Create your own musical light show with Raspberry Pi #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi
Create your own musical light show with Raspberry Pi. via open source
Last Thanksgiving, I took some time off from work and was looking for a fun project to work on during my downtime. I decided to check out Raspberry Pi….When I unboxed the kit and saw all the LEDs and wires that came with it, the first thing that came to mind was Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I had no idea if I’d be able to get the Pi to light up any of those LEDs, but if I could just understand how to make software interact with hardware at this level, my investment would be worth it.
Below is a comprehensive set of steps you can take to make your own:
1. Watch the breadboard tutorial.
2. Watch my canakit tutorial.
3. Once you are comfortable with that, look at the LightshowPi project. Learn how to use it. Here’s an example of the LEDs being controlled by LightshowPi.
4. Join LightshowPi’s Google+ community, read up the projects and photos there.
5. Once you’ve done all that and understand what’s going, order the Sainsmart eight-channel 5V solid state relay module board. (mine took two weeks to arrive)
6. Watch this video on how to connect your Raspberry Pi to the SSR board.
7. Purchase six polarized extension cords at Target: five for the light string and one for the power source. I only used five of the eight channels on the SSR board.
8. Following this step-by-step guide, cut the wires and daisy chain the power source into the relay, and that’s it!
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
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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.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!