Divoom Pixoo handbag LED display replacement #RaspberryPi
Divoom Pixoo Slingbag is nice looking handbag, with a 16×16 RGB LED screen in it. chebe was curious and wanted to look inside.
The bag is constructed well, of decent quality materials. The LED grid works very well. The app for it, on the other hand, is absolute hell. Other people have made alternative clients for them, like the DivoomClient for ESP32, Divoom Timebox Evo, but the only one I personally tried out was the Windows Diwoom client. Which worked pretty well, but made me realise the bluetooth communication isn’t protected at all.
If there isn’t a client currently connected to the bag, there’s nothing stopping anyone else from connecting and changing the displayed image. So clearly the hardware had to come out.
The chosen replacement display is a Pimoroni Stellar Unicorn, a 16×16 RGB LED matrix, with a Raspberry Pi Pico W attached in one package. MicroPython was used to program it.
There are repos that will decode the actual animations from the app, but there doesn’t seem to be a ready library for implementing them in MicroPython (I saw a promising one for CircuitPython, which alas is not MircroPython), but I’ll keep investigating.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
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 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
