From Nextprojectawesome on instructables:
Some months ago I came up with an idea, which was to build a rocket ship simulator for my friends kids and make it cloneable for each of their families. We are all programers, but no hardware guys.
Some planning and I realized I know nothing about hardware, halting a great idea. The arduino I bought sat and went nowhere.Then someone joked I should build an automated bar. After a little research, I found two amazing projects, the Inebriator and bar2d2, but got stumped on approaching hardware and development didn’t start. Motors, voltages, and some fundamentals were needed.
Then I stumbled onto http://learn.robotgeek.com/projects/70-shotbot-project.html and lightbulbs went off! Their project was simple, but it showed how to control pumps via logic. From there I thought I could control it from a raspberry pi with a nice interface.
I ordered a boatload of parts, and then on a whim bought some LEDs.
Featured Adafruit Products!
NeoPixel Ring – 16 x WS2812 5050 RGB LED with Integrated Drivers: Round and round and round they go! 16 ultra bright smart LED NeoPixels are arranged in a circle with 1.75″ (44.5mm) outer diameter. The rings are ‘chainable’ – connect the output pin of one to the input pin of another. Use only one microcontroller pin to control as many as you can chain together! Each LED is addressable as the driver chip is inside the LED. Each one has ~18mA constant current drive so the color will be very consistent even if the voltage varies, and no external choke resistors are required making the design slim. Power the whole thing with 5VDC (4-7V works) and you’re ready to rock. (read more)
NeoPixel Jewel – 7 x WS2812 5050 RGB LED with Integrated Drivers: Be the belle of the ball with the NeoPixel Jewel! We fit seven of our tiny 5050 (5mm x 5mm) smart RGB LEDs onto a beautiful, round PCB with mounting holes and a chainable design to create what we think is our most elegant (and evening-wear appropriate) NeoPixel board yet. (read more)
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!