Circuit Playground’s 1.6 update brings another heaping helping of electronics assistance to our highly nutritious iOS app. Be sure to grab it fresh from the App Store if you haven’t already. Let’s dig in to what’s new on the menu in 1.6 –

• Resistor Divider Calculator



Enter any three of the four values: Vin, Vout, R1, & R2 – and your voltage divider is ready for the breadboard.

• Heat Sink Calculator



Make sure that heat sink can keep your component (relatively) cool while in use – provide the top four values, then enter Power or Junction Temp to calculate the remaining. Temperature can be given in Fahrenheit or Celsius.

• Wavelength to Color Converter



It’s a little tough to visualize an LED’s color when you only have its light wavelength go by. Input that nanometer value into the Wavelength to Color Converter for a preview of the color + relevant RGB/Hex values. Alternatively – use the color slider to find a color’s wavelength.

• Trace Width Calculator



Ensure your PCB traces can handle your circuit’s current – calculate the required trace width by providing 4 values for your project. Includes unit options for temperature & length values.

• Quarter Wave Calculator



Find the antenna length you’ll need to use for a given frequency, or the corresponding frequency for a given length. Length can be specified in feet/inches or metric value.

• New Pinouts for connectors, ICs, & boards



We’ve added a bunch of useful pinout diagrams to the app including – Raspberry Pi GPIO, MAX232, LM386, 74HC595, USB (A&B), RS232 (DB-9), VGA (DB-15), Ethernet (RJ-45), 16×2 LCD, 78xx, & 78Lxx

• Show & Tell more!



Show & Tell now lets you share multiple pics & video with Adafruit. Choose up to 3 photos and/or 1 video clip to represent your project – tap a thumbnail image to review each piece of media or remove it from your submission. Of course you can also use your iPad/iPhone/iPod’s camera to grab new pics or video – each one will automatically be saved to your device’s photo library.

Also – Circuit Playground 1.6 also adds support for iOS 6 & requires iOS 4.3 or later. Changing calculator pages on iPad can now be done with a two-finger swipe across the main view.

Circuit Playground 1.6 is available now on the App Store and is a free update for existing users. Bon appetit!