Gadgets

Last year I dabbled in the Maker scene and worked on some hardware projects involving Adafruit products, MicroPython, Arduino and solar devices. Nowadays is so easy to get your project up and running, I’m already thinking on the next one before finishing the one I’m working on. Although I’ve done just a handful of these projects, I came across a couple of tools that really improved the whole building experience and allowed me to work faster and in a safer way....

I’ve been experimenting with time-lapse shots for a while now. Unfortunately, time-lapse shooting options on most DSLR and mirrorless cameras are somewhat limited. At the time of this writing, Sony doesn’t even include the feature on their high end cameras by default (you need to buy an “App” and download it to the camera). Some time ago, I posted the setup I had been using for shooting time-lapses using a Raspberry Pi, a portable battery and a USB cable....

Quarks rating explanation here. Hardware Design Rating: 8.5/10 It seems like every aspect of these headphones has been carefully thought out, with no superfluous lines or flashy colors. Beyerdynamic was able to make a pair of headphones that not only looks good, but that also feels good (and sounds even better, but more on that later). They represent the perfect combination of elegance, quality and industrial design. There is only one button, but that’s enough, as the right ear-cup’s exterior surface is actually a touch sensitive pad, capable of controlling music (fast forward, rewind, skip), adjusting volume and taking calls just by tapping and swiping on it....

I’ve been looking for an excuse to use most of the capabilities of the Sense HAT on a project. I’ve used it before as an interactive/visual interface to run scripts on a Raspberry Pi 3, but that project was really underutilizing the board. The Sense HAT is part of the AstroPi project (the project that allowed UK schools to run experiments in space). It bundles an 8x8 color LED matrix, a mini joystick and a ton of sensors (barometric pressure, humidity, temperature, accelerometer, 3D Gyroscope and magnetometer)....

I’ve been looking for an excuse to do a little project with Adafruit’s Feather HUZZAH board and MicroPython. As an engineer who graduated some years ago, having a Wi-Fi enabled micro-controller which runs (Micro) Python 3 and costs less than $20, is really amazing. My initial plan was to use this automatic lawn sprinkler to be a rodent deterrent to keep rabbits and squirrels out of my lawn, but I have also used it to keep flower beds and newly planted trees hydrated....