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Happy December from the Adafruit IO team!

Today I’m bringing news of not one but two big improvements to WipperSnapper: our no-code IoT platform interface.

More Components, Better Picker

As I write this, WipperSnapper now supports 82 unique components! From servos to NeoPixels, I2C to UART, analog, digital, PWM… how can we keep it all organized???

Behold, our redesigned component picker:

component-picker-redesign

Faster, Searchable, and More Detail

This picker update performs much better than before, with numerous optimizations under the hood. But by far the biggest addition is search! Knock yourself out searching for various keywords, like:

  • component names: aht20, servo, buzzer, button, etc
  • sensor types: light, temperature, pressure, humidity, etc
  • interface: i2c, uart, ds18x20, etc
  • even I2C addresses: 0x77, or just 77
  • vendor: Adafruit, ASAIR, Infineon, Bosch, etc

We’ve also add product and documentation links to every component. The documentation links will often a lead to one of our high quality Learn Guides, terrific! And for folks browsing for components to buy, the product links are a handy shortcut to the Adafruit Shop or wherever the component is sold.

If you’d like to see a video of the new component picker in action, you can see me walking through it on a recent episode of Show & Tell!

Working in the Sun

At Adafruit, we’re dedicated to open source. All of our WipperSnapper-compatible components are created and maintained in the Wippersnapper_Components open-source JSON repository. We’re proud to be able to work in the open. In fact, the work for this update was iterated openly on this Pull Request!

If there’s a component you’d like to see supported by WipperSnapper, head over and check the Request Issues page to see if it’s already in the works. If not, feel free to open an issue requesting your favorite component! And, if you’re handy with code, you could even get involved and contribute to the project. After all, the microcontroller code that drives WipperSnapper is open-source as well.

Magic Configuration

Not to be outdone, we’ve also made some updates on the board side of things. With WipperSnapper up to 21 compatible boards (and counting!), and thousands of user boards active right now (and growing!), we knew it was time to make it easier to configure them.

Export, Import, Magic

The next time you take a look at one of your devices you might notice a new button at the top of the screen labeled “Auto-Config”:

auto-config-button

Upon clicking it, you’ll be presented with various auto-configuration options:

auto-config-menu

Quick overview of each:

Export: Got a device configuration you’d like to recreate later? This will let you save a file that does just that. Maybe you want to delete and recreate this device? Or perhaps a friend wants to clone a setup of yours? Use export to get a file that can be imported later, instantly re-configuring the device exactly as you have it, now.

Import: The opposite of export! This is where you take export files you’ve created, or received from a friend. Uploading a valid file here will provide an interface for rapidly creating a fully-configured device. Each component can be selected/deselected for import, individually. Any possible import errors will also be shown.

Magic: Finally, the best part: MAGIC! For supported boards, Magic Config will jump straight to the import interface mentioned above with every built-in component on this board configured for import. That’s right, even boards with truly insane numbers of components onboard are ready to go in a one click (I’m looking at you, Funhouse!)

To see a video of the Funhouse getting configured (almost instantly!), check out this clip from Show & Tell. Here’s an image of the Funhouse’s Magic Config import screen: so many components!

funhouse-magic

More Open Source

Of course, we also built the board additions in the open, here’s some quick links for the curious:

As always, if you have any suggestions or bugs to report about these new features, please let us know in the forums.