[Update - I'm currently planning a board revision to make this easier to make with more obtainable parts]
Catacorn Badge :D I don't care how you spell it, I've spelled it catacorn for years. Caticorn is equally valid! It's really small, and cute - but you should be able to program it to do a lot of things.
You can order from OSH Park - that's not a sponsored link, and they're by no means the cheapest place to order from, I only link as they're probably the cheapest way to get a small number of purple boards with a lead-free finish (good as they'll be handled!) - and their service has always been good to me.
I have wanted to learn more about electrical engineering and the 'hardware' side of things, so have started playing with dev boards including the Adafruit Trinket M0, which is the board that inspired this project. But none of them were catacorn enough, so I decided to make one :)
I'm not a lawyer, I believe everything I've based this on is licensed in a way I can draw inspiration, but let me know if you want me to get rid of something. All my work is Creative Commons, see license file. Also, I'm obviously not responsible for injuries or anything like that - this is definitely not a safety-tested, commercial project. Build at your own risk. It probably won't even work :)
- ATSAMD21 microcontroller (ARM Cortext M0)
- Lots of LEDs, including two RGB ones (Dotstar-compatible)
- Two capacitive touch zones (ears)
- Native USB (you can even use it as a keyboard, hopefully)
- Probably a fair number of bugs and bad design decisions!
| Component | Manufacturer | Qty |
|---|---|---|
| This board | Whoever you choose | 1 |
| ATSAMD21E18A-AU-ND | Microchip Technology | 1 |
| S2B-PH-SM4-TB(LF)(SN) | JST | 1 |
| 1uF 0603 Capacitor | Any | 2 |
| 10uF 0603 Capacitor | Any | 2 |
| APA102-5050 or Equivalent (e.g. SK9822) | APA Electronic Co (or other) | 2 |
| JE2835AWT-00-0000-000A0ZF940E | Cree Inc | 2 |
| Pink LED 0805 | Generic | 2 |
| Turquoise LED 0805 | Generic | 3 |
| UV/Purple LED 0805 | Generic | 3 |
| AP2112K-3.3TRG1 | Diodes Incorporated | 1 |
| DSS14UTR | SMC Diode Solutions | 2 |
| USB3076-30-A | GCT | 1 |
| 150 Ohm 1206 Resistor | Any | 2 |
| 180 Ohm 0805 Resistor | Any | 2 |
| 180 Ohm 0603 Resistor | Any | 3 |
| 330 Ohm 0805 Resistor | Any | 3 |
| TL3342 Switch (or equivalent) | E-Switch (or generic) | 1 |
This board is intended to be used with either CircuitPython or PlatformIO. I have cloned and modified others bootloader and CircuitPython firmware. These are very similar to the Adafruit Trinket M0, just rebranded basically, and you can use Adafruit Trinket M0 bootloader/firmware with a lot of success (it's how I prototyped this).
I have also included PlatformIO code and board configuration.
Thank you to the following people:
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Ladyada and Adafruit - for building excellent products and teaching people electronics. I used a lot of Trinket M0's in prototyping this. Seriously, people, go buy their products - they're fantastic (and the boards are way cuter than some others, especially look at the Metro M4 Express - it's just adorable).
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Various inspirations for the catacorn, but especially to the kid who asked me to paint their face as a catacorn when I was face painting some years ago. It was the first time I really started thinking what the features of a catacorn should be like. I hope you're doing well today, and I wish you all the best in life :) - also to the many people who've drawn catacorns (and caticorns and unicats) online, and I've taken inspiration from.
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Also, on that note, credit to Lisa Frank because cute Lisa Frank images were one of my childhood inspirations, and they're just awesome and made me like this style of art. A Google image search gave me more ideas for how to draw the board outline and even how to place components to be part of the art (e.g. using a capacitor as a nose, as one drawing I found had a very square nose). The purple Lisa Frank cat, especially, gave me the idea for how the whiskers could work on a component-kitty. And, only in Lisa Frank land do RGB LED cat eyes make sense :)
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I found this image from Freepik which gave me inspiration for the general shape of the base (I needed something flatter than most to get the micro USB port in, and I liked how the cat's belly sat down) and head angle of the catacorn, and also for the style of the heart outline on the cheek. That said, Candy isn't a clone of anyone else's catacorn, with her tiny little horn and big glowing glittery heart, she has her own place in the world - and many others also provided inspiration. So credit to everyone who's drawn a catacorn that's in the first few pages of Google Images results :D
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Emojipedia came in really useful to for bits of emoji-inspired inspiration, and the capacitive touch zones (which are the heart emoji from a font on my system).
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Q - for being an awesome friend who has helped with so much of the EDA side of working this all out. Thank you for answering late night messages with silly questions!
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Charlie - for coming up with the name Candy! I love you bestie :D Without your encouragement and inspiration, I wouldn't have achieved half the things I have with tech. Thank you <3
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JoJo Siwa - because the inspirational quote comes from one of your songs, and your concert on the D.R.E.A.M. tour I went to in Cardiff was amazing. I'm not sure if it's your original quote tho, so I didn't quote it as you - I think I've heard it before? Either way, very inspiring performance! Keep things fun and positive and spread the positive energy, people!