A Temperature Measurement Device Using an Adafruit Si7021 @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Here’s a project using the Adafruit Si7021 Temperature & Humidity Sensor Breakout Board. It utilizes a Raspberry Pi Zero and Pimoroni Display-o-Tron for the readout. Here’s more from Dr H via instructables:

[This project] allows to measure temperature and humidity using the relatively precise Si7021 sensor. In combination with a Pi Zero and a power bank you can build a small mobile device.

With some minor adaptions this example may also be helpful to construct other measuring devices using ic2 sensors. E.g. a cheap mobile photometer for field research, or a device to measure colors precisely. And, as it is i2c, you may use multiple different sensors in parallel.

See project!

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Desk of Ladyada – the desk gets a lift! #DeskOfLadyada

This week at our desk, we’re working on my desk! We purchased a motorized ‘sit-stand’ kit so that we can spend a few minutes not on our butt. We can look at some design decisions for how the motors and controls work together.

We also got back a few prototypes we worked on from previous weeks: the sunken USB C breakout & ICS-43434 I2S mic work out of the box. Next, we might try wiring up the PCM1820 since it’s no firmware.

This week, we also managed to wrap up the Feather RP2350 HSTX – the tester needed a few tweaks, but the boards are finally live and in stock – more PCBs are on the way, so if you didn’t get one, sign up and we’ll have more in about a week. That means that 1) we can wrap up redoing the Metro RP2350 design, and 2) we can start ‘bones’-ing the Feather by swapping out components on the end.

On The Great Search, Ladyada looks for an I2S DAC with volume control and headphone amp. See the chosen part on DigiKey.

See the video below:

The Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: subscribe for free today

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Rasspberry Pi AI Assistant – Build your own AI friend! #piday #raspberrypi

A cute Pi friend from Adam Frydrych on Hackster.io. To acheive the compact size some hacking was required. Another unique feature is utilzing the PlayStation Eye for a cheap microphone array.

My AI assistant uses a similar approach to other, successful voice recognition systems (namely Rhasspy). In my case, however, the Raspberry Pi 4B runs a voice recognition software (called VOSK) locally and interfaces with a large language model hosted on one of my PCs through an OpenAI-compliant API endpoint (Ollama). Thanks to NordVPN’s Meshnet I can, and actually do, that from anywhere in the world.

See the full guide!

The GitHub repository can be found here: https://github.com/RoseyWasTaken/ASR-AI

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Looking to experiment more with AI friends? checkout the Infinite Text Adventure or Python Edge Speech Recognition with Voice2JSON on the Adafruit Learning center

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Solar Camera Built With Raspberry Pi @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Photographers work to control light and time. Here is a project that can harness even more use-value from the sun. This project will create a solar camera, powered by Raspberry Pi. Here’s more from Hackday:

Ever since an impromptu build completed during a two-week COVID-19 quarantine back in 2020, [Will Whang] has been steadily improving his Raspberry Pi solar photography setup. It integrates a lot of cool stuff: multiple sensors, high bandwidth storage, and some serious hardware. This is no junk drawer build either, the current version uses a $2000 USD solar telescope (an LS60M with 200mm lens) and a commercial AZ-GTi mount.

He also moved up somewhat with the imaging devices from the Raspberry Pi camera module he started with to two imaging sensors of his own: the OneInchEye and the StarlightEye, both fully open source. These two sensors feed data into the Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module, which dumps the raw images into storage.

See more!

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

PiEEG-16 measures 16 channels of biodata on a Raspberry Pi #PiDay @Raspberry_Pi

PiEEG-16 is a cost-effective gateway into the fascinating world of neuroscience. PIEEG-16 is a versatile hat for Raspberry Pi designed to measure 16 channels of various biosignals, including EEG (electroencephalography), EMG (electromyography), and ECG (electrocardiography) without any data transfer over the network (WiFi, Bluetooth) and processing and feature extraction directly on the Pi in real-time. It is the follow-on to the PiEEG posted last year.

Affordable Multichannel Measurement: The PIEEG-16 offers a budget-friendly solution for capturing 16 channels of EEG data, making it accessible to researchers, students, and hobbyists alike.

Open-Source Software: Accompanied by Python-based open-source software, the device enables users to process and analyze data with flexibility and transparency.

Near Real-Time Performance: The system boasts almost real-time capabilities, allowing for rapid adjustments to the ADS1299 chip registers and easy customization of the provided SDK to meet specific user requirements.

Satisfactory Signal Quality: Despite its affordability, the PIEEG-16 demonstrates a commendable noise level and accuracy in artifact detection, ensuring reliable data collection.

Validated Alpha Rhythm Detection: The device has been rigorously tested for its ability to detect alpha rhythms, a critical brain wave pattern in neuroscience research.
This innovative tool opens up new possibilities for neuroscience research and brain-computer interface experiments. By combining the power of RaspberryPi with specialized biosignal measurement capabilities, the PIEEG-16 represents a significant step forward in democratizing neuroscience research and exploration.

Examples are on GitHub. See the video below and more on the website.

Air Monitor With RP2040-Zero, SSD1306 Oled Screen and SHT31 Sensors (I2C)

Nice build from mechanical engineer and maker gubutek.

In this project, I used microcontroller to monitor the humidity and temperature of 2 different locations. The measured data is shown on SSD1306 oled screen

See more project details here on Instructables and YouTube.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

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Ongoing Raspberry Pi RP2350 and Pico 2 coverage!

11,328 subscribers and growing

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It arrives about 11 am Monday (US Eastern time) with all the week’s happenings.

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Please sign up > > >

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The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).

This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information (and more) that you may have missed, all in one place!

You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no ads! You can cancel anytime.

Ongoing Raspberry Pi RP2350 and Pico 2 coverage!

11,328 subscribers and growing

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It arrives about 11 am Monday (US Eastern time) with all the week’s happenings.

And please tell your friends, colleagues, students, etc.

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Hand Puppet Eyebrow Mechanism Installation #ArtTuesday

If you are interested in making puppets or creatures the Stan Winston Shool on YouTube is worth checking out. In this video BJ Guyer goes over some mechanism basics.

In this excerpt from “Puppet Mechanism Basics – Part 2,” character fabricator & puppeteer BJ Guyer (Muppet’s Wizard of Oz, Glee, Crank Yankers) shows you how to install and test an eyebrow mechanism for a foam hand puppet. Free chapter includes advice on properly fastening a pull string to puppet eye mechanisms to prevent slippage and avoid unnecessary maintenance.

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Craft puppets with the Adafruit Learning System!

• MP3 Playback in CircuitPython with Lars the Sloth Puppet By John Park
• Animatronic Fizzgig MonsterM4sk Puppet By Erin St Blaine
• Micro:Bit Puppet “Text Message” System! By Jen Fox
• Chinese Dragon Puppet with Motion-Reactive Flame Effect By Erin St Blaine

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!

Armulet allows Raspberry Pi to run Arm code on RISC-V

ARMULET is a C ARMv6M / ARMv8M-baseline emulator by Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is using Armulet to run Arm code on RISC-V in the RP2350 bootrom. The effort could be augmented to run legacy Arm code on a RISC-V only architecture.

VARMULET is a ARMv6M / ARMv8M-baseline ARMv6M emulator

The goals of VARMULET:

• small code size (currently 3K) and it can be placed in ROM
• ? fast enough to run USB boot code under RISC-V (which will also be a non-secure ARMv6M binary under ARM). VARMULET seems to be about 3x faster than ARMULET on RISC-V for now for one particular use case which is printf heavy. We will need to test with the boot code (and also SVC calls for things like memcpy, memset)
• TODO extensible by non ROM code, with no ROM specific functionality baked in (e.g. handling of priv mode, IRQ, breakpoints, SVC etc). It should basically be possible to use the emulator on Amy RISC-V programs, and also to extend it to support other 32 bit instructions for example

Per the RP2350 bootrom details:

“Because of limited space, we cannot duplicate a lot of code in RISC-V, so ARM code is emulated (varmulet) on RISC-V. We emulate (roughly) Arm8-M Baseline not Arm8-M Mainline as it has many fewer less complex instructions (Arm8-M Baseline adds a small number of, but very handy instructions over m0-plus)

• ‘a lot of’ is perhaps an understatement… pretty much everything is emulated now, including the main boot path, and API functions.
• there are a huge number of “asm hacks” where we drop into assembly, and a bunch of other tricks we use to save instruction/data space.
• Other than glue code, the only RISC-V code is really for RISC-V only APIs/setup, and stuff that needs to be optimized for speed.
• Unused ARM hardware hint instructions (and/or RCP instructions) are used to make code behave differently under real ARM or emulation.
• ARM only code is compiled for Arm8-M Mainline (m33).
• Emulatable code is compiled for Arm8-M Baseline (m23), though emulation of UDIV and SDIV is not included in the bootrom, since they are unused by emulated code. The actual instructions included are (over Arm6m0-plus)
  1. b.w, cbz, cbnz, movw, movt from Arm8-M Baseline.
  2. RCP instructions (they are NOPs).
  3. Special cases of mov.w. This is a Arm8-M Mainline instruction, but we want efficient loads of constants 0xmm00mm00, 0x00nn00nn and 0xpppppppp which are used by the RCP
  4. MSPLIM (also Arm8-M Mainline)
  5. SG (Arm8-M Mainline) we can redirect Arm NS->S calls to different code on RISC-V.”

See more on the Armulet GitHub.

How It’s Made Oil Paints #ArtTuesday

Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. How its made shared this video on Youtube!

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!

Folding paper flowers with a pneumatic robot #ArtTuesday

Rahix and Lena both really wanted to dive into the topic of pneumatics. They searched for a small project to build.

Those who know me (rahix) personally have probably at some point noticed my weird obsession with folding paper flowers. Not origami – often there is glue and cutting involved with these flowers – but something close to it. Some people have coined the term “fleurogami” for it. I can’t tell why, but I’m absolutely addicted.

The goal was to build a machine which automatically creases patterns into paper. It took a while, we learned a lot, but in the end, we made this project a reality.

There is a whole series by the pair that goes through the process section by section. See the posts here.

Feather RP2350 boards are being tested and are close to shipping

Our RP2350 Feather design is finally inching closer to release in the adafruit shop – having fixed a clock delay bug that was causing 50% of our boards to not boot, we’ve now got the tester working well and able to program and test boards in about 8 seconds. Now that we know the hardware is in good shape, we’ll fabricate more and get this first set of 150 pieces into the shop. sign up to get first dibs! Sign up here and video.

Using Waydroid on the Raspberry Pi to Run Android Apps #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

PiMyLifeUp shares how to use Waydroid on your Pi.

Waydroid is a container-based approach for running Android apps on a Linux-powered device such as the Raspberry Pi. This container approach allows the Waydroid to run a full Android operating system alongside your main operating system.

The most significant advantage of this method is that you can run an Android app as if it were a native Linux application. Waydroid seamlessly maps the Linux namespace to their Android equivalents while giving it full access to your Raspberry Pi’s hardware.

Read more.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

AI Bubble Shooting RC Tanks #piday #raspberrypi

YouTuber Kahosh RC and AI Tech (fittingly named) built this AI powered Raspberry Pi RC tank that shoots targeted bubbles. Cool find from Tom’s Hardware:

This bubble blasting RC tank robot integrates one of our favorite SBCs, the Raspberry Pi, specifically the Raspberry Pi 4. According to Kahosh, this Pi is used primarily for machine learning and other AI features. That said, it also works in tandem with an Arduino Nano module (a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 could also be used. ) This is a useful board for handling the physical aspects of the tank so the Pi can be used for more in depth AI processing.

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Build a My Mini Race Car with John Park

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

The Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: subscribe for free today

The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).

This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information (and more) that you may have missed, all in one place!

You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no ads! You can cancel anytime.

Ongoing Raspberry Pi RP2350 and Pico 2 coverage!

11,307 subscribers and growing

Try our spam-free newsletter today! 

It arrives about 11 am Monday (US Eastern time) with all the week’s happenings.

And please tell your friends, colleagues, students, etc.

Please sign up > > >

The Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: subscribe for free today

The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).

This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information (and more) that you may have missed, all in one place!

You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no ads! You can cancel anytime.

Ongoing Raspberry Pi RP2350 and Pico 2 coverage!

11,307 subscribers and growing rapidly

Try our spam-free newsletter today! 

It arrives about 11 am Monday (US Eastern time) with all the week’s happenings.

And please tell your friends, colleagues, students, etc.

Please sign up > > >

DIY Crayola (TM) Scented Candle #AdafruitLearningSystem @Adafruit

Make Your Own Scented Candles with Crayola Crayons

Ever get hit with a wave of nostalgia from the smell of Crayola crayons? Us too! So, when we heard Crayola trademarked that iconic scent, we thought—why not turn it into something even cooler? That’s right, we’re talking about DIY scented candles made from Crayola crayons.

In this tutorial, we’ll guide you through the process of creating colorful, scented candles using your favorite childhood art supplies. Whether you’re a crafting pro or just looking for a fun weekend project, this is a perfect way to get creative, upcycle those leftover crayons, and add a pop of color and scent to your space.

Full tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/crayola-scented-candle/overview

Materials

• Crayola crayons (pick your favorite colors, and get more than one box!)
• Dixie cups (or any disposable cup you can sacrifice to the wax gods)
• A pot (one you don’t mind getting a bit crayon-y)
• Twine (for a homemade wick)
• A glass jar (for your beautiful candle creation)
• Tape (for wick control)
• A stove (for melting wax)

Why Crayons?

Crayons aren’t just for drawing—they’re also a fantastic way to add vibrant color to your candles. Plus, this project is a great excuse to dig out those old crayon stubs you’ve been saving for “someday.” Combine them with some wax and a touch of your favorite essential oils, and you’ve got yourself a super fun, custom candle. And did we mention it smells like Crayola?

The Process:

If you’ve ever melted wax before, this will be a breeze. If not, no worries—we’ll walk you through every step. From prepping your crayons to pouring the wax, it’s all about having fun and getting creative. Mix colors, layer scents, and make each candle uniquely yours.

Great for Gifts, Art Spaces, and Beyond

These candles aren’t just for fun—they make great handmade gifts or a quirky addition to your home decor. Line them up on your desk, brighten up your art studio, or gift them to a fellow maker who loves all things DIY.

Safety First!

As always, remember to follow basic safety precautions when working with hot wax. Keep an eye on your materials, and make sure you’re in a well-ventilated area. Safety goggles and gloves? Totally optional, but we won’t judge if you go full maker mode!

Ready to Make Your Own?

Check out our full tutorial here and get started. We can’t wait to see your creations! Don’t forget to share your colorful candles with us on social media using #AdafruitCandles.

Happy crafting, and remember—sometimes the simplest materials can lead to the most amazing projects. Who knew crayons could be this cool? 🖍️🕯️

Video Tutorial Link: https://youtu.be/5pUtlw3OJVY

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This project is all about having fun with everyday items and turning them into something extraordinary. So, grab your crayons, heat up that wax, and let your creativity flow!

Adafruit Store: www.adafruit.com
Guide by Erin St Blaine with some inspiration from ChatGPT

NEW PRODUCT – Raspberry Pi Pico 2 – RP2350

NEW PRODUCT – Raspberry Pi Pico 2 – RP2350

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Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is Raspberry Pi Foundation’s update to their popular RP2040-based Pico board, now built on RP2350: their new high-performance, secure microcontroller. With a higher core clock speed, double the on-chip SRAM (512KB), double the on-board flash memory (4MB!), more powerful Arm M33 cores, new security and low-power features, and upgraded interfacing capabilities, the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 delivers a significant performance and feature boost while retaining hardware and software compatibility with earlier members of the Raspberry Pi Pico series.

The unique dual-core, dual-architecture capability of RP2350 allows users to choose between a pair of industry-standard Arm Cortex-M33 cores and a pair of open-hardware Hazard3 RISC-V cores. You can use either Arm or RISC-V cores, so this is a great way to dabble in RISC-V development with an affordable board that has lots of peripherals. The M33 has an FPU, and is ‘basically’ 2x as fast as the M0+ of the RP2040 when we speed-tested it.

Not only is the Pico 2 twice as fast, it has twice as much RAM, 520KB compared to 264KB. The Pico also has twice as much FLASH memory, 4MB instead of 2MB, which will make it a much better board for CircuitPython usage where the internal memory is used to store files. There’s also one more PIO blocks (3 blocks with 4 state machines apiece, rather than 2) so you can do even more pin twiddling at once. For folks who want to use the RP2350 to generate high frequency output signals like DVI display output, you can use the HSTX (high speed transmission) peripheral rather than PIO.

For customers who wanted a more secure microcontroller for product design, the RP2350 provides a comprehensive security architecture, built around Arm TrustZone for Cortex-M, and incorporating signed boot, 8KB of antifuse OTP for key storage, SHA-256 acceleration, a hardware TRNG, and fast glitch detectors. These features, including the secure boot ROM, are extensively documented and available to all users without restriction: this transparent approach, which contrasts with the “security through
obscurity” offered by legacy vendors, allows professional users to integrate RP2350, and Raspberry Pi Pico 2, into products with confidence.

Programmable in C / C++ and CircuitPython/MicroPython, and with detailed documentation, Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is the ideal microcontroller board for enthusiasts and professional developers alike. It makes an excellent upgrade to the RP2040, with lots of back-compatibility and some excellent upgrades.

In stock and shipping now!

Tunnel System from pi-slices #ArtTuesday

Here are some pipes. The piece is titled Tunnel System, from the GIF artist pi-slices.

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!

The Pentium as a Navajo weaving

Super cool and thorough blog post from Ken Shirriff on a Navajo weaving of the Pentium chip. He spoke with the artist, Marilou Schultz, to get more background on the artwork’s creation and significance:

I talked with Marilou Schultz, a Navajo/Diné weaver and math teacher, to learn more about the artwork. Schultz learned weaving as a child—part of four generations of weavers—carding the wool, spinning it into yarn, and then weaving it. For the Intel project, she worked from a photograph of the die, marking it into 64 sections along each side so the die pattern could be accurately transferred to the weaving. Schultz used the “raised outline” technique, which gives a three-dimensional effect along borders. One of the interesting characteristics of the Pentium from the weaving perspective is its lack of symmetry, unlike traditional rugs. The Pentium weaving was colored with traditional plant dyes; the cream regions are the natural color of the wool from the long-horned Navajo-Churro sheep.2 The yarn in the weaving is a bit finer than the yarn typically used for knitting. Weaving was a slow process, with a day’s work extending the rug by 1″ to 1.5″.

Check out the full post here.

Desk of Ladyada – Sniffly Sunday!

This last week we got a cold that knocked us out for a few days so we don’t have as much exciting new hardware but we did get a couple prototype designs knocked out, including an ICS43434 I2S microphone, TMF8828 Grid ToF breakout, TCS34303 XYZ CIE Color sensor, and AS7343 14-channel Spectrometer.

We also got our tester for the RP2350 HSTX Feather ready for coding so folks can expect that board to get tested and in stock this week, barring any last minute failures.

And on The Great Search: I2S microphone and the chosen part on DigiKey.