**Neopixel Project: A Cube of Light**
The project in question is a cube made up of individual Neopixels, which are essentially 512 lights connected together like Christmas tree lights. This means that if one light fails, the next 100 won't work, making it a bit temperamental. However, the good news is that it can be controlled by any microcontroller that supports the Neopixel library, including Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and even the Micro:Bit.
The Micro:Bit is a personal favorite due to its small size and affordability, making it an ideal choice for kids to learn coding through block-based languages like MakeCode. The author of this article has successfully created a working prototype using the Micro:Bit, and is excited to share their experience with others. They have programmed the cube to play games such as Snake, 3D Snake, Pac-Man, and even Tetris.
**Creating Interactive Experiences**
One of the most exciting aspects of the Neopixel project is its potential for interactive experiences. With each individual light being controllable, users can create their own games and designs using a controller or accelerometer on the Micro:Bit. The author is particularly enthusiastic about the idea of allowing people to make their own creations, rather than simply watching someone else's design. They envision users creating their own versions of Pong, Minecraft, and other popular games.
**The Micro:Bit as a Coding Cartridge**
The Micro:Bit can be used as a coding cartridge, where you simply swap out the board with different designs or projects. This makes it an ideal tool for educational settings, such as schools and universities, where students can learn programming concepts through hands-on experience. The author hopes to use their Neopixel cube in the foyer of their university's computer science building, allowing others to hack and modify the design.
**Technical Details**
The technical details behind the Neopixel project are quite interesting. Each wire is connected between each light, with three wires: ground, power, and data. This means that the data travels from one end of the cube to the other in a specific sequence, which can be confusing to code around. However, this design also allows for a clean and compact build, making it easy to transport and store.
**The First Version: A Learning Experience**
The author notes that their first prototype was made using galvanized steel columns, which proved to be difficult to solder onto. The second version, made with copper-coated iron rods, is much more reliable and has been well-received. However, this experience also highlights the importance of testing and iteration in any project.
**Traveling the World**
The Neopixel cube has traveled far and wide, visiting various educational institutions and conferences, including PyCon in Cardiff. The author hopes to continue sharing their project with others, inspiring a new generation of makers and programmers. With its compact size and potential for interactive experiences, this cube is sure to make waves in the maker community.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso i'm i'm a maker i like to make things and this is my biggest project that i've ever made and it's an eight by eight by eight red green blue cube of lights each light is sitting underneath a ping pong ball which have all been drilled so it's 512 ping pong balls that have been drilled to diffuse the light it's actually really simple because in the base of the new pixels neopixels is the brand name it's like a ws2812b and it's just basically one strip of lights so it's actually just 512 lights here that are connected together like christmas tree lights so when one doesn't work the next 100 won't work unfortunately um and they can control any microcontroller that can control neopixel library so you got arduino raspberry pi but my favorite is the micro bit just because it's so small and cheap kids can code this so you can use like the scratch-like language make code which is like blocks to code this cube which is what we're really hoping that people will do this weekend is they'll hack the cube and put their own designs in it i'm really boring i don't have any imagination so right now just doing the test grid of red green blue um a lot of people just were cubes they make them animations which is a bit boring so i thought i'd make it interactive so on this cube because you can control each individual light you can play snake on it so you can play 3d snake so you move the snake in around the cube to eat the apple and you can play pac-man so the ghosts chase you and try and eat you um so that's what i've done but again i just want people to make their own games like you do two-player pong microphone has an accelerometer on it so you've got lots of potential for movement and dance of what you can make to interact with the cube rather than watching someone else's designs you know interact and make your own designs so it's a bbc micro bit it's like a cartridge so you just take out the test one and that will stop and then you put the snake one in the back lights might not work so this is the snake the green ball and that red ball is the apple so you have to use a controller to get from the frontier to the back which is really hard because you're driving in three dimensions the average score is only about five to five apples the max score though is 20 some guy was really impressive he got 20. so yeah that's snake i really love to do tetris though um i just i spend so much time building this and assembling and bringing places i don't get to code it at home you know it's never built at home it's always in the boot of the car so i'd love to do um 3d tetris because that would be particularly evil and difficult to play and code so the frame is the um is the wiring so each each wire is ground and power and data so data in from here data in data out data in data out so there's three wires going between each light and it goes like that so it's a bit awkward to code because this is like zero this is like seven this is like eight this is like 15 because of the way the data travels so yeah the the frame is the wiring which is what's brilliant about it it looks neat it looks like a cube when it's lit up in the dark it looks really good i mean i'm looking at lots of connections and things like that is it temperamental this is version two so this is much more reliable than version one because of these copper rods so the first one was steel these are copper coated iron rods so they're stronger and they're easier to um solder onto so the first version it was um galvanized steel which is the worst thing ever to try and solder onto um so the first one we had eight spare columns and eventually went through all of them because they eventually broke this one i have no spare columns and it's been fine i've brought it i brought it to ireland i brought it to kodadojo i brought pie wars been to leeds newcastle so yeah this is this travels a lot better it's a lot sturdier it's it's awkward because of the size of it but it flats down like each of these columns come out and it travels it fits in the boot of my husband's car and that's it that's nothing i'm not going to build anything bigger because it needs to fit i'm not but i'm not renting a van for my next project so this is emf where am i this is hopefully you'll be at pycon in cardiff so the the python conference because you can use a micropython obviously the raspberry pi to control it and so you can use python to do it and then i work at lancaster university so they're dying for me to leave this in the foyer of the computer science building and they'll they'll hack it and that's why i wanted one people to hack it i wanted to go somewhere where people will actually make things for it rather than a display piece once you get inside it's pretty hard to confuse them for a working toilet to get from this year's badgeso i'm i'm a maker i like to make things and this is my biggest project that i've ever made and it's an eight by eight by eight red green blue cube of lights each light is sitting underneath a ping pong ball which have all been drilled so it's 512 ping pong balls that have been drilled to diffuse the light it's actually really simple because in the base of the new pixels neopixels is the brand name it's like a ws2812b and it's just basically one strip of lights so it's actually just 512 lights here that are connected together like christmas tree lights so when one doesn't work the next 100 won't work unfortunately um and they can control any microcontroller that can control neopixel library so you got arduino raspberry pi but my favorite is the micro bit just because it's so small and cheap kids can code this so you can use like the scratch-like language make code which is like blocks to code this cube which is what we're really hoping that people will do this weekend is they'll hack the cube and put their own designs in it i'm really boring i don't have any imagination so right now just doing the test grid of red green blue um a lot of people just were cubes they make them animations which is a bit boring so i thought i'd make it interactive so on this cube because you can control each individual light you can play snake on it so you can play 3d snake so you move the snake in around the cube to eat the apple and you can play pac-man so the ghosts chase you and try and eat you um so that's what i've done but again i just want people to make their own games like you do two-player pong microphone has an accelerometer on it so you've got lots of potential for movement and dance of what you can make to interact with the cube rather than watching someone else's designs you know interact and make your own designs so it's a bbc micro bit it's like a cartridge so you just take out the test one and that will stop and then you put the snake one in the back lights might not work so this is the snake the green ball and that red ball is the apple so you have to use a controller to get from the frontier to the back which is really hard because you're driving in three dimensions the average score is only about five to five apples the max score though is 20 some guy was really impressive he got 20. so yeah that's snake i really love to do tetris though um i just i spend so much time building this and assembling and bringing places i don't get to code it at home you know it's never built at home it's always in the boot of the car so i'd love to do um 3d tetris because that would be particularly evil and difficult to play and code so the frame is the um is the wiring so each each wire is ground and power and data so data in from here data in data out data in data out so there's three wires going between each light and it goes like that so it's a bit awkward to code because this is like zero this is like seven this is like eight this is like 15 because of the way the data travels so yeah the the frame is the wiring which is what's brilliant about it it looks neat it looks like a cube when it's lit up in the dark it looks really good i mean i'm looking at lots of connections and things like that is it temperamental this is version two so this is much more reliable than version one because of these copper rods so the first one was steel these are copper coated iron rods so they're stronger and they're easier to um solder onto so the first version it was um galvanized steel which is the worst thing ever to try and solder onto um so the first one we had eight spare columns and eventually went through all of them because they eventually broke this one i have no spare columns and it's been fine i've brought it i brought it to ireland i brought it to kodadojo i brought pie wars been to leeds newcastle so yeah this is this travels a lot better it's a lot sturdier it's it's awkward because of the size of it but it flats down like each of these columns come out and it travels it fits in the boot of my husband's car and that's it that's nothing i'm not going to build anything bigger because it needs to fit i'm not but i'm not renting a van for my next project so this is emf where am i this is hopefully you'll be at pycon in cardiff so the the python conference because you can use a micropython obviously the raspberry pi to control it and so you can use python to do it and then i work at lancaster university so they're dying for me to leave this in the foyer of the computer science building and they'll they'll hack it and that's why i wanted one people to hack it i wanted to go somewhere where people will actually make things for it rather than a display piece once you get inside it's pretty hard to confuse them for a working toilet to get from this year's badge\n"
