Live from the Desk of Ladyada

Adafruit Industries
  • 5.0 (2)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
Live from the Desk of Ladyada

Join Ladyada streaming live for circuit board layout design, code writing, surface mount soldering and more fresh engineering and even some gaming! If Ladyada’s working on it, you’ll find it here first.

  1. MAR 3 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - Triple Matrix Bonnet & u-blox UBX Vibes

    This week, we were all over the place with a bunch of different designs and experiments. After last week's analysis of the TLV320DAC3100, we made some updates to the design and re-booked prototype PCBs. We also designed a triple-matrix bonnet: with our latest work on getting HUB75 RGB matrices working on the Raspberry Pi 5, we can now do matrix control on the latest Pi 5 chip. But we're limited by the RP1 chip, so to get big displays going, we'll need multiple strands—these don't use significantly more bandwidth because half of the pins are shared. Finally, we ended the week by getting another older prototype working: the SAM-M8Q is an entry-level all-in-one GPS from u-blox. It comes with both UART and I2C interfaces, plus a built-in antenna, so it's ready to go out of the box. The NMEA interface is trivial, but we also wanted to try out the UBX interface, and thankfully, Claude 3.7 was able to vibe-code it for us in a jiffy.

    35 min

  2. FEB 24 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - More TLV320 DAC'ing with a Bit of a Run-around

    This week - We tackle the TLV320DAC3100, fixing headphone & mic issues for a breakout board. Plan to use it in AudioFX remake. Jepler advanced HSTX DVI text mode for Fruit Jam. Also, a search for a new pocket multimeter begins as the fave Amprobe PM51A is discontinued.

    28 min

  3. FEB 17 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - I2S DACs, Claude API, and Compute Module Backpack

    Ladyada explores I2S DACs, testing PCM51xx as a UDA1334A alternative. Work continues on the TLV320DAC3100, we test an AI API interface for setters/getters for Claude with pay per token. A new Pi Compute Module backpack is in progress - And we search for tall connectors for CM4/CM5. Read more https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/02/17/desk-of-ladyada-i2s-dacs-claude-api-and-compute-module-backpack-adafruit-adafruit/

    27 min

  4. FEB 10 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - Fruit Jam jam party

    Fruit Jam! Our new credit card-sized computer inspired by IchigoJam! Built on the Metro RP2350 with DVI & USB host, it's a retro-inspired mini PC with modern features. Plus, we're hunting for the perfect I2S DAC for high-quality audio output!

    32 min

  5. FEB 3 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - Kiddo Kart Repair

    BabyAda's bumper car toy stopped working after overnight charging - turns out 24V charger + 12V battery = problems. Quick fix: replaced battery with correct one from DigiKey. Pro tip -Always check voltage compatibility!

    20 min

  6. JAN 27 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - ST7796S Screen & So Many Sunday Samples

    Testing ESP programmer board, working on 3.5" Captouch TFT with new ST7796S display & FT6236 touch chips. Board needs redesign for new FPC. Got exciting screen samples round/bar/rect. Also found great ultra-fine tweezers on DigiKey, for both engineers & entomologists!

    25 min

  7. JAN 20 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - Sparkle Motion Tester Troubles & Samples Sunday

    This week at the Desk, we worked on our Sparkle Motion Mini (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6160) and not-so-Mini testers. The Mini (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6160) tester came together super fast, and we got the boards into the shop. The classic version got much more complicated with a few mistakes that cascaded into frustration during testing, but we worked through it and hopefully will get those boards into the shop this week! This was also the first time we used Claude (https://claude.ai/) a bunch to help us with tester firmware development, and we're still enjoying it quite a bit! We also got some fun samples, including filament letter shapes and some plastic enclosures, including one we think will be a great fit for our Sparkle Motion Stick.

    29 min

  8. JAN 13 · VIDEO

    Desk of Ladyada - LDACs, Sparkle Motion Mini & Claude

    Sparkle Motion Mini PCBs are here, featuring a compact 5V-only design. We are also refining small breakout boards like the DAC7578 and working on a TMC2209 driver by refactoring BusIO for versatile interfaces. Lastly, Claude & exploring compact, sensorless BLDC motor drivers via DigiKey.

    34 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
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2 Ratings

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Join Ladyada streaming live for circuit board layout design, code writing, surface mount soldering and more fresh engineering and even some gaming! If Ladyada’s working on it, you’ll find it here first.

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