At HOPE 2014 this weekend, I attended a BlinkyTape workshop lead by Matt Mets and Ethan Hartman from the Blinkinlabs team. Conference attendees gained hands-on experience with BlinkyTape and asked questions about how to use other software and tools to drive data to their BlinkTape such as current WiFi signal strength, countdown clocks, and more. Vijay, pictured above with his father Brian, became quickly obsessed with the intuitive PatternPaint app that he used to send color patterns and sequences to the strip on the fly.
Hello denizens of earth – @BlinkyTape will have a booth at @hopex tomorrow – and a workshop Sunday!
BlinkyTape by Blinkinlabs: BlinkyTape is a very special LED strip, taking the smarts of NeoPixels and combining it with an Arduino-compatible for an all-in-one ready to go design. You don’t have to source your own microcontroller, power supply or connectors. Simply plug in a standard USB battery pack or wall charger, and you’re good to blink. BlinkyTape has 60 independently controllable full-color RGB LEDs, all wrapped up in a weather-resistant silicone case. All this is powered by a integrated light processor (e.g. Atmega32u4 microcontroller) which has a standard micro-USB connector. This means you can connect it to a battery or power supply to run on its own, or it can talk to a computer for interactive installations. (read more)
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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.
