Notices by adafruit (adafruit@mastodon.cloud)

Tariffs just got real: our first $36K bill with 125% + 20% + 25% markup hits hard 💸. These are upfront costs - due before selling a single unit - causing serious cash flow strain, price increases, read more! 📦 http://adafruit.com/tariffbill

#tariffs

Testing Dark Castle with audio on the RP2350 Fruit Jam 🕹️🏰

Making Innovation Accessible: How Arduino & Adafruit Support Creators Everywhere by Fabio Violante. Open source is love — and at the heart of Arduino’s 20-year journey is an incredible global community driven by knowledge, creativity, and passion. On the final day of our celebration, we pay tribute to the educators, makers, and learners who bring our philosophy to life through every project, lesson, and discovery.

#arduinoday #arduinoday2025

Official Arduino Days: Day 2 - Making Innovation Accessible
https://youtu.be/UXBFlc3ZJQA?t=4672

Adafruit and Fabio! About one hour 17 mins in! After the Python question!

Flap Flap Flying Toasters on Fruit Jam 🕊️🍞💾
https://youtu.be/qoo6TpPjc-g

What were your favorite extensions from the classic Mac era, and why was it Talking Moose? https://talkingmoose.com

#marchintosh #retro

We grew up with a Mac Plus/512K, so getting the Pico-Mac 68000 emulator https://github.com/evansm7/pico-mac working on Fruit Jam https://www.adafruit.com/product/6200 with 1MB+ of RAM was a high priority for those nostalgic vibes.

Desk of Ladyada - Triple Matrix Bonnet & u-blox UBX Vibes 🛰️🌍
https://youtu.be/jxZsDak93SY

This week Ladyada updates the TLV320DAC3100 design, developed a triple-matrix bonnet for Raspberry Pi 5 HUB75 RGB matrices, and successfully integrated a u-blox SAM-M8Q GPS module with UART/I2C and UBX interface, exploring GNSS modules with built-in antennas for quick prototyping.

walkin' on rainbows 🌈👣🚶♂️👦 1/2

🎄💾🗓️ Day 18: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Commodore 64🎄💾🗓️

The Commodore 64, released in 1982, is one of the ones we keep hearing got many people their start in their own computing history. Powered by a MOS Technology 6510 processor at 1.02 MHz and featuring 64 KB of RAM, it became the best-selling single computer model of all time, with an estimated 12.5–17 million units sold.

🎄💾🗓️ Day 14: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Atari 400/800🎄💾🗓️

The Atari 8-bit computer line was launched in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. Both were advanced for home computers at the time. Both were driven by a 1.79 MHz MOS Technology 6502 CPU, with ANTIC and CTIA/GTIA custom chips for advanced graphics and the POKEY chip handling sound and input/output duties.

Ladyada's desk gets a scope cart

We've always wanted a portable scope cart (https://vintagetek.org/scope-carts/) for our workspace to have our test equipment either by the desk for firmware work or at the soldering worktable for rework debugging. At our new office, we finally have space for one!

We've locked it next to our desk so we have more desktop space, and it's easy to peek over as we bring up new boards like the metro RP2350 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6003). We'll also get the VGA output into our video streaming setup to show off signals we're working on.

We picked up this 'dental cart' (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM8P2PDT) - It is not super fancy, but it is metal, and it came together fairly easily. We like the mini top shelf for the scope and the second shelf underneath for the power supply and electronic load. The drawer can hold leads or probes.

Its kernel was monolithic, and the system was primarily written in C++. It featured a 64-bit journaling Be File System (BFS), which supported metadata and allowed rapid file queries and fast performance for multimedia tasks. Despite its technical strengths, including support for symmetric multiprocessing and a responsive graphical user interface, BeOS struggled to gain market traction.

🎄💾🗓️ Day 10: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - BeOS 🎄💾🗓️

BeOS, developed by Be Inc. in the mid-1990s, was an operating system for multimedia applications, multitasking, and multithreading. Initially designed for the BeBox—a proprietary hardware platform featuring dual PowerPC processors—BeOS was later ported to the Macintosh and x86 architectures.

Supporting KiCad helps the development of features, bug fixes, and community-driven improvements, empowering engineers, educators, and hobbyists worldwide. Consider donating to KiCad to strengthen the open-source hardware community and help make high-quality EDA tools accessible to everyone.

https://www.kicad.org/

Giving Tuesday – KiCad open-source design #GivingTuesday 💻🔧🌍❤️🤝

KiCad is an open-source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA), enabling users to design schematics and printed circuit boards (PCBs). KiCad is a great, free, open tool for creating complex designs, from hobbyist projects to professional-grade hardware. As an open-source initiative, KiCad promotes accessibility and collaboration, making advanced EDA tools freely available.

Blast to the past - the "Spaceball" 🚀🎶📻
Weltron (1970)
PORTABLE & TRACK STEREO TAPE PLAYER MODEL 2001
WITH AM-FM MULTIPLEX RADIO

Trinamical stepper breakout with TMC2209

About two weeks ago, we designed a breakout for the A4988 (https://blog.adafruit.com/2024/11/11/the-a4988-is-a-classic-stepper-driver-in-a-new-fit/), and we're still waiting for those prototype PCBs, but we're not one to wait, because we think that the idea is a good one...so why not design another version? This time with the Trinamic TMC2209 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/TMC2209-LA-T/10232491). This is a similar "Step & Dir" type driver, with a wide motor range of 4.75 – 28 Volts and separate 3~5V IO pin.