NEW TUTORIAL: Genesis Poi: DotStar LED Persistence-of-Vision

Persistence of vision (POV) is the illusion of a solid image where there is none. It’s a task for which LEDs and microcontrollers are a natural fit. Many of our kits and guides have visited this topic before.

Poi is a performance art of spinning tethered weights. Some of the most dramatic performances use fire poi! We sought to create something with that level of wow, but safer and usable indoors or out. And so these “Genesis” POV-poi were born…high tech, all-season, water- and playa-resistant poi that you can build and customize yourself!

I’ve wanted to make this as a DIY project since roughly forever ago, but only recently did all the pieces fall into place: our new DotStar LED strips are THE thing for persistence-of-vision effects, the Adafruit Trinket microcontroller is tiny and affordable, 3D printing is more accessible than ever…the “aha!” moment was buying some plastic tubes as a small-parts storage idea and recognizing them as the missing piece.

See the full tutorial here!