New Guide: NeoPixel and LED Diffusion Tips & Tricks
At Adafruit, we’re dedicated to helping you level up your knowledge and skills and give you resources to make your projects amazing. We did some research and came up with a comprehensive compendium of diffusion materials, from papers to plastics to foams and beyond. We tested specialty LED diffusion products and compared them side-by-side with inexpensive household items to give you a guide to what kind of material will give you the LED pixel look you want for your project or artwork.
From the guide:
NeoPixels and other addressable LED strips are so much fun to use, and there are so many possibilities and ways to make beautiful things. The pixels are gorgeous on their own, but when they’re diffused through or reflected off other objects, they can become pure magic.
Adafruit’s engineers and artists have pooled some of our experience and knowledge about diffusion materials and techniques. We’ve tested some common materials, as well as specialty materials and interesting stuff we’ve found and love in hopes that you’ll be inspired and accelerated on your journey toward making beautiful things with electronics.
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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.
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