New Guide: Glowing Wire Wrap Necklace Tutorial – Programmable with USB Charging
Get inspired with the latest tutorial from the magical workshop of Erin St Blaine: how to make an LED necklace insert that’s small, light, and compact with a USB-rechargeable battery and up to 23 addressable NeoPixels — all within a very low profile, 2″ wide package. Combined with a colorful resin “stone” and a gorgeous wire wrapped setting, this necklace would make a stunning addition to your cosplay (it looks like a magical amulet!) or can be classy enough to wear on the red carpet with a fancy evening dress. It’s versatile enough to slip into a top hat or belt buckle too, and we think it would also work for Iron Man or Steven Universe with a few mods.
From the guide:
Sometimes you want to add animated lights to your costume or project and you’re really limited on space. Necklaces are a great example of this – a glowing pendant can be so striking, but if it’s too big and bulky it can cross the line to “gaudy” pretty quickly.
This tutorial aims to make the smallest possible NeoPixel module or insert for your project. We’ve worked to make it super small, at around 1/2″ thick and about 2″ across.
This tiny package still contains all the niceties:
7-12 addressable NeoPixel lights
A compact on/off switch
A rechargeable battery with 4+ hours of battery life
Onboard USB charging capability
We’re using an ItsyBitsy M0 microcontroller, which can be programmed with CircuitPython, MakeCode or Arduino, so you’ve got lots of options, and we’ve included an easy-to-customize code sample as well.
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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.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
