Adafruit Circuit Playground Classic

One of my favourite starter boards — the Adafruit Circuit Playground Classic is packed with sensors and outputs right out of the box. No soldering or sewing required to get started. I've used it for a temperature-sensing hat, a servo fan, UV light readings, and a 'touch together' project where two people wearing conductive sleeves play music when they touch arms (featured in The Ultimate Guide to Informed Wearable Tech).

This is the Classic version with an ATmega32u4, designed for Arduino IDE and code.org CS Discoveries. Comes pre-loaded with Firmata. For MakeCode or CircuitPython, see the Circuit Playground Express instead.

Built-in hardware

• 10 × mini NeoPixels (full colour)
• Motion sensor — LIS3DH triple-axis accelerometer (tap + free-fall detection)
• Temperature sensor (thermistor)
• Light sensor (phototransistor)
• Sound sensor (MEMS microphone)
• Mini speaker (magnetic buzzer)
• 2 × push buttons + 1 × slide switch
• 8 × alligator-clip I/O pads (I2C, UART, analog in, PWM) — all 8 capacitive touch capable
• USB HID — keyboard, mouse, joystick, MIDI, serial
• Green power LED + red #13 LED + reset button

Specs

• Processor: ATmega32u4 @ 8MHz, 3.3V
• Connector: Micro-USB
• Power: USB, AAA battery pack, or LiPoly (advanced)
• Diameter: ~50.6mm | Weight: 8.5g

Related products

• Want a sewable board for garment integration? Try the Adafruit Flora V3.
• Need a smaller sewable option? See the Adafruit Gemma M0.
• Building a touch input wearable? Check out the Open Universal Input Sleeve (OUIS).