Welcome to our maker news where we wrap up some fun and interesting stories in the maker world from the last few weeks. The video will come out on Fridays, but we are posting a topic here on Wednesdays to post the video’s sources and to collect any news from the community to potentially include in next week’s as well as just open up general discussion.
This week we looked at:
Jumperless V5, a Breadboard that doesn’t need jumper wires? Funded a while back on Crowd Supply, it’s able to make its own connections thanks to an array of analog crosspoint switches -
allowing you to essentially draw on your writing with its pen tool. It also has an RGB LED housed in every single connection point allowing the breadboard to not only act as a screen with menus, but also display information about the connection. This is just an incredibly cool project and it can also run doom.
This week the Raspberry Pi Pico has gotten a nice little speed boost, but only if you are using C++. The newest Pico C++ SDK update has certified the RP2040 chip to be clocked at up to 200 Mhz, a considerable increase from the 125 Mhz it was previously rated for. To enable this upgrade (and all the necessary voltage tweaks), all you need to do is enter a single line of code - it’s free Hz. Unfortunately, this is only for C++ and we MicroPython shills will now have to think of some more cope to continue dying on the MicroPython hill.
And if you are like me and whack a cheap OLED screen on every project you make, have we got the story for you. Lopaka is an online tool that allows you to easily draw elements of UI out on a pixel-perfect screen editor, and then export that screen as code so you can use it in your project. We have been able to make some really fancy UI without any need for code and it has become an extremely valuable tool for me. It only supports C++ right now, but the developer has hinted at MicroPython and more screens in the future.
If you have any news from the maker world, feel free to post it below and we may include it in next week’s video, until then we will see you next week!
