Adafruit’s Bluefruit devices are hands-down the easiest way to get Arduino communicating over a Bluetooth wireless connection. Bluetooth LE is a great way to control a project from a smartphone or tablet.
This simplicity could be illustrated with a scrolling LED wall sign that works with your phone or tablet…and it’s easy enough to link up a few 8×8 NeoPixel matrices.…but we’re a little more zany than that. And we’ve got a thing for wearable electronics. So…
A hat! A dapper top hat! Most exemplary! Rather than flat matrices, we’ll use flexible NeoPixel strip. To save a lot of cutting and soldering, let’s keep the whole strip intact and coil it around the hat. The project takes its name from the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, with its landmark spiral gallery.
To make this project fun and easy to update, we use a Bluefruit LE module to allow text and color updates to be wirelessly controlled from any iOS (all iPhone/iPads) or Android 4.3+ device (check that your Android device has BLE as some older devices do not!)
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!
