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StarLights

Convey with simplicity!


I took my StarLights camping!

Make your string of Neopixels shine! This simple code allows for soft and subtle twinkling/fading effects for understated background lighting. All you need is a microcontroller and the LED wire. If you are fed up with psychadelic rainbow flashing, then this is the code for you!

See also LightJar for a browser-controlled mood light in a jar!

Requirements:

  1. A Plasma 2040 or similar microcontroller
  2. A Star Wire (or LED wire, LED strip, set of NeoPixels or APA LEDs - minor code changes may be needed)

Setup

  1. Connect the dotted wire of the Star Wire to +5V on the Plasma 2040 terminal,
  2. Connect the middle wire to DATA (DA)
  3. Connect the remaining wire to GND
  4. Plug in a USB-C connector to your computer
  5. Upload the code using Thonny (name it 'main.py' to auto-run without being connected to the computer)

Use your LEDs!

Press 'B' to advance the presets in the cycle, 'A' to go back. The LEDs change slowly so do wait a few seconds after you pressed the button for the change to manifest!

If you are feeling adventurous, create your own preset colour schemes and add them to the list! See LightJar for further information

Help

Are you using a different microcontroller? You may need to change the button-press code - does your microcontroller have 2 buttons?

Are you using different LEDs? Check the NUM_LEDS is correct; and check the type (are they WS2812? APA?) and the RGB colour order in the 'led_strip =' line

Are you using Micropython with the Plasma library from Pimoroni? Download it here (pico-v1..., no need for pico_USB)

If you want to use CircuitPython - please try it! However, although I like CircuitPython a lot, I have had issues with the colour temperature of the LEDs here - these issues went away when I used the MicroPython method.

For more help using different LEDs and Thonny, check out Pimoroni's Plasma 2040 help page

Credits

Thanks to Pimoroni of Sheffield-on-Sea for the hardware, support pages and micropython library including examples

Credit to Hel Gibbons for the Sparkle code concept and function move_to_target which was used within this code