7

he Creative Robotics & Interactive

Construction Kit (Crickit) for Circuit

Playground Express (CPX) is an add-

on board for the CPX for interfacing

with physical hardware. It adds a

range of hardware controllers, including

two motor controllers (5 V, 1A), four servo connections

(analogue or digital), four high current (500 mA)

outputs, a class-D 3 W audio output, and four capacitive

touch pins. Together, these enable you to control

almost any physical hardware you may want (the only

T

Adafruit Crickit for Circuit

Playground Express

ADAFRUIT $29.95 Adafruit.com

major limitation is for stepper motors – some will work

with the Crickit, but not all). All of these items are

designed to run at 5 V.

As microcontroller boards go, the Circuit Playground

Express isn’t naturally suited to add-on boards. Almost

all other small processing boards have a set of male or

female headers that you can easily push an expansion

board onto. The CPX, on the other hand, has a circular

array of larger holes designed for alligator clips. The

Crickit gets around this with six bolts that both hold the

CPX in place and create an electrical connection.

Like the CPX, the Crickit eschews the traditional

pin headers of many circuit boards. It’s designed to

be included in things – be they robots or some other

physical computing device – and as such, most of

the connections are robust. Most are screw terminal

blocks, which are both easy to connect/release and

reliable for connections on bits that move and bounce

around. The servo connections are male headers

that most servos can plug straight into, the

signal connections are male headers, and

the capacitive touch retains the large

circular connections of the CPX. There

is a micro USB jack, but this is for

debugging the SeeSaw controller

that handles the input/output on the

Crickit. Power comes via a 5 V 2.1 mm

jack connector that can take up to 4 A.

Be aware that while 9 V jacks such as

those used to power Arduinos will fit,

they will trip the eFuse, which only accepts

connections below 5.5 V.

There’s a mounting hole in each corner

of the octagonal PCB, which should give

you plenty of options for securely attaching it in

your project.

By Ben Everard ben_everard

A lot of hardware control for the Circuit Playground Express

REVIEW

Adafruit Crickit for Circuit Playground Express