Adafruit
Assembled Adafruit Prop-Maker FeatherWing
The Adafruit Feather series gives you lots of options for a small, portable, rechargeable microcontroller board. Perfect for fitting into your next prop buil...
The Adafruit Feather series gives you lots of options for a small, portable, rechargeable microcontroller board. Perfect for fitting into your next prop build! This FeatherWing will unlock the prop-maker inside all of us, with tons of stuff packed in to make sabers & swords, props, toys, cosplay pieces, and more.
This version of the FeatherWing has plain headers soldered in, so its easy to plug into our Feathers.
We looked at hundreds of prop builds, and thought about what would make for a great low-cost (but well-designed) add-on for our Feather boards. Here's what we came up with:
- Snap-in NeoPixel port - With a 3-pin JST connector, you can plug in one of our JST-wired NeoPixel strips directly, or use a 3-pin JST connector to wire up your favorite shape of addressable NeoPixel LEDs. This port provides high current drive from either the Feather Lipoly or USB port, whichever is higher. A level shifter gives you a clean voltage signal to reduce glitchiness no matter what chip you're using
- 3W RGB LED drivers - 3 high current MOSFETs will let you connect a 3W RGB LED for powerful eye-blasting glory. For most Feathers, the 3 pins are PWM capable so you can generate any color you like. Available as pin breakouts plus strain-relief holes
- Triple-Axis Accelerometer with Tap Detection - The LIS3DH is our favorite accelerometer, you can use this for detection motion, tilt or taps. Here's an example of a light saber that makes sounds when swung or hit. We have code for this chip in both Arduino and CircuitPython.
- Class D Audio Amplifier - Drive a 8Ω 1Watt speaker or 4Ω 3W speaker for sound effects. Plug and play with our cute and slim oval speaker, or connect a picoblade cable for your favorite speaker. For use only with Feathers that have analog audio out such as the Feather M0 Express and M4 series.
- Low power mode! The power system for the RGB LED, NeoPixels and speaker amplifier can be controlled by a pin to cut power to them, so you have lower power usage when the prop is in sleep or off mode (but can wake up fast by listening to the button press or accelerometer data). When the power pin is set low, the current draw for just the wing is under 1mA and no there's current draw from any attached NeoPixels - normally they're about 1mA even when not lit.
- Breakouts plus strain-relief hole for the enable pin and ground (for a mechanical switch that will power down the whole board)
- Breakouts plus strain-relief holes for an external switch pin and ground (for a mechanical mode button)
Please note: A few of the onboard hardware elements use PWM and analog output so we recommend the Feather M0 Express or Feather M4 series, they'll work best with this wing and let you make the most of it. For example:
- Feather 32u4 and 328p do not have PWMs for all the RGB LED pins, and no analog audio output support
- Feather nRF52, ESP32 ESP8266 do have PWMs on all the RGB LED pins but no analog audio output support
- Feather M0 basic boards only have audio output support in Arduino, not CircuitPython.
That doesn't mean you can't use this 'wing with the Feather ESP8266 or nRF52832, just that you won't get any sound effects. You can still use the accelerometer, NeoPixels, RGB LED, etc.
As you can tell, the M0 Express and M4 series is what we recommend cause you'll get everything and with CircuitPython, its really easy to play audio directly off the built in flash chips!
Comes fully assembled! No soldering required.
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- CircuitPython
- A beginner-friendly version of Python designed to run directly on microcontroller boards. If a product supports CircuitPython, you can often program it by copying code files onto the board rather than setting up a more complex toolchain.
- ESP32
- ESP32 is a family of microcontroller modules with built-in wireless features such as Bluetooth and WiFi. Knowing this product uses an ESP32-based module helps explain how it provides wireless serial communication and firmware update features.
- FeatherWing
- A FeatherWing is an add-on board made to plug into the Feather microcontroller board layout. Knowing a product is a FeatherWing helps you check whether it will physically and electrically fit your Feather-style mainboard.
- Headers
- Rows of metal pins used to plug a module into a breadboard or connect it with jumper wires. Pre-soldered headers make the module easier to use straight away without needing to solder the pins yourself.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode is a small electronic component that lights up when current flows through it in the correct direction. In this kit, LEDs create the flashing effect, so polarity and correct soldering matter for the project to work.
- LIS3DH
- A specific low-power 3-axis accelerometer chip made by STMicroelectronics. Knowing the chip part number helps you find the correct datasheet, libraries, wiring details, and limits such as its safe voltage range.
- Matter
- A smart home connectivity standard designed to let devices work across different ecosystems. It matters if you want a project to integrate more easily with platforms such as Apple Home, Google Home, or other Matter-compatible systems.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a chip that runs your program and controls connected inputs and outputs. For this product, it is the part that reads buttons and sensors, drives the display and speaker, and communicates over Bluetooth.
- NeoPixel
- A type of addressable LED system where colour data is sent along a single digital data line from one LED or controller to the next. Compatibility matters because the timing and signal format must match for the lights or driver board to respond correctly.
- PWM
- Pulse Width Modulation is a way for a digital pin to simulate variable output power by switching on and off very quickly. It matters for controlling things like LED brightness, motor speed, or servo-style signals from a microcontroller pin.
- RGB
- Short for red, green and blue, usually referring to an LED that can mix those three colours. It matters because controlling an RGB LED teaches how separate outputs combine to create different colours.
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