This is what HALF A KILOMETER of NeoPixels looks like
This year the Disorient Camp at Burning Man built a 7m tall pyramid with over half a kilometer of LED strips. Several artists developed patterns for the panels, including Disorient founder Leo Villareal and Jacob Joaquin from Fresno Idea Works. Update 9/11/13 6:49pm ET: Naim Busek wrote in with the following note – “The project was led by myself in collaboration with Leo Villareal. Would greatly appreciate if you my name to the project description information. More interesting details. After I designed the circuit boards and proved out the major components the project spanned both costs with major contributions from Crashspace and NYC Resistor (forming the core of the hackerspace “Hack Rock City” on playa).
The pyramid was visible from just about everywhere on the playa and served as a great beacon for finding the camp after a long night out.
At the heart of the Disorient Pyramid, a Panasonic Toughbook laptop drives the animations, connected over Ethernet to four BeagleBone Blacks running LEDscape, each in turn USB-tethered to four Teensy 3s, each with eight strands of pixels…16,000 LEDs total. There’s more at the NYC Resistor blog, including videos and all the juicy technical details (including software links).
Featured Guide: Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide
Since their introduction less than a year ago, the humble NeoPixel has exploded into more than a dozen different varieties and form-factors. There are so many tips, tricks and frequently-asked questions, we’ve now collected them into a single densely-packed destination: the Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Thonny and Git Versions, Plenty of Projects and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
