Tindie

Some of the most beautiful items on Tindie are developed solely as a personal project that the creator then decides to sell online. These SPI display boards are such a product and they are utterly stunning!

Savage Electronics set out to create a clock display that could be customised to mimic different types of classic digital clock displays, from blue vacuum fluorescent displays (VFD’s) to flip clock displays to the classic 7 segment LED. They’ve used some tiny and affordable in-plane switching (IPS) displays which can render very high quality nice 460 x 160 pixel images with a fast refresh rate. It’s really worth a trip over to the project webpage where they have created some sample C++ code for the Raspberry Pi Pico which steps the display through a collection of image/fonts showing off the capabilities. Whilst the project page uses a Pico the display could be interfaced with a microcontroller of your choosing and you could of course create your own images for your custom needs.

We are so glad that Savage Electronics decided to build a clock as the results really are breathtaking!

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As MatzElectronics puts it in this breadboardable joystick listing: “Most breadboard-able joystick modules are overly expensive and too big for smaller breadboards.” This little PSP-1000 — the analog thumbstick from the PlayStation Portable — is small but not too small, and it’s being sold for $5, which solves the other problem nicely. It actually looks quite comfortable to use, so it should make a delightful interface stick.

In addition to the knob itself, the setup comes with an adhesive backing for easy attachment to your next project. It also has four leads soldered on for breadboard use, or it can be used with female jumpers. A bit of solder and heat shrink could also take care of the connections nicely, though perhaps that defeats the point a bit.

The device’s four pins act as two 10K potentiometers, one for the vertical, and one for the horizontal axis of the joystick. This would allow for easy input to an Arduino or the like, or it could certainly be used as a direct interface method for whatever other purpose you might use a pair of 10k pots. For that matter, one could use it as part of a custom video game controller rig, coming full circle with your setup!

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It’s a right of passage for many electronics learners to build a radio. Many of us might have started with a passive crystal set or maybe a transistor based design. For most of us the joy of receiving that first signal on something you have built is an unforgettable achievement.  Building on this legacy TinkeringTech presents the ScoutMakes FM Radio with Bluetooth kit.

This kit is supplied with all the smaller surface mount components pre-populated on the boards with only the larger and through-hole parts needing to be added. Whilst it’s perhaps not suitable as someone’s first ever kit, it’s not too taxing to put together for anyone who has done a little soldering before.

Once together its a very feature rich radio! Portable with a LiPo battery, Bluetooth is incorporated and you can utilise the Adafruit control app to interact with the FM radio from your mobile phone. The small OLED screen can show RDS data which is the data you may have seen on a car radio where the title and artist of the currently playing track is displayed. It’s programmed with CircuitPython and has numerous add on connectors and is compatible with the Feather and STEMMA standards. It’s all open source and there are a heap of examples and support materials for you to get started tinkering with radio waves, we’ve come a long way since those passive crystal sets!

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Syncing vintage gear with modern studio setups can get a bit sticky, with so many transmission methods – including MIDI, Din Sync, Pulse Clock, and CV.  The Arp Sync Pro MIDI is an interface to use a tried and tested sync method with a range of retro synths – ensuring they hit the sweet spot in your productions at exactly the right moment.

It’s a small powered box which takes MIDI input (which can be sent from the computer, sequencer or synth) and sends a pulse clock out – which is ideal for the likes of the Roland Juno-6/60, Roland SH-101 and Roland JX-3P. This pulse clock dictates the arpeggiator or sequencer speed for the synth, syncing up the MIDI outputted to these retro relics!

In the past, producers would use the Rim Shot output of classic drum machines like the 909 to trigger this. Therefore, it adds a whole dimension to the production process, allowing you to play back analogue synths in perfect time with your music, as well as dividing the clock for half time playback. The unit comes fully constructed and takes a standard 9V Centre Negative power supply (not included).

The Arp Sync Pro MIDI is sold by Val Power who are based in France and offer a host of electronic solutions for vintage synths.

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Independent makers have the coolest ideas, free from the development processes larger companies live by, they have the freedom to dream up the most novel inventions and devices. Step up, the Mufon 12 Mk II, looking like a cross between a UFO and a character in the film ‘Batteries Not Included’, it’s an experimental synth instrument controlled (as you can imagine) in an unusual way – using the light to take flight!

The Mufon 12 Mk II is a dual oscillator design, each of which can be tuned and performed by varying the light to the sensors (LDRs) atop the device. It is powered by USB or battery pack with a 3.5mm stereo socket to output the other-worldly sounds – which can be amplified, recorded or processed. It comes as a completed unit which has been hand-crafted and 3D printed to give it the novel look – which could have easily just landed after an intergalactic voyage from a parallel dimension.

The Mufon 12 Mk II is sold by Australian company Rare Beasts, who’ve come up with some splendid sonic sources – all beamed in on the day the earth stood still! See the Murfon 12 Mk II in action here:

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LED’s are a staple of makers and electronics. Most of us will remember first lighting an LED in a circuit and still feel a sense of happiness when an LED confirms some new project is alive and well. If you are really a fan of LED’s though we think you won’t find a better way to show it than with this Giant WiFi enabled LED lamp!

This 12:1 scale LED uses 5V and contains a Pixelblaze board connected to 3 super bright RGB+W LED’s. Broadcasting it’s own network you can interact with it directly via a phone or computer, or of course you can join it to your home network where it will be assigned an IP address. The possibilities once connected are in some way endless,  you could configure the lamp to indicate some kind of message notification, use it as a signal to show a change in your home automation, or indeed just swap colours to fit your mood. Whatever you choose to do with it we think it makes a great conversation starter.

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Enclosures for projects can be tricky. You can spend lots of time choosing a nice weatherproof item and then drill holes in it to rout cables for sensors and power, often making the results less weatherproof. This enclosure, the qBoxMini AFC SMA takes the pain away offering an IP65 rated design with features to get your next outdoor IoT project up and running in no time.

The box itself is constructed from ABS with a flanged design to mitigate water ingress. It has 2 M8 cable glands installed offering robust access for power cables or for attaching external sensors. It also has an SMA socket installed with a flexible connector terminated to a uFL IPEX connector which we see as a popular choice on lots of IoT radio modules.

Inside the enclosure there is a handy PCB with a 2.54mm pitch prototyping area with numerous pre-populated connectors. These include some terminal blocks, a 4 pin JST, and a Grove style connector. The PCB is big enough to house multiple DIP connectors or, as suggested, could accommodate an Adafruit  Feather compatible board complete with accessories. The internal PCB and connectors are all held in place with a pair of M3 self tapping screws so, of course, it’s simple to remove it all, if required, for your custom project.

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Portable recorders have come a long way since the dictaphone, which was a pocket tape recorder popularised in the late 1908s and 1990s for meetings, memos and musicians. The 8M Recordable Sound Play Module is a miniature device capable of playing a sound file for a range of uses.

It’ll support both WAV and MP3 playback, with 8MB of storage for a few small files which are played back on the connected speaker. It probably won’t replace your main portable MP3 player, but it’s small enough to be housed for a range of uses – perhaps a musical greeting card, photo frame, gift box or other types of creative gifts for Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day or Christmas.

The 8M Recordable Sound Play Module main board measures 3 x 3 cm and sounds can be uploaded from a computer using the micro USB port. It operates in the most simple way possible, with a button push to start and stop playback – although different trigger modes can be selected by using jumpers on the function selection area of the board.

It’s sold by ICStation who are based in China and have a vast range of electronics on sale and offer free postage on orders over $200.

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The AJARemote is a product that enables you to automate the control of your devices that use an infrared remote control. Delve a little deeper though and it’s a Swiss army knife of tools to help with IR devices.

Many devices, such as TV’s, LED lighting, Media Players, Automated Curtains and more, often use an IR remote control. The AJARemote can replace these control devices and be controlled via a variety of automation platforms that use an MQTT broker.

If you don’t know the codes that your IR controller emits the AJARemote has you covered. With a simple button press the AJARemote can be used to capture codes from any IR controller you point at it. These are then available at your MQTT broker for you to analyse and tinker with. Many smart devices such as TV’s use a combination of IR with additional HID such as a keyboard. The AJARemote is capable of emulating cursor movements and keystrokes acting as a Bluetooth keyboard. The combination of IR and BTLE as HID makes it easy to launch devices and then automate text input, login details or mouse clicks.

It features a super bright 5mm IR LED and also has a 3.5mm jack socket allowing you to add additional LEDs to the system to increase coverage. Multiple AJARemotes can also be configured to act as repeaters to further extend your control system.

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Tic Tac Toe, or noughts and crosses is a near universal game and this electronic Tic Tac Toe kit is a great way to learn electronics and soldering.

This is a “through the hole” kit meaning that all the included components are relatively easy to handle and it’s suitable for someone quite new to soldering. The kit uses 3mm diameter Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s) to create the noughts and crosses for each position in the grid and you can choose different colour options for these with your kit. It uses the popular ATmega328P microcontroller which is supplied pre-programmed and ready to go. The source code for the micro controller is available in the documentation so that you can check out how the project works.

Supplied with nice build instructions this kit has a range of components you need to add to the PCB to help sharpen those assembly skills. As well as the LED’s this includes momentary switches, resistors, capacitors and voltage regulators. By the end of this build we think someone new to soldering could be turned into a confident through hole solderer!

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