NeoPixel Lighting & Pumpkin Carving Timelapse #ElectronicHalloween

Happy Halloween!

The Ruiz family did some last minute pumpkin carving yesterday and had the opportunity to light up the Jack-O’-Lantern with some NeoPixels. But in stead of pulling out the soldering iron, wires, micro-controller and a NeoPixel strip, we only used a single Circuit Playground board. Using PhilB’s code, the 10 on-board NeoPixels emit a lovely candle flicker effect, which looks both organic and authentic. It’s being powered by a 2500mAh lipo battery. To keep the components from getting messy, we placed them in a sandwich bag which should keep them nice and dry.

Although there are much cheaper methods of lighting, this project provides a much brighter result. The simulated candle sketch is a great example of optimized code and teaches you how to create light using math… and when Halloween is over, the Circuit Playground can be used in many other projects :-).

Circuit Playground Jack-o’-Lantern


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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.

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