Circuit Playground

Circuit Playground - Board

The Adafruit Circuit Playground series of microcontroller boards is a true wonder of electronic system design. With its unparalleled ease of use and incredible flexibility and functionality, Circuit Playground boards are the ultimate tool for creating future hardware and software experts. The Circuit Playground comes equipped with almost every type of electronic sensor (temperature, sound, light, motion), buttons, switches, and 10 multi-color bright LEDs, making it a versatile and powerful Swiss Army Knife of electronic design. DigiKey is proud to offer this amazing tool to inspire and empower the next generation of makers, innovators, and engineers.

Each Circuit Playground board is round and comes with alligator-clip pads that eliminate the need for soldering or sewing to make it work. The board can be powered by USB, a AAA battery pack, or a Li-poly battery (for advanced users). Additionally, Circuit Playground boards have built-in USB support, so you can simply plug it in to program it without requiring any special cable or adapter. Once you have programmed your code into the board, you can take it wherever you go!

Circuit Playground Classic is perfect for practicing programming on real hardware! This powerful board features an ATmega32u4 and is designed for use with Arduino IDE and Code.org CS Discoveries. With Firmata already programmed in, it's immediately usable with Code.org Discoveries without any preparation or updates.

Circuit Playground Express is an ideal tool for anyone looking to learn about electronics and programming. It's an upgraded version of the original Circuit Playground Classic, now with infrared receiver and transmitter, and easier programming options. You can begin by using Microsoft MakeCode's block-based or Javascript programming interface, and then move on to CircuitPython, where you can run Python code directly on the Express board. Once you've mastered those, you can progress to using the Arduino IDE, which provides full support for all hardware components, allowing you to create more advanced projects.

Circuit Playground Bluefruit is the third board in the Circuit Playground series, which serves as a great introduction to electronics and programming. It is an enhanced version of the popular Circuit Playground Express, powered by an nRF52840 microcontroller that is not only more powerful but also supports Bluetooth Low Energy for wireless connectivity. This board is compatible with both the Arduino IDE and CircuitPython, making it an excellent choice for your projects.

Add more functionality to your board with Circuit Playground expansion boards and kits!

Scheme-it:

DigiKey’s Scheme-it enables you to start creating ideas around the Circuit Playground. You can interface at the block diagram level or directly at the board level itself. Play around, share your thoughts with others, and get a jump start on your next design. Be the first in the playground with Scheme-it.


Playground Diagram	Playground Board

PDFs:

Blogs and Tutorials:

Projects:

Odysseus, Steampunk Robot Owl

Create a beautiful 3D printed steampunk Owl which is controlled by the Adafruit Circuit Playground and CRICKIT and programmed with Microsoft MakeCode.

View Project