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The one thing holding me up on doing the tutorials for the rechargeable NiMH circuits is the global semiconductor shortage.

The AAA recharger version doesn’t have much room and so needs to use the TO-92 version of the LM317 voltage regulator. As you can see, there’s not enough room for the larger TO-220 package

Here’s what the TO-92 package looks like:

I ordered a bunch from Farnell and was initially given a delivery date of Dec 17th (2021) but, as the day approached, it shifted to Dec 26th… then Jan 7th, then Jan 21st, then Jan 31st and it’s now at Feb 7th.

So I’ve ordered some from ebay and when they arrive (tomorrow?) I’ll cancel the order with Farnell.

I’m not happy about the delay but I have managed to make progress with other projects while I’ve been waiting.

The prototype solar tracker is now in its final version and I’ve been playing with some 1W warm white LEDs to use with the batteries it’ll charge. That way I can use them in place of some of my mains-powered lighting, helping a little to reduce my carbon footprint – and save money on electricity bills at the same time. Nice!

Watch for blog posts about them both.

I’m on a roll! After developing the More or Less app, it was easy for me to develop this new one.

Who is this game for?

I’ve aimed “Where is Moji?” squarely at early learners / younger pre-schoolers. It teaches them a critical skill: to recognise and then find one pattern hidden amongst a screenful of others.

To make it fun, I’ve chosen the emoji used in the game from

• sports
• animals and nature
• transport
• everyday objects

Dad and / or Mum can sit in and help them learn the names of the animals when they come up. Lots of learning opportunities are there to use.

For even more fun, when they find Moji, they’re rewarded with a funny cartoon sound and a visual reward of a fountain of coloured circles, cascading down the screen.

I’ve designed it so that the early runs and levels have fewer emojis, with the number increasing as the game progresses. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can try the setting for a big kids game, which has far more emojis and a faster bonus multiplier countdown,

The easy and hard modes I’ve included for both the Kids game and the Big Kids game means there’s always a challenge. What’s the difference? The hard mode has more emojis and a faster countdown so even if you have a great reaction time, you’ll struggle to hit the top scores.

Get yours…

Download “Where is Moji?” here:

See screenshots of the game and a demo video

When you start each run, the screen shows you the emoji you’re to find.

When you’re ready, tap “Go” and the level begins. Note that the emoji you’re to find is repeated just above the “Go” button in case, in the excitement of it all, you forget what you’re to find!

Take a look at this screenshot of the last level of the Kids Game (on the easy setting). It shows how the number of emojis has increased:

If you like, watch this video of a complete game being played on an iPad. It goes all the way up to getting on the high score table – with the cheer you hear when you do! (I’ve included a different high score table for BigKids, to keep them seperate.)

We’re not quite sure what we can achieve via an iOS app and Zazzle so we’ve been digging around and having a play.

As part of that we developed a simple and fun app for iPhones and iPads aimed squarely at kids (big kids, too!)

It’s called More or Less Kid’s Game and teaches older preschoolers about the notion of more and less in a fun and exciting way.

Here’s a screenshot showing the core in action. In the previous screen to this one, the player was shown one of two emoji.

In this case (though you can’t tell) they were shown a flamingo. Now they have to decide whether there are more or less flamingoes than rhinos by pressing the More or the Less button. (Yes, we know it really ought to be more or fewer but we’re practicing being less pedantic!)

If they don’t make up their mind quickly enough, after a short while the bonus multiplier starts to count down and the potential score for a right answer reduces.

If they choose correctly, they get a positive, funny cartoon sound and a visual celebration as a reward. The run score they get (the bonus multiplier X number of images) is then added to the total score for the level.

If not, they still get a funny cartoon sound – but no visual celebration and no score.

There are 5 levels and 4 runs per level.

If they play with Dad or Mum at their side, they can get help counting the emoji to find out whether there are more or less.

We’ve made it so that the earlier levels have fewer images with bigger differences between the numbers of each. As the game progresses, each level has more images and smaller differences between the numbers of each emoji shown.

Get More or Less here on the app store.

We’ve added a new feature to Nifty to help your Zazzle store get promoted. You can now submit your store for promotion by the affiliates / artists that use Nifty as part of their promotion strategy.

When anyone submits a store, they’re first asked to pin/tweet/share 20 designs from a store that’s been submitted previously (chosen at random).

So there’s two ways to get promoted when you submit your store to Nifty, by:

• affiliates using the new “pot-luck” button in the Nifty Promo Control Panel
• someone submitting a store after you and your store gets chosen as the one to have its 20 products pinned/shared/tweeted

All good quality stores are welcome. Submit yours if you like – the sooner the better! If you think about it a bit, it’ll make sense…. stores submitted earlier have a slightly better chance of being chosen.

Submit yours here