Check out #CRICKIT for All Your Robotic Needs! @roboweek #NationalRoboticsWeek #RoboWeek #MakeRobotFriend

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again. Adafruit’s CRICKIT will help you #MakeRobotFriend. We’ve designed CRIKIT in 4 different flavors that you can use with that extra CPX, micro:bit, Raspberry Pi or Feather you’ve been saving for ‘later’.

No time like the present to start planning your next CRICKIT powered bot! The best place to start is of course with a tour!

If you need some more inspo before you get started, scroll below and feel robot-hearted! If nothing past the scroll catches your eyes, click here or here to see more Adafruit Learn Guides!

Hello World of Robotics with Crickit

Robotics has been tough to get into. Be it initial planning, software requirements, expensive hardware, and endless integration. We’ve been there, even poor Ladyada and her MIT robotics class back in the day.

Today, robotics does not have to take extensive planning, arcane software, expensive hardware or anything else! Seriously! How is this so?

Today’s modern innovations have all come together to bring robotics to the level that anyone can do sitting down in one session. Be that at your kitchen table, workbench, or in a classroom. In any of these settings, with some simple parts and any common computer, you can easily accomplish what is presented in this guide.

This may seem like a lot of pages for a “Hello World” introductory guide. We added pages for each step to ensure we cover things, so it’s not a huge amount of information, it’s just step by step to get you going on the right foot! Read more

Sparky the Blue Smoke Monster Automaton

Wouldn’t you like to have a best buddy by your side at the workbench? Someone to keep your spirits up and give you positive feedback while you work on your electronics? (Ok well maybe not the positive feedback part…)

Here we’ll be building a Sparky the Blue Smoke Monster robot friend! He’ll be there when you put the chip in backwards, swap power and ground, or forget the decoupling cap. You might be a little crestfallen when you let the blue smoke out of your chips, but at least you have someone by your side.

This project shows you how to build a talking automaton using cardboard, popsicle sticks and some other household materials, paired with Adafruit’s CRICKIT for Circuit Playground Express and a micro servo motor. Read more

CircuitPython BLE Crickit Rover

It’s now easier than ever to build your own rover bot with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) control! Use the Adafruit Bluefruit app on an Android or iOS device to drive it and change the underlighting colors!

All thanks to CircuitPython, the coding is simple and straightforward. You can even add accessories or assign the buttons to different functions. There are lots of opportunities for modifications on the project, too, including accessing your phone’s accelerometer for tilt control!

You’ll use the powerful Feather nRF52840 Express, the Crickit robotics platform, a beautiful purple aluminum chassis, motors, wheels, a 24 NeoPixel ring and a few other parts to build this one-of-a-kind rover. Read more

Crickit Dancing Marionette Kit

This project demonstrates how to build a robotic marionette that is controlled with four arcade-style buttons.

The cardboard rig can be configured to control and animate any marionette, and draws inspiration from this Pinocchio marionette.

This project is based around the CRICKIT robotics platform. Four buttons and four small servo motors are connected through CRICKIT to create a rig capable of animating any marionette you choose to use. Read more

CRICKIT WobblyBot

In this guide we will build a cute little robot body all employing the principles of hopping instead of rolling. We’ll even do it with 3 different brains!

• Circuit Playground Express with code in CircuitPython that can be controlled programatically,
• Feather M0 Bluefruit with code in Arduino/C that can be controlled programmatically but also via Bluetooth, and
• BBC micro:bit with code in MakeCode that can also be controlled programmatically.

In each case, the hardware will be the same. The controller board, matching CRICKIT, and code will vary. Part of the reason is to show how all the CRICKIT variations do the same job and the choice is based on the controller board and language you want to use. Read more

Crickit Powered Maker Ice Cream Truck!

Twitter user @caitlinsdad made this insanely awesome maker-themed ice cream truck. Inspired by his idea, here is a guide on how to create the truck in its physical form! Using cardboard, a couple different motors, NeoPixels, CRICKIT and Circuit Playground Express, we will recreate this totally tricked out truck! Read more

Infrared Hand Gesture Robot Control Glove

With a wave of your hand, a robot obeys your command!

This project will take a Circuit Playground Express based robot such as the CRICKIT Snake Bot or Crickit Carnival Bumper Bot and add wireless hand gesture control with the built in Infrared. Read more.

Halloween Sentry-Bot with CRICKIT for CPX

This sentry robot will wait quietly for someone to pass by, then it springs to life! A lot of fun anytime or make it especially for Halloween.

Using MakeCode drag and drop blocks you will make a scary monster that can protect all your precious, precious candy.

In addition to basic programming concepts, this guide also demonstrates the construction of a simple mechanical movement, translating rotary motion into linear motion. Read more

Automation with Crickit and Capsela

Open any toy closet and you’ll find them. Building blocks from your childhood or your children’s childhood. Be they Lego, Duplo, Mindstorms, Erector, Tinker Toys, or Capsela, they are a staple of creative building that never age. They just might go into hibernation as other things come along (like dating, working, cooking, life). But they are there waiting for discovery!

This project takes some of those boxes out of the closet to get a new makeover with Adafruit Circuit Playground Express and Crickit, the new Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit.

It turns out that it is SUPER easy to interface Crickit to the motors that come with Capsela kits. Time to build some of those kits and see how Crickit gives them a breath of fresh air. Read more

Automatic Cat Treat Dispenser

This treat dispenser is an easy way to feed and entertain your cat when you’re not at home. The box is triggered by a pad that detects a change in capacitance when touched. This makes it very sensitive to little paws, and can be easily repositioned it to make it easier or more challenging for your cat to trigger.

This project uses readily accessible household materials and a handful of electronics to create an interactive toy that your cat (or dog) will enjoy. This treat dispenser can be a good way to exercise your kitty’s brain or as a proxy measure of their feline IQ. Read more

Cam Follower Automaton

An automaton type of robot that can create anything from simple up and down movements of a character all the way through to incredibly intricate, complicated scenes with multiple animated characters, and even such incredible feats as figures that can draw illustrations or write words with an ink pen!

One of the primary mechanisms found in nearly all automata is the cam follower. In this project we’ll build such a mechanism and motorize the drive wheel with a Crickit and Circuit Playground Express coded in MakeCode. Read more

Crickit Paddle Wheel Boat

In this project we’re building a cricket powered paddle wheel rover.

This simple water bot is 3d printed and features a tripod mount for capturing underwater photography.

The rover stays afloat with the help of pool noodles that are mounted to the 3d printed enclosure.

We used NinjaFlex filament to 3d print watertight mounts for the motors and components! Read more

Stumble-Bot

Here is a fun robot you can build with a cardboard box. Stumble-bot moves using servo controlled legs controlled by the Adafruit Crickit– A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit.

The design of this walking robot has the advantage of being very simple. As a result, it requires relatively few parts. Read more

Crickit Harmonic Drawing Machine

You can build a machine that draws wonderful geometric curve patterns using Crickit, Circuit Playground Express, TT motors, and LEGO. This type of harmonograph drives the pen armature from two motorized hubs running at different speeds, generating and mapping complex harmonic motion! Read more

Tightrope Unicycle Bot

Adabot has always wanted to join the circus — and you can help Adabot fulfill this dream by building a tightrope riding, balanced unicycle bot!

This project uses the Circuit Playground Express for brains, and the Crickit platform to provide the power to the gearbox DC motor.

You’ll make a cardboard chassis, frame, and armature, then dress it up with Adabot costuming. Read more

LEGO Crickit Rover

Build a CRICKIT powered rover robot using LEGO pieces and 3D printed mounts! Learn how to use the Circuit Playground Express and the LEGO brick system to build a two wheeled robot. Use Microsoft MakeCode to program movements with interactive lights and sounds. LEGO is the breadboard equivalent to mechanical design. It’s modularity makes it perfect for prototyping robotics. With just two motors, an Adafruit CRICKIT and Circuit Playground Express board, you can quickly make a moving robot. It’s expandable and completely customizable with 3D printing! Read more

Crawling Baby Sea Turtle Robot

The plight of baby sea turtles trying to find their way to the ocean is one that has played out for millennia, and become increasingly harrowing as humans habitation has encroaches on some of their ancestral nesting grounds.

This project demonstrates how to build a robotic turtle that will respond to light, triggering it to start flapping its flippers and moving, hopefully, toward the freedom of the ocean.

The tools and materials for this project (aside from the motors and microcontroller) are things you can find around the home. Paired with the versatile robotics platform, CRICKIT for Circuit Playground Express, simple household materials can spring to life and take on any form your imagination desires!
This project demonstrates basic programming skills using Microsoft MakeCode and allows for easy experimentation and adaptation. Read more

Make It Bubble

Who doesn’t love getting a bottle of bubbles to have fun with friends and pets? What’s that? You get tired of all that blowing?

Circuit Playground Express comes to the rescue. Along with the Crickit robotics controller, you can build a simple robot that dips the wand in bubble solution and blows the bubbles for you! Great at parties!

This guide will show you how to build your own bubble blowing robot. Read more