Tag: Adafruit

DIY Open Source Handheld Battery Powered Thermal Camera

Published: March 14, 2023 / Last Modified: March 15, 2023 / 2 Comments / Adafruit, Gadgets, Hardware

I’ve been exploring using Adafruit Stemma QT to create really cool DIY prototypes without any soldering here on the site. It allows you to very quickly throw together prototypes and do testing for various ideas.

I recently ordered a bunch of new Stemma QT devices including the Adafruit ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Feather and a MLX90640 IR camera module that I wanted to turn into a DIY thermal camera. I wanted it to be small and battery powered.

In this guide I’ll show you the parts I used to build it as well as the code. Let’s get started!

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Adafruit WiFi Action Key for Home Assistant / ESPHome

Published: March 2, 2023 / Last Modified: March 2, 2023 / Leave a Comment / Adafruit, Gadgets, Hardware, Home Assistant, RISC-V

I’ve covered making a wireless Adafruit IoT button that can run any action within Home Assistant when you press the button using automations. These are great because they also have a RGB LED built in that you can use to show the status of something being controlled by the button.

For example if you used it to control your garage door you could make the button red when your garage door is open and green when it’s shut. This way just by looking at the button you know what the state of the garage door is.

Today I am going to cover something really similar: a single WiFi action key using gear from Adafruit as well as a RISC-V ESP32-C3 module. These also have individual RGB LEDs for each key just like the IoT button giving them the same advantages. Let’s begin!

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Home Assistant / ESPHome Air Quality Monitor (No Soldering)

Published: March 1, 2023 / Last Modified: March 5, 2023 / 29 Comments / Adafruit, Gadgets, Hardware, Home Assistant, RISC-V, Seeed Studios

QT Py + Grove SEN54 - Deployment (Closeup)

I’ve previously covered creating a Home Assistant air quality monitor system using a XAIO ESP32-C3 module and ESPHome / Home Assistant to create a 7-in-1 air quality monitor sensor. My previous article though did require a little bit of soldering to get it going.

Today I’m going to show you my latest sensor build which has completely eliminated the soldering. It’s plug and play using ESPHome and Home Assistant. I did this using the Adafruit QT Py module which has a built-in connector for connecting to a I2C (Stemma QT) device like the Grove SEN54 environmental sensor. In addition to eliminating any soldering this also saved me money by not having to buy an expansion board.

Today I’ll show you the updated build for my air quality sensor setup I’ll be using throughout my home. Let’s get started!

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Adafruit Stemma QT Arduino Getting Started Guide

Published: February 23, 2023 / Last Modified: March 2, 2023 / 4 Comments / Adafruit, Gadgets, Hardware, RISC-V

Adafruit 7 Segment Display + Rotary Encoder + QT Py

I’ve been doing a lot of coverage of ESP32-related chips lately on the site. One thing that is a bit painful with them though is that they usually require a lot of soldering. That’s why I find the Adafruit QT Py series of ESP32 chips so exciting. They eliminate the soldering!

Unfortunately once I got all of my parts and tried to get started I ran into several issues that are not covered at all (or very poorly covered) by the official documentation and guides available. None of the things I’m going to cover were particularly difficult once you know what they are and how to address them. I did however lose days or closer to a week of time messing with this as I had to figure it all out from piecing together scraps here and there from forum posts.

In this guide I’ll show you how to get Arduino working with the Adafruit QT Py boards using Stemma and how to avoid all the pitfalls that I lost a lot of time on getting started. Let’s begin!

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Home Assistant Tiny WiFi Button Guide ft. Adafruit QT Py

Published: February 16, 2023 / Last Modified: March 5, 2023 / 2 Comments / Adafruit, Gadgets, Hardware, Home Assistant, RISC-V

I’ve been documenting my journey building out my smart home powered by Home Assistant here on the site. Home Assistant is an open-source system designed to let you easily manage and automate everything in your home.

That’s when I saw that Adafruit’s QT Py series of boards had a tiny IoT button available for it I immediately thought of Home Assistant. The button could be used to automate anything in your home you’d like. You could program it to turn off / turn on lights, open/close the garage door for you, turn on and off certain appliances or anything else you could imagine being able to do with a wireless-enabled button.

In this guide I’ll show you how to build and program a wireless button with Home Assistant. Let’s get started!

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Adafruit Re-programmable USB-C PD to Barrel Jack Cable

Published: February 13, 2023 / Last Modified: March 19, 2023 / 2 Comments / Adafruit, Gadgets, Hardware, Reviews

Adafruit Re-programmable USB-C PD Cable Review

I have been ordering a lot of gear from Adafruit lately to help build my Home Assistant sensor array for my home (as well as other projects I have going here on the site). I was very confused today when something showed up I didn’t recognize (and wasn’t even aware really existed).

It turns out to be a cable that you plug into a USB-C power adapter that supports PD (power delivery) and output a voltage you program in via a DC barrel jack. In other words this cable lets you turn a USB-PD capable power adapter into a programmable DC jack adapter that could theoretically work with almost anything!

This is a $19.50 cable I’m certain that I didn’t buy that I will return to Adafruit if they would like. Not before we review it first though. Let’s get started!

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