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Announcing Adafruit Gemma – Miniature Wearable Electronic Platform

Posted by Unknown on from the honey-i-shrunk-the-microcontroller dept.

coop0030 writes "Open source hardware company Adafruit has announced a new tiny wearable electronics platform board called the Gemma. The Gemma is a tiny, 1-inch diameter and 4-mm thick package. It's powered by an Attiny85 and programmable with an Arduino IDE over USB. There are three available I/O pins, one of which is also an analog input and two of which can do PWM output. Gemma is currently wrapping up development, but should be available soon."

7 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's all good and interesting... by Cornwallis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    and is it TSA-friendly?

  2. I've worked with the ATtiny85... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And it's awesome. It has a pile of cool peripherals that can be switched onto each pin. I took apart my LED flashlight the other day and found one of it's little brothers (also an 8 pin SOIC) doing the modulating to control the power to the LED. Just an IC and four components.

    This is one of the rare micros that you could actually make a market competitive product out of.

  3. Re:It's all good and interesting... by vlm · · Score: 3, Funny

    but does it run Crysis?

    Yes but with only two PWM outputs all you get is two pixels.

    In a way I'm glad this stuff isn't too popular... womens sweatpants flashing out morse code "juicy" isn't all that appealing.

    One unfortunate thing is its an inch around. A hair smaller (24 mm?) and it would fit in a "one inch" model rocket tube.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  4. Re:question by spire3661 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can make them removable by soldering snap buttons onto the pads and sewing the backs into the fabric. You wire it up using stainless steel conductive thread. Here is an example: http://learn.adafruit.com/flora-snaps

    --
    Good-bye
  5. Re:It's all good and interesting... by dissy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes but with only two PWM outputs all you get is two pixels.
    In a way I'm glad this stuff isn't too popular... womens sweatpants flashing out morse code "juicy" isn't all that appealing.

    With PWM support, I've bit-banged composite video with only a single IO pin.
    Also a lot of the new LCD/oLED controllers are a serial interface like i2c or SPI, which would be an option here too.

    Just combine this not-yet-available chip with one of those not-yet-available flexible/wearable oLED strips sewn into the ass of said sweatpants, and the juice is on.

  6. Re:It's all good and interesting... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you enjoy being fondled and yelled at while a nightstick is at your throat? Yes it is 100% TSA friendly.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  7. Re:question by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    it takes less than 12 seconds (and a 24 hour cure time) to make it withstand a dunk in water without problems... Have you never heard of epoxy?

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.