very useful, but while “do this, then do that” is great to reproduce exactly what is in the guide, it’s less helpful if you want or need to modify the project. This is especially true with technology proj...
In this project, I'm using an esp32 board combined with a thermistor, plus an Amazon Web Services Lambda API plus some web charting code for temperature sensing. Source code can be found in the GitHub repository: https://github.com/Acr...
This is an awesome project that takes about 6 hours to complete. Hours upon hours of endless fun thereafter! Ideally, some prior soldering experience is advantageous but if you take your time and practice before you start it's beginner fri...
If you haven't already seen it, check out part 1 of this project. it has all the background info in it. And if you haven't got one yet, get yourself a particle photon, they are great. This part of the project was hooking the particle photon...
Update: Community member Chris has had a go at remaking this project after the original project contributor Denver made the original code repository private. GitHub links below will not work but the original project has been kept here for...
I used to sleep in a caravan on my grandparent's property and as amenities were inside the house I had to go in and out of it quite regularly. I got sick of fumbling around with keys to go in and out of my caravan, so this project uses an A...
If you have chickens and find you're not always available to close the gate at night or check the water levels each day, then why not use an ESP8266 to automate your chicken door and receive alerts door status and low water level, as well a...
Remote Controls are magical enough to recreate this awesome Death Eater Skull. You can switch it on from across the room and make it glow an evil green! Jake and Nathan built this invention at a littleBits Workshop down at the Core Electron...
After purchasing an Anycubic Photon resin printer, I wanted an easy and reliable method for post-curing the prints. This allows the printed resin to achieve maximum material strength and eliminate tackiness in...
After purchasing an Anycubic Photon resin printer, I wanted an easy and reliable method for post-curing the prints. This allows the printed resin to achieve maximum material strength and eliminate tackiness in...
Hi all. Thought I'd share with you my modded Spirit Halloween proton pack. It's about 80% scale, which is plenty big enough for my 7-year-old son, and still looks decently sized on adults. As soon as I learned of this pack, 5-year-old me ju...
We made a Pi Zero W retro-games console! The nostalgia is making me dizzy! If you'd like to build your own, we've put together a couple of wishlists to make things easier: For the Pi Zero W build, like in this project, check out the PiG...
I like to take on projects that give me an opportunity to learn new things. For this project, my two goals were to learn more about face detection algorithms and PID controllers but of course, there were so many more skills learned along th...
Introducing to you today, the Quadbeest, the next evolutionary step in the Strandbeest genealogy. It seemed to be about time for Strandbeests to evolve to take over the air, so I made it happen. Able to be controlled over a kilometre in the...
In preparation for some Maker Faire's we were heading to last year, I wanted to combine the awesomeness of the Makey Makey platform, with the fun that is RetroPie. For those who don't know the Makey Makey, it's a fantastic platform that all...
An array of individual cosmic ray detectors distributed across a landscape to display how cosmic rays arrive as showers of muons. It's all powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero!This project deployed 16 individual cosmic ray detectors on the banks ...
Do you want a quick, easy, cheap RF remote control for your Raspberry Pi projects? Well, look no further than the front door! As you've probably got a half-duplex RF setup you've never considered using in a project before. Try this simple h...
This project aims to fuse neopixel strips with papier mache and origami into a free-standing electro-sculpture. The freestanding structure is formed from wire mesh and papier mache. It is then painted and wired up with strips of LEDs conne...
I had been captivated by the sound levels of trains I could hear passing by Metford throughout the day/night. I wondered if a sound level sensor reporting data back over LoRa would help me understand when a train was noisy. I also like the ...
I strapped a Raspberry Pi Pico W to my garage door motor and now I can control my garage door from my phone! The Pico W hosts a simple webpage on my local network with three control buttons - one for Up, Stop and Down. Pressing one of...
I was looking for something educational to 3D-Print for my child in Thingiverse and came across the concept of the Math Spinner. I found the models lacked a method of checking the answer so I wanted to automate it. The core design is inspir...
YAM (or YetAnotherMonitor) I keep more than 20 enclosures of Australian native lizards and turtles and I want to make sure they are all in an appropriate environment. To that end, I built a microcontroller-based system to monitor the tempe...
This project has been created to be used as an exemplar for Year 7 Technology students to demonstrate some of the features and potential of making with a micro:bit. This device is a teacher tool or game accompaniment device that random...
Using a few bits and pieces, this ordinary coffee grinder now has two presets to run the motor for a programmable length of time. The idea being that the grinder running for a set amount of time will deliver a certain amount of coffee each ...
The UNITRAC (UNIversal TRACtion system) is a simple 3D printable conversion for the Black Gladiator-Tracked chassis, It’s designed to transform the large wheelbase platform into a self-contained propulsion system that has all the torq...
Do you love your Wii and its ability to play all GameCube games perfectly but wish you could take it on the go like a Gameboy?
Well, I definitely did and if you're like me so do you. And here is the right place...
Do you love your Wii and its ability to play all GameCube games perfectly but wish you could take it on the go like a Gameboy?
Well, I definitely did and if you're like me so do you. And here is the right place...
A smaller version of our amazing Infinity-Mirror Table - the Desktop Infinity Mirror compresses all the colourful goodness into a picture frame-sized display. The entire design is made from laser-cut acrylic that we cut in-house. Check out ...
Wow - this is one monstrous sounding and great looking speaker - even if I do say so myself! This is basically a 2.1 (stereo + subwoofer) system made with 3D plastic parts. Both the full range and subwoofer speakers are based on closed (se...
I want to make a portable music box that my 2 year old kid can operate intuitively on her own. So, Spotify or any other on-demand music platform with tablets and Bluetooth speakers are out of the question. Remember the good old days of putt...
The Raspberry Pi Microscope was put together to help with soldering PCBs that have small surface mount components. Its main function is to verify the quality of solder joints and ensure there aren’t any short circuits. With the addition of...
This thermometer idea came to me when my little sister asked me “Vince, what’s the temperature?” Answering I said, “Well, I’ll look it up.” So I looked it up but that wasn’t enough for her, This con...
This project started due to the smoke haze that enveloped our area during the 2019 and 2020 bushfires. I wanted something to check the air quality of my home and maybe find areas where it needed better sealing. In addition, the BMP280 senso...
Tunnels are a critical part of road infrastructure and they feature some pretty cool tech. This Smart Tunnel project demonstrates some of the technology involved and how some real-world problems might be solved. Features RFID Trip...
We wanted to make a interactive display of the fun that can be had with DIY projects to take to Sydney Mini Maker Faire. We decided to do so by utilising the TinkerKit Braccio from Arduino.org, alongside some 3D Printing ingenuity, for an e...
The Raspberry Pi Zero W is a tiny, yet powerful little device. Coupled with a Pimoroni Speaker pHat, it can be easily turned into a portable Airplay speaker which allows you to stream your music anywhere you want.Parts you'll need: Raspb...
IntroductionI wanted to bring ageing, and failing, Home Automation infrastructure into the modern age whilst retaining hardware investments already made. Our house had Universal Power Bus (UPB) dimmers and switches installed at build time...
These days we can do just about anything on our phone, we can control so many aspects of our lives using the technology in our pocket, but the most mundane aspects of our lives; opening the garage door, blindly reaching for the light switch...
Here is a project I just could not help myself but build. A 3D printable Ukulele with a body as large as I could fit standing upright on the printers here. The intention was to make it as large as possible, using no supports, and without th...
The purpose of this project is to design a system that will automatically track stars or satellites. The first version, described here, is specifically to track stars and operate a Raspberry Pi HQ camera to take a series of long-exposure im...
Chances are if you are anything like me, being a maker is often an excuse to create as big of a mess as possible during the duration of a project. And after the project is finished? You are left with an enormous mess to clean up, taking awa...
After experimenting with automatic blue light filters on my electronic devices I wanted to replicate the idea with the lighting around the house so that it would gradually transition to warmer colours as the night progresses. I believe this...
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