Back in stock! Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 - CircuitPython Powered Internet Display

No solder, no wiring, just instant plug-and-play? Dream no more - there's never been an easier way to create powerful Internet-connected LED displays.

ASK AN ENGINEER 4/24/2024 LIVE! https://youtu.be/ZrHuU2WIxJM

SHOW and TELL 4/24/2024 https://youtu.be/KHfQy6cS3gc

TRRS Trinkey makes AT projects EZ

ATMakers emailed and asked if we'd make a Trinkey (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=trinkey) with a TRRS jack (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5764) on the end, for making customizable HID devices that use simple 3.5mm audio jack connectors. ideally something that will make AT - Accessibility Technology - projects EZ to build and maintain.

here's our take on it, what's interesting is each pin of the jack - including the two switches for tip and ring1 - connect to GPIO / analog inputs on the SAMD21. there's no pre-defined VCC or GND because different switch and joystick makers have different configurations and we might want to change around what pins are power, ground, pullups, etc!

this board will be great for use with CircuitPython to make any sort of AT switch or potentiometer interface super fast, to demo it we've written up a quick CPy sketch that will listen for two switches, and when they're pressed, blink the NeoPixel and emit keypresses as if its a keyboard. code is in the PR for this board (https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/9190#issuecomment-2067764251) since we have great HID support it could also be a mouse or joystick device and it will work with any computer/tablet/console with a USB port.

Desk of Ladyada - Two Terrific Trinkeys + Z80 Processors https://youtu.be/fglUueXSCxU

Two Trinkey prototypes: the TRRS Trinkey for easy AT projects and the Pixel Trinkey driving up to 10,000 pixels. Also, Zilog’s Z80 processors hit End-of-Life, but are still available for a final purchase.

Keep your Pico toes Toasty with a DVI Sock

the Raspberry Pi RP2040 has a fun trick up it's sleeve, er, pants! it can bitbang DVI video output from a series of pins using PIO as long as its overclocked enough and you have the PIO peripherals available. we already designed a DVI PiCowbell (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5745), but we rather like the DVI sock design originating from wren6991 (https://github.com/Wren6991/Pico-DVI-Sock)

it's designed to slip on to the 'foot' of a Pico or PicoW and there's a few times where i've thought "oh man I wish I had a DVI sock to test this-or-that" so here's our spin on it, we kept the sockish-PCB, the full-size DVI port, mounting holes, and passives. we added a couple more breakout holes for CEC, Util and HotPlugDetect. this should make our video toaster, er, toaster video projects ez-breezy

Coming soon - Pixel Trinkey!

We were taking a look at the new Windows 11 HID Dynamic Lighting protocol (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/component-guidelines/dynamic-lighting-devices) and i thought this would be a good excuse to design a small NeoPixel or DotStar driver board. like many of our other Trinkeys (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=Trinkey) it is running a SAM21E18, which is a small chip, but the 32KB of SRAM can drive nearly 10,000 pixels! we put a 5V level shifter on a SPI peripheral so they could be used as data/clock or, if you want, two NeoPixel strands. this isn't a super-fancy driver: it isn't NeoPXL8 (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=neopxl8) where you get dithering and DMA, but it's probably just fine for the vast amount of lighting projects.

Coming soon - More PiCowbell underplates, this time a Tripler!

What? Adafruit Proto Doubler PiCowbell (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5906) is evolving! Congratulations…your Doubler has evolved into a Tripler! We've added yet another Pico footprint to our doubler, now its chonkier than ever and can handle big projects that need 2 'bells in addition to the Pico or Pico W (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=pi+pico). We shuffled around some of the extras so that the middle row has the reset button and a NeoPixel controlled by pin AD2. Then on the left we put the I2C Stemma QT connector and squoozed in an EYESPI connector so you can quickly attach any of our EYESPI displays with an FPC cable (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=EYESPI). we wanted to keep pins IO0 thru IO14 available so we didn't connect all the EYESPI pins, specifically Reset and Busy, but SPI and the TFT / touch control pins are set up. Time to book prototypes!

ASK AN ENGINEER 4/17/2024 LIVE! https://youtu.be/q6VhxfeCcOM

SHOW and TELL 4/17/2024 https://youtu.be/J7F0JHMFcaE

Desk of Ladyada - 8051 Throwback Episode https://youtu.be/GDct_I-qTx0

Explore the CH552 QT Py board and CH55xduino support, we are testing its 8051 chip which supports native USB and multiple interfaces at low cost. The Great Search features a hunt for multi-voltage AC-DC power supplies to repair vintage electronics.

Coming soon - CH552 QT Py is a tiny 8051 board

We designed this CH552-based QT Py board before the chip shortage, but now parts are plentiful so we made some prototypes and are trying out the CH55xduino (https://github.com/DeqingSun/ch55xduino) board support package. and, it works! but watch out, its C not C++ so you can't use the huge collection of existing libraries and drivers. however, for about '40 cents' per chip, you get a 8051 with native USB that can do CDC/HID, has 4x 8-bit ADCs, hardware serial, I2C, SPI and doesn't need a crystal or a lot of passives. obviously there's down sides to such a minimal 8-bit microcontroller chip but we think it could be super fun for some very basic USB projects!

ASK AN ENGINEER 4/10/2024 LIVE! https://youtu.be/s9wp4TvTmuc

SHOW and TELL 4/10/2024 https://youtu.be/9aliKuS8NTw

Desk of Ladyada - Infrared Testers & Tons of Trinkeys! https://youtu.be/trK2tNe4iUk

Creating infrared board testers and small designs, including an Accessibility Trinkey and a Pixel Trinkey. Also exploring PCB-mount USB C plugs for modern Trinkeys.

ESP32-C6 Feather is here, time to bring it up 🚀🛠️💡

The ESP32-C6 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5672) is Espressif’s first Wi-Fi 6 SoC integrating 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 (LE) and the 802.15.4 protocol. It brings the goodness you know from the low-cost C3 series (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5337) and improves it with Zigbee/802.15.4 at 2.4Ghz. That means it could make for great Matter (https://csa-iot.org/all-solutions/matter/) development hardware!

We took our Feather ESP32-S2 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5000) and swapped out the 'S2 for a C6. Plus some re-routing and here's what we've got: a C6 Feather with lots of GPIO, lipoly charging and monitoring with the MAX17048, (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5580) NeoPixel, I2C Stemma QT port, and a second low-quiescent LDO for disabling the I2C and NeoPixel when we want ultra-low power usage. We also tossed a BME280 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2652) on there, so you could use it immediately as a low power temp/hum/pressure sensor.

Now it's time to do the bringup - we like to blink LEDs, toggle pins, and also check that NeoPixels glow up. Good news: so far everything works! We're going to keep at it and see if we can maybe get a simple Matter demo going before we book the PCBs

Coming soon - USB Plug with THM mounting tabs

We've had some requests to get our Trinkeys soldered up with USB C plugs instead of USB A and like, that turns out to not be trivial! we have to find a USB C plug with through hold tabs so they're nice and strong, and ideally one that isn't "Straddle Mount" where you have to manually place it on the two edges of a PCB. this connector is a nice balance, it has 12 pins so it isn't USB 3.0 but that's OK because right now we're only using USB 2 on our microcontrollers. there's only one CC pin, that's how the upstream can determine orientation. these are more expensive than USB type A but if this works, we can try making some Trinkeys that plug right into modern laptops.