This demonstration shows how to use a Raspberry Pi Pico to control various aspects of a bar, ring, or strip of NeoPixels using common controls such as buttons. Specifically, how to adjust the brightness, timing, and effect of the connected NeoPixels.
The following resources were instrumental to this project
Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide
Micropython Asyncio
Before you begin, ensure you have these, or similar parts, nearby:
Pi Pico W can also be used
Any Adafruit NeoPixel component should be usable. I used a stick for simplicity
Install version Micropython 1.23.0, or later, onto the device. This example uses methods of the deque class that may not exist in earlier versions.
Connect everything as above in the Fritzing diagram, if using linked components. You may need to solder header pins to the NeoPixels to connect to a breadboard. If this is not possible, then alligator cables should suffice.
If you choose to use NeoPixel's that are RGBW, instead of RGB, then one small change in the source
code is required for optimal operation
Inside hardware.py, change the value of the __RGB variable in the Output class to False
class Output:
___RGB = False # Only False if using RGBW NeoPixelsUpload all the required files to Pi Pico's root directory.
lib/
hardware.py
lighting.py
main.py
This can be easily accomplished using the application Thonny, or other tools such as
mpremote or rshell.
The lib/ directory is especially important since it contains modules used by the demonstration.
If everything went well, interacting with the device should produce similar output into the terminal:
A live demonstration can be seen below:
