Troubleshooting NeoPixel Problems

The NeoPixel packs a lot into a tiny package, millions of intense colors! As I developed the 24 NeoPixel ring Arduino shield I encountered a couple problems and had to learn more about the NeoPixel to solve them. I found the ring needs a very stable power supply and any jostling of the pins connecting it to the Arduino or the pins connecting to the ring were likely to reset the Arduino or cause the ring to do weird things, like become dim, flash suddenly, etc. So a couple modifications I

Gif Loop Coder Is An Animation Microworld

There's a new JavaScript programming tool called Gif Loop Coder that is providing me with endless fun. GLC provides a bunch of shape objects and an environment to play with their attributes and then run the resulting image as a tweened animation. Giving an object a single attribute, such as a fill color, will give it a static

Developing A Light Logo NeoPixel 24 Curriculum

Light Logo, created by Brian Silverman, is a version of the Logo language that is used to program a few versions of the NeoPixels, from rings to strips, through an Arduino. See Josh Burker's post for how to get started, and see my Instructable for how to get a 24 NeoPixel ring more-or-less classroom ready. I'm developing a curriculum for it with 8th grade students as my guinea pigs and here are some thoughts that have come up as I use Light Logo in the classroom.