Introduction
Connect a NeoPixel Stick and a Potentiometer to a Bit Board and control them with code.
We'll explore how to control an Addressable RGB LED Strip (also called "NeoPixels").
Video Overview
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The magical thing about these “Individually Addressable” LEDs is that you don’t have to connect each LED to an individual pin on your micro:bit, you just need one signal wire along with power (Positive and Negative) to light things up.
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So let's get connected! If you turn the NeoPixel Strip over you'll see labels for the three pins. You should see IN, VCC, and GND.
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Use the Crazy Circuits Ribbon Cable to connect the NeoPixel Strip to the Bit Board.
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The end with S1, +, and - can plug directly into the Pin 13 row (make sure S1 goes into 13) and the other end should plug into the NeoPixel Strip as shown.
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We only need three wires for the NeoPixel Strip so you can leave S2 (the Orange wire) unconnected.
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We'll also connect a potentiometer using Maker Tape. Connect it to GND, Pin 0, and 3V. (The center hole connects to Pin 0.)
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To mount the NeoPixel Stick in place we used our NeoPixel Beam Holder with a long Technic Beam and two 1x1 LEGO bricks.
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You can always use rubber bands, tape, or some other method.
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The important thing is to make sure the connector is on the left hand side so the number index for the NeoPixel strip makes sense.
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If you've never used a micro:bit before you'll want to check out this guide: Bit Board V2 Setup and Use
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We're going to load the following code for our NeoPixel Larson Speed program: https://makecode.microbit.org/_6hXifyc3x...
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The forever loop will read the potentiometer and store the results in a variable named rotVal. Note that we'll once again use the round function to get a whole number. We'll use this to set the speed of our Larson Scanner.
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We then call our movePixels function which will first shift a pixel in the positive direction (seven times) and then shift a pixel in the negative direction (seven times) to create the "Larson Scanner" effect.
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Once the code is loaded it should start running immediately.
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You can power the micro:bit via the USB cable you used to load the code or you can use a battery pack plugged into the Bit Board.
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Turn the potentiometer anti-clockwise and speed of the scanning effect should slow up.
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Turn the potentiometer anti-clockwise and speed of the scanning effect should speed up.
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Follow along with our recorded Live Stream!
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You can watch the full video of us walking through this project, along with explaining and exploring the code: https://www.youtube.com/live/-2ECPBjKX1Q
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Attached Documents
