Adafruit Industries

This week @adafruit released the stained glass lamp using the CircuitPlayground Bluefruit. Looking at some prototyping and work in progress. This week’s time lapse features a mechanical fidget with helical gears.

Stained Glass YouTube

https://youtu.be/pmcELECJo5E

CP Bluefruit

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4333

Circuit Playground Express

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3333

IR Mini Remote:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/389

Timelapse Tuesday

Cross-Axis Triple Helical Gear Fidget Spinner By AbyssalCactus

https://makerworld.com/en/models/2293153-cross-axis-triple-helical-gear-fidget-spinner

https://youtu.be/6HcD7erKACo

Community Makes

https://www.printables.com/model/1605988-lightsaber-rp2040-upgraded-blade-holder

https://www.printables.com/make/3233782

https://www.printables.com/make/3231042

https://www.printables.com/make/3228410

Step right up and behold Professor Bubbleton’s Breathing Head, a curious apparatus to keep your audience on the edge of their seats. A submerged head rests under theatrical LED illumination sealed inside a clear apothecary jar — until a visitor dares to tap the vessel, at which point the head responds with a sudden stream of bubbles, as though its humours have not fully departed upon beheading.

At the heart of this modern marvel is the Circuit Playground Express, whose onboard accelerometer and NeoPixel light ring make it perfectly suited for sideshow duty. A knock on the jar is detected directly by the board, triggering a timed burst from a hidden air pump while the built-in NeoPixels provide customizable lighting effects. The result is a self-contained illusion that feels uncanny and responsive, without requiring complex wiring or extra sensors.

Full tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/professor-bubbleton-s-breathing-head-in-a-jar/overview

In this guide, you’ll assemble the apparatus using readily available parts, mount the Circuit Playground Express inside the jar, and configure our simple code to coordinate the tap detection, bubble effect, and lighting. Along the way, you’ll learn how to turn a single gesture into a memorable interaction — the kind that invites onlookers to step closer, tap lightly, and immediately question whether they should have done so at all.

No actual beheading is required for this guide. Our effigy was not harmed in any way. We'll show you how to create this illusion with any head you'd like to submerge -- all you need is a few clear photographs. Or, use our example effigy for instant gratification!

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

Erin St Blaine - http://www.erinstblaine.com

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Build a stained glass inspired lamp with tap and Bluetooth controls.

Guide: https://learn.adafruit.com/stained-glass-lamp

Use translucent filament to give the shades a stained glass effect.

This project features light meter mode, audio reactivity and colors and animations.

Tap detect is used to cycle through color modes, or use the Adafruit Bluefruit Connect app to adjust the brightness

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOWD2dJNRIN46uhMCWvNOlbG

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVgpmWevin2slopw_A3-A8Y

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVsMp6nKnpjsXSQ45nxfORb

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVagy3CktXsAAs4b153xpp_

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe's Twitter / Instagram: @ecken

Pedro's Twitter / Instagram: @videopixil

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Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

Adafruit Monthly Deals & FREE Specials

https://www.adafruit.com/free?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

Join our weekly Show & Tell on G+ Hangouts On Air: http://adafru.it/showtell

Watch our latest project videos: http://adafru.it/latest?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

3DThursday Posts: https://blog.adafruit.com/category/3d-printing?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

Music by Dan Q https://soundcloud.com/adafruit

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This is a spectrometer on a chip, and it’s getting the Adafruit breakout treatment. The AS7343 is the successor to our AS7341, bumped from 10 channels to 14, with 12 spanning visible light into near-infrared (380nm to 1000nm), plus clear and flicker detection. Same footprint and pinout as the ’41, so your existing wiring and enclosures carry over unchanged.

Ladyada finished the library and testing, then pointed OpenClaw at an ESP32-S2 TFT hooked up to the sensor. Claude generated a real-time color bar visualization that’s one of the nicer sensor demos we’ve done… hold it over a green light and watch the yellow-green channels spike, wave it past a reddish-orange source and the spectral output shifts to match. If you want to see what multi-spectral color sensing can do, check out the Color Sensing Music Player guide – we use DUPLO bricks that play songs based on color. The AS7343 would make it even better!

Coming soon to the Adafruit shop.

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/

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Notes document is available here, with timecodes: https://github.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/blob/main/2026/2026-02-17.md

Join here for the chat all week: http://adafru.it/discord

The CircuitPython Weekly normally is held at 2pm US ET/11am us PT on Mondays. Check the #circuitpython-dev channel on Discord for notices of change in time and links to past meetings. Meeting times are also available in iCal format using the following link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical.

CircuitPython development is sponsored by Adafruit. Please support them by purchasing hardware from https://adafruit.com.

Reminders: Podcast available on most services. Let us know if we’re missing some.

0:00 Housekeeping

2:16 Community News

6:24 State of CircuitPython, Libraries & Blinka

14:20 Hug Reports

17:55 Status Updates

26:20 In the Weeds

31:50 Wrap-up

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Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/

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Cross-Axis Triple Helical Gear Fidget Spinner

By AbyssalCactus

https://makerworld.com/en/models/2293153-cross-axis-triple-helical-gear-fidget-spinner

Bambu X1C

PolyMaker PLA

02hr 18mins

X:29 Y:29 Z:35mm

.2mm layer / .4mm Nozzle

10% Infill / 1mm Retraction

200C / 60C

42g

230mm/s

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOWD2dJNRIN46uhMCWvNOlbG

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVgpmWevin2slopw_A3-A8Y

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVsMp6nKnpjsXSQ45nxfORb

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVagy3CktXsAAs4b153xpp_

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe's Twitter / Instagram: @ecken

Pedro's Twitter / Instagram: @videopixil

-----------------------------------------

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

Adafruit Monthly Deals & FREE Specials

https://www.adafruit.com/free?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

Join our weekly Show & Tell on G+ Hangouts On Air: http://adafru.it/showtell

Watch our latest project videos: http://adafru.it/latest?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

3DThursday Posts: https://blog.adafruit.com/category/3d-printing?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videodescrip&utm_campaign=3dprinting

Music by Dan Q https://soundcloud.com/adafruit

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This week at the Desk of Ladyada, we're back to hardware... with a baby in a bouncer and an LLM on the clock. The VCNL4010 proximity sensor has been discontinued, so we need to move to the VCNL4030. That means a new EagleCAD library file, and we're testing whether Claude Code (Opus, high effort) can generate one straight from the datasheet.

Historically we’ve had to create a footprint for each device we use - and one of our gripes is how annoying it is to convert when manufacturers spec edge-to-edge pad dimensions instead of center-to-center pitch, which is what every CAD tool actually uses. In our experiment, Claude Code handled the math, got the pad sizes (0.65 x 0.75mm) and pitch (1.05mm) correct on the footprint, arranged logical pin grouping on the schematic and matched pin-to-pad correctly.. It even matched our drawing style by learning from existing Adafruit library files in the repo. The whole run took about 4 minutes and 45 seconds.Nota bene: it's not perfect! Our first pass had schem label overlaps and an unnecessary exposed center pad (Gemini Deep Think was actually smarter about skipping that pad).

We also tried having Claude Code design a full QT Py terminal BFF board... it worked-ish but needed enough back-and-forth that doing it by hand would've been faster. Footprint generation is ready for integration into our workflow - maybe we’ll kick it off while we review the datasheet - but, full board layout isn't quite there yet.

Other things on the desk: we're setting up OpenClaw to subscribe to every chip manufacturer newsletter and generate daily reports on new components worth stocking. New protos include the TMF8806 time-of-flight sensor from AMS (up to 10 meters, and possibly simpler drivers than ST's VL53 series) and a PMW3901 optical flow sensor often used in drone navigation.

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/

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#adafruit #claude #ai

Join Scott as he discusses how LLMs are changing his CircuitPython workflow and answers any questions people have.

Thanks to dcd for timecodes.

0:00 Getting Started

1:23 Hello everyone

1:40 Adafruit Clue board example microprocessor for CircuitPython

3:10 Goals for 2026 ( CircuitPython 2026 )

4:40 Moved 'off' the Breadboard project and back to LLMs

5:15 Using Virtual Desktop, (og, yolo, and left-field) views

10:00 test_basics.py test script

11:20 clearing serial input at end of script

11:52 considering claude vs. opus 4

12:19 pytest calling the test with test fixture

13:40 bsim test

14:30 #coding-agents-and-llms chat group

16:00 example of LLM identifying bug quickly

16:45 use small steps when working with LLMs

18:00 github pages and custom domains

18:40 no ethernet support yet

19:40 learning to working on multiple tasks in parallel this year

21:32 How to review all the agent generated code - getting feedback to the LLM

26:00 Breadboard tool example of what LLM is bad at

30:30 Zephyr Display not working yet

32:30 Need a new monitor .. samsung oled G9 - switching to Dell 40" ultra wide

38:20 back to test_bsim_basics.py and pytest, (e.g. @pytest.mark )

41:30 debugging the test

44:50 considering switching to select()

47:00 switch to using claude-opus-4-6

51:05 LLM is experimenting - trying out python solutions

55:49 will we get more progress with Codex (Spark)

1:01:15 reading about `stdbuf` tool

1:04:18 pi vs claude code

1:05:45 wrapping up - same time next week

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/

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#circuitpythonparsec

Fill a line of NeoPixels between two end points.

code example: https://github.com/jedgarpark/parsec/blob/main/2026-02-12/code.py

Learn about CircuitPython: https://circuitpython.org

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/

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John Park's Workshop Live 2/12/26

Projects

JPPPoW recap

CircuitPython Parsec

Learn Guide

tool tips

gear report

and more!

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

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LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe

New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/

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