I try to keep up with the plethora of DIY electronic projects on YouTube and recently caught another FLORAbrella. This one is by Paul Cooper and has been given some slight improvements, including some flashy cool coding. First off, the Random Raindrop pattern is just gorgeous. It really draws attention to single drops in a beautiful way. The Spirals and Random Spot and Fill patterns are other faves. Seeing the lights spark upward like dueling LED strips is awesome. I feel like Paul has really turned this brella into a club lighting feature, with many options. I also like the way he mounted the FLORA lower on the umbrella, making it easier to access the button to change patterns. It does make it more susceptible to wetness, but with today’s cool waterproof coatings, there’s not much to fear. Paul was really happy with our tutorial describing it as “great and so easy to follow”. He’s got future plans of including an accelerometer, which could really lead to some cool displays. Want in? Here’s the FLORAbrella Learning Guide. What is your hack of choice—a different sensor or new code? Do it and don’t forget to shoot some video! Thanks for the awesome mods, Paul!!
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!