The Fellowship of the Things video series was conceived out of our passion for the burgeoning world of Internet of Things and connected projects, and our desire to showcase some of the SparkFun tools and products that fit particularly well into them. We somehow got permission to build an Internet of Things-dedicated apartment inside SparkFun HQ to use as a demo area for the projects, and so far it’s been a huge success!

In our first episode, The Mantrap, Sarah and Shawn tackled some home automation with an interesting twist on front door security using the Lockitron. We provide a list of parts used at the video link, and viewers can use the GitHub repo to make their own. 

The second episode, Weight for Treats, put the spotlight on SparkFun’s four-legged population. Using load cells and some of the shields from SparkFun’s Particle Photon ecosystem, we built a doghouse with a special pressure-plate scale that would log our best friends’ weights on data.sparkfun.com before dispensing a treat. Viewers can find a list of parts and more information on the video page.

Our most recent episode, and favorite so far, featured the Cloud Clouds—homemade cloud decorations that pull weather data from the web and use it to affect the appearance of the clouds and mimic the weather outside. They’re visually appealing (disco mode, hello), and we have a wishlist and GitHub code so people can make their own.

We have a lot more ideas for the series, which is currently on a once-a-month-ish schedule, and some new videos already in the works, including ideas focusing on security, smart grid projects, and wearables.