Add sound-reactive NeoPixels to your baseball cap! Use our 144-density NeoPixel strip as a wraparound VU meter with a small microphone at the side. The FLORA microcontroller takes input from the mic and sends the LEDs flashing according to the volume in the room!
This intermediate level wearables project requires some precision soldering and sewing. We recommend checking out the following guides before you begin:
• Getting Started with FLORA
• Adafruit Guide To Excellent Soldering
• Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide
You’ll have installed the Adafruit Arduino software by now, OR you can program your FLORA directly from your browser using Codebender. Fancy!
For this project you’ll need:
• FLORA main board
• Electret Microphone Amplifier
• 144-density NeoPixel strip
• 500mAh lipoly battery and charger
• alligator clips
• soldering iron and solder
• wire strippers, pliers, and flush diagonal cutters
• (optional but very helpful) third hand tool
• stranded wire (ribbon cable works great too)
• sewing needle and thread
• scissors
• sewing pins or masking tape
• sturdy tape like gaff or packing
• baseball cap (we recommend getting one size up to save room for the battery)
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 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 9.2.1, What is DMA, PyConUS 2025 and 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
