Tindie

Teenage Engineering’s Pocket Operators are the most fun you can have making pocket music on the move! They sound great, are easy to use, and can be linked together for multiple playback possibilities. But each one has to be connected in series, which means even with multiple units connected you only get one mixed audio out. The mighty Sync Splitter is here to resolve this, and give you individual outputs for each of your devices!

The Sync Splitter allows you to plug each Pocket Operator output directly into a mixer for a cleaner sound and more flexibility with its signal. It’s available in versions with 5 Outputs, 7 Outputs and 9 Outputs, depending on the size of your collection! The Sync signal is set from one (master) Pocket Operator, which is sent to the outputs below – which means each Pocket Operator gets its own Sync signal, and can be sent to an external mixer.

This unit is a super-simple, yet highly effective device – allowing for more controllable sounds and in turn a more well produced result. Find out more from the full setup guide in the extensive documentation on his site.

The Sync Splitter ships from the US and is made by p0k3t0 – check out their shop for more goodies!

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Remember the Clapper? The power outlet adapter you could turn on and off with a clap of your hands felt incredibly futuristic when release in the 1980s. Of course now you can do so much more with a few words. There’s something so satisfying about turning on products with your voice — it makes us feel powerful, but more than that, it’s really convenient. Would you rather fumble around for a switch, or just hit the lights with a single phrase?

Personally, I’d take the latter any day, especially after tripping over things and stubbing my toe in the dark more times than I’d like to admit. This is where the Vocca comes in. This voice-activated bulb adapter quickly turns any one of your light sockets into a bulb of the future.

The device comes fully assembled and lets you screw in any regular bulb before placing it back into the socket with the adapter. Once you’re all set up, you can turn your lights on from up to 15 feet away by simply saying “Go Vocca Light” out loud at a normal volume.

If you still want to use your switches, that’s fine too. Another nice feature of the adapter is the fact that all the processing is completed on the device, so you don’t need to worry about your voice clips being stored in the cloud or anywhere for that matter.

Interested in more creative ways to control your gear? You can do it simply by whistling with the The Whistled, a whistle detection device.

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The Snowy Owl is the rebel of owls. They live in the north near arctic regions of the world, and unlike other owls, they are active during the day instead of the night. Owls in general are pretty great, which is why this Snowy Owl version of the Surface Mount Device 0201 soldering challenge kit caught my eye.

For this challenge, the resistors on the back of the owl have been changed to a 0201 packages for an additional level of difficulty. These are cellphone-level miniaturization so it will be a challenge. A dual inverter NL27WZ04 is used to implement the ring oscillator, which drives the blinking LEDs.

Think you’re up to the challenge?

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I’m a big fan of Nixie Tube displays, whether they be clocks, score keepers, or anything else you need a display for, it’s a really creative way to repurpose old tech. LIXIE, on the other hand, is a fresh and modern way to achieve the same effect using edge-lit acrylic displays.

It preserves the iconic typography of a Nixie tube, so you still get those bold and colorful displays that make these projects so visually engaging. The LIXIE display works by shining light through the edge of a clear acrylic. Once the light hits an edge or engraving, it scatters and reaches your eyes.

It keeps the flat surfaces of the acrylic clear, and only the edges light up. If you put several pieces in a stack, you can display multiple numbers. The device is based on WS2812B LEDs, or “Neopixels” as Adafruit entitles them.

The display can show the date, the time, temperature, website views, or any number in an Arduino project with ease. Working with the LIXIE is pretty simple compared to Nixie tubes, completely avoiding the high voltage necessary for vintage parts. Just connect the 5V & GND pins to your Arduino, then connect the DIN (Digital INput) pin to any of your digital pins.

Once that’s done, you just need to include the LIXIE library and some functions to get started. Since the LIXIE is designed on a WS2812B strip, you can chain together as many as your power supply will allow.

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Here’s an interesting piece of video game trivia: the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Famicom are essentially the same things, but they differ in both physical design and compatible games. The former released in the United States, while the latter was the console that came out in Japan at the time.

We could sit here all day arguing about which one is better, but one indisputable fact is that the cartridges for the Famicom do not work in the NES. At least, not until now. Thanks to a handy 60-to-72 Pin Adapter for Famicom to NES, you can finally bridge the gap between these two consoles.

This ultra-slim adapter allows you to play Famicom games on both American and European NES consoles. It’s designed to fit the NES cartridge shell, while also leaving room for a Famicom game PCB. The adapter does ship without components, so you’ll need to add the following:

• 1 – 0.1uf ceramic cap
• 1 – Famicom cartridge edge-connector, 2.54mm pinpitch. Alternatively, you can solder the Famicom game PCB to the adapter using standard header pins.
• 1 – Attiny13 programmed with avrciczz, the code for which can be found here. Both DIP and SMD packages are supported.

The inspiration for this design came from the seller’s search for a similar product. They found that all the options they came across were too tall, so they created this handy solution.

Need your own AVR programmer to pull this one off? Tindie is the place to look.

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Sometimes it’s the byproducts of our projects that end up being superstars. In the case of this rotary encoder breakout module, it began as part of an upcoming project, to be used in the design of an HDMI cable breakout PCB for a 5 OLED Display V-Gauge. But what project doesn’t need a cool input method that can spin and click?

On its own, this rotary encoder can come in handy for a wide range of other projects. If you need a simple input method on your next Arduino or other electronics design, you can connect this with 4 wires: a common ground, 2 pins for A and B from the encoder, and the pin for the switch in the middle.

Anything that requires this kind of simple input, such as volume control, can be adjusted with this quick, one-finger or one-handed rotary. While it may have started life as a byproduct, this encoder can find a new lease on life with your next project.

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The Juno 60 is a stonewall classic in the world of synthesizers – used by everyone from Vince Clarke to Howard Jones, Eurythmics, Add N, and (X). The original machine could be externally controlled using a very specific Roland DCB Sync Interface, which converted the DCB input to MIDI for control from a Computer or Sequencer.

These have become more collectable over time but they are still around. Juno 60 owners will be pleased to hear that there is now an affordable MIDI to DCB adapter now on Tindie!

Designed by Valpower, this allows your Juno 60 to be controlled via MIDI, bringing greater control over sequencing, playback, and recording. Sold in two forms, for USB and MIDI connection within your setup – in order to control Note On / Note Off messages sent to the Synth! MIDI is a standard so this is compatible with a range of software including Ableton, Cubase, Bitwig, Fruityloops, Renoise, and more.

It’s simple to use, just connect the unit via standard 5 Pin MIDI (or USB), hook up the DCB socket and plug in a power supply (9V power supply with a negative center not included). Away you go, triggering 6 voices of analogue synth magic! Have a look at the video below to see a Nils Frahm inspired demonstration.

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The first time I saw fashion wearables, the possibilities blew my mind. What if we could combine tech and fashion into the clothing and jewelry only seen in Science Fiction? The crazy thing is that it’s already happening.

This pair of solar-powered flashing LED heart earrings is a perfect example of how to make this concept work in a really creative way. You won’t need any batteries or wires to charge it, thanks to an environmentally friendly and solar-powered solution.

With minimal components and no need for direct sunlight, these will work even better indoors where you can see the flashing LEDs. The store page even jokes that the coating means it can survive doomsday.

Here’s hoping this is the first of many new wearable fashion innovations!

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Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international event held every year on the second Tuesday of October. ALD is a day that celebrates the accomplishments of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). Ada Lovelace herself is widely regarded as the first computer programmer.

It was founded by Suw Charman-Anderson in 2009, and features a “science cabaret” event in London called Ada Lovelace Live! where women give short presentations on their work or those who have inspired them.

It’s also celebrated around the world with smaller events, and right here at Tindie as well. Join us as we feature the talented female members of our community and our staff!

Celebrating The Women That Make Tindie Great

Did you know that 50 percent of Tindie’s staff are women in technical roles? Not only that, but we have several female Tindarians as well who are working on some truly incredible projects.

To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day, let’s introduce the women of Tindie, both sellers and staff:

Tindarians

These are the women who have made and are making amazing products for sale on Tindie: 

Addie

Offline, Addie is a cardiovascular surgery nurse and a research study coordinator. Online, she’s a badge designer and member of the Tymkrs (The Toymakers) store.

The Toymakers were also responsible for creating the official DEF CON 26 badge!

Sarah Petkus

Sarah Petkus is a finalist in The 2018 Hackaday Prize with her SHE BON project, which she spoke about at length in her HDDG 32 presentation.

As the self-proclaimed “mother of robots,” Sarah’s Robohemian! store features some fun and unique products, but it’s clear there’s plenty more in store for this talented maker. 

Adelle Lin

Adelle is a creative technologist with a background in math and architectural design. She currently works as a Machine Learning Engineer at Intel. She also talked about multiplayer games in public spaces at HDDG 29.

On Tindie, she is known for her UVicorn Necklace, which is always a hit at parties.

Tindie Staff

These are the women who helped bring Tindie to life and contribute to making the magic happen each and every day. 

Jasmine Brackett

Since becoming Tindie’s Product Manager in March 2016, Jasmine’s focus has been supporting our thriving community, improving the platform, and reaching out to future Tindarians.

Erin Kosewic

Erin is a full stack developer with over 10 years experience of building marketing websites. As Tindie’s Lead Engineer she works tirelessly from Supplyframe’s HQ to keep Tindie ticking behind the scenes.

Julia Grace

Julia was a co-founder and CTO of Tindie until the company was purchased by Supplyframe. She is now the Senior Director of Infrastructure Engineering at Slack!

You can check out her full story here.

Ada Lovelace Day 2018

Ada Lovelace day is October 9th, so be sure to celebrate in your own way by thanking the women in tech who help make this such an incredible industry and community!

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Available for just a few dollars, the ESP32 modules are a wonder of modern design. Not only do they feature both Bluetooth and WiFi communications built-in, they have a monster under the hood — a dual-core processor that would put your sweet early 90s desktop system to shame. What more could you want?

It’s an interesting question, because cool as it is, without some sort of input or output to the real world, what are they actually good for?^[1] Not a problem, you might say, “I can just wire up a PIR sensor, accelerometer, or other doodad to make my gadget sense and do XYZ.” And right you would be, but what if these sensors were entirely modular, sliding into a dev board the way you might change an SD card?

This is exactly the concept behind the IoT Node ESP32 dev board from Turta. The device features all of the IO pins you’d expect from an ESP32 dev board, but also features an open-standard modular slot on top where you can slide in a variety of sensor modules, a sound/button module, and even a solid-state relay.

I had the pleasure of meeting these new Tindie sellers at WMFNY2018, and look forward to interviewing them about their business in the future!

[1] Feel free to argue this point @Tindie or @JeremySCook on Twitter.

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