Blenster @Blenster@qoto.org

Super duper happy this morning to receive a GORGEOUS flower clock from @maketvee. It is hard to describe how stunning it is in person, and it comes with interchangeable faceplates, and can run in clock mode (right) or pattern mode.

🎶🎵
Don't cha wish you had a flower clock like me?
Don't cha wish your clock had LEDs?
Don't cha?
Don't cha? 😂
🎵🎶

That’s quite an endorsement to wake up to! /cc @crowdsupply, where Sensor Watch Lite is in stock for immediate shipping worlrldwide: https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-watch

This project started with a simple idea to use my new hat press (Michael's impulse purchase) to iron flowers onto a baseball cap, but somehow (🤷) expanded in scope. The LEDs were inevitable.

while preparing for class, I ran across a link in a previous semester's syllabus. Heilmeier's Catechism, which I hadn't heard of before, is a set of questions credited to engineer George Harry Heilmeier that anyone proposing a research project or product development effort should be able to answer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Heilmeier#Heilmeier.27s_Catechism

For anyone in and around the Portland area, I will be running two different LED project workshops, open to the public, at the Winter Lights Festival in conjunction with the CETI institute the weekend of Feb. 3-4. Details/signups at the links below:
https://ceti-s24-led-art1.eventbrite.com/
https://ceti-s24-led-art2.eventbrite.com/

So I do make open source hardware, and everything that I eventually choose to sell will be open source by the time I do it. Still, sometimes I share my behind-the-scenes process behind a paywall, and this month the peek behind the curtain is a longtime white whale of mine: having an astonishingly thin, densely packed, totally bespoke custom LCD fabricated for Sensor Watch. A first look, complete with a half dozen photos, in the Patreon post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/custom-lcd-has-96925072

Some friends and I were talking about our ample @adafruit shopping carts this morning, and a 10% off code is the perfect excuse to click “Checkout” and feed my noo nOOds obsession.

https://mastodon.cloud/@adafruit/111774264065204977

I want to take a moment of your time to talk about optocouplers.

#OptocouplerLife

https://youtube.com/shorts/0Mn7U_HTp0w?feature=share

I've had a few requests for the Kraken, so I took the opportunity for a little redesign.
* Switched to WS2816C-2121 16-bit HDR LEDs.
* Added pads for QT Py / XIAO and LiPo charger BFF.
* Added four touch pads (for the QT Py SAMD21).
* Rotated the touch pads / mounting holes 45° out of the way of the USB-C cable at the bottom.
I've ordered a small batch of prototypes, hopefully I can get them working. 🤞

Today's procrastimake was inspired by the frigid weather (elsewhere in the US, as I'm in SoCal) and the heads up (pun intended) from @Jorvon_Moss that tomorrow is National Hat Day. Seems like a good time to start sewing an LED string into a band to attach to a fleece cap.
#nationalhatday #sewingproject #ledwearables #wearables