The Adafruit crew (Noe and Pedro) has designed a slick reactive drum system based on the Atmel-powered Gemma (ATtiny85) and NeoPixels. Essentially, this means musicians and Makers can easily upgrade their drum kits with sound reactive LEDs. “This build uses a mic amp sensor and Gemma to light up NeoPixels to the beat of your […]
Earlier this week, Atmel expanded its low-power 8-bit tinyAVR family with the addition of the ATtiny441 and ATtiny841. According to Atmel’s Director of Flash-based MCUs Ingar Fredriksen, the 8-bit AVR microcontrollers are ideal for cost-effective consumer applications and a wide range of Maker projects. Indeed, the new ATtiny 441/841 MCUs boast higher system integration with […]
Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, decorating home exteriors, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories and of course, watching horror films. We at Atmel would like to add one more item to the Wikipedia list above: building Halloween-themed Maker projects like Bill […]
Adafruit’s Trinket is a tiny microcontroller board built around Atmel’s versatile ATtiny85 (MCU). “We wanted to design a microcontroller board that was small enough to fit into any project – and low cost enough to use without hesitation,” Adafruit’s Limor Fried (aka LadyAda) explained. “[It is] perfect for when you don’t want to give up […]
A color organ was a staple of the music scene in the 1970s, although the instrument can still be seen today at various concerts and select home theaters. The principle is relatively simple: flash colored lights in step with music or other sounds. “Color organs sample sound and flash lights based either the sound intensity […]
Recently, the Adafruit crew designed a pair of goggles for cyberpunks, steampunks and yes, Daft Punks. Officially dubbed “Kaleidoscope Eyes,” key components for the headware include NeoPixel rings, an Atmel-powered (ATtiny85) Trinket (or Atmel-powered Gemma) and a battery (lithium-polymer or 3x AA battery case). Now the Adafruit crew is back with another slick goggle design. […]
Lüme is an electronically infused clothing collection that stylishly integrates dynamic, custom elements driven from a mobile phone. Built around Atmel’s versatile ATMega32u4, the design and engineering of the collection is focused on the integration of electronics in such a way that the components can be easily removed and embedded – creating pieces which are easy […]
The Gemma is a tiny wearable platform board neatly packed in a 1″ diameter package. The device – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATtiny85 – is easily programmable with an Arduino IDE over USB. Similarly, Adafruit’s Trinket, a tiny microcontroller board, is also built around Atmel’s ATtiny85. Although the Gemma only recently hit the streets, the […]
Analysts at ABI Research have determined that wearable wireless device revenues will grow to exceed $6 billion in 2018. Of the four segments tracked, sports, fitness and wellness are the largest, never dropping below 50% share of all device shipments over the forecast period. “Fitness activity trackers are quickly gaining popularity in the market,” explained […]
Writing for the EE Times, Jeremy Cook penned an article earlier this week about Atmel’s versatile ATtiny, a microcontroller (MCU) routinely used by both DIY Makers and professional engineers to power a wide range of projects. “What if you want to shrink your project down to something that could rest on your fingertip? Appropriately named, […]
