Build a decorative, programmable LED display pretty enough to hang on a wall!
When I was young, my family had a lightbox as part of our holiday decorations. No one could remember where it came from, probably a garage sale or something. It was extremely simple — just six old-fashioned “blinker” Christmas tree lights behind a pane of textured acrylic that turned each light into a diamond pattern. The lights blinked on and off at random intervals. Each light was always the same color and there were only six of them, but something about it was… hypnotic.
One year it fell to the floor and broke. No big loss, everyone said, yet I’d never seen another one like it. Since then, I’ve always wanted to find another one. Years later, when I saw Adafruit’s strings of 12mm LED pixels, I knew exactly what I wanted to make…
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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 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython Comes to the ESP32-P4, Emulating Arm on RISC-V, and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
