Newsletter #1 - December 2022
Welcome to the first newsletter from Short Circuits! Every month or so we will take a look at a featured device built from the kits, a kit in current development and any offers currently running on the website.
Featured Build
The Desk Companion
Here we have the perfect desk companion. This is the device I have on my desk. It’s uses all 4 available kits, the MOTHERBOARD and SENSOR ARRAY on the rear, and the DIGITISER and RGB MATRIX up front. I’ve chosen a white double stack case to contrast the black PCBs and desk. For wiring I also chose white to keep that crisp look.
On the left we have the DIGITISER with the time, date and year (in case you forget), selectable with the press of a button. The second button on the DIGITISER is used to turn both displays on or off. As for the RGB MATRIX, this module is displaying (from left to right) temperature, relative humidity, sound levels and ambient light levels as vertical bar graphs. You could calibrate this to let you know when your music is too loud for the neighbours.
There’s also an alarm function that shows a message on the DIGITISER and flashes the RGB MATRIX. I’m a bit of an owl, so mine tells me to go to bed at a reasonable time. You can easily change the message and the time it triggers in the code. To take this further, you could add a buzzer to one of the unused analog IO, or you could wait for the SOUND-BOARD to add some music to your alarm! (coming first half of next year).
Head over to the Short Circuits GitHub for the code: LINK
Please note: I’m currently in the process of adding all the code and 3D case files to GitHub. This will be finished soon. Other code can be found in the forums.
In Development
The BREAD-BOARD
There’s obviously loads to learn from our kits, but what if you want to play around with some other circuits? Here be the Breadboard Board… The Bread-Board! It’s a handy way to prototype circuits connected to a microcontroller. Just plonk it on top of a Motherboard, fasten the 4 screws and prototype away!
- Easily access MOTHERBOARD IO when prototyping circuits
- Use standard jumper wires to connect IO to the breadboard
- LEDs on each pin to give a visual indication of pin state
- Separate power rails (5V and 3.3V if connected to MOTHERBOARD 2)
- Uses spring pogo pins, so no need to wire it up!
There’s obviously loads to learn from our kits, but what if you want to play around with some other circuits? Here be the Breadboard Board… The Bread-Board! It’s a handy way to prototype circuits connected to a microcontroller. Just plonk it on top of a Motherboard and fasten the 4 screws, done!
Offers
We currently have 15% off our kits and cases. So get those Christmas presents sorted for the makers in your life! If you are a Kickstarter backer, this will be in addition to your permanent 10% off!
Thanks for reading! See you in the next one!
Kind Regards
Martyn Evans
Short Circuits
Join the forums
If you need help with the kits and you think others would benefit from the answer, head to the forums and post a question. I will respond as soon as I can.
Contact me
If you need help and you don’t want to post on the forums, please email me any questions. I’m happy to help in any way I can.
