Code

Duration: ~45 minutes

Using fast NeoPixels animations, it is possible to create a stroboscopic effect with the fidget spinner!

Built-in animations

Try to create programs that use the built-in animations and spin them on the fidget.

forever(() => {
    light.showAnimation(light.rainbowAnimation, 500)
})

• Does it look as expected?
• Did you try sparkle or theater chase?

Fun with Photon

Use the light photon to create small animation and test them out while strobing. Are you able to create cool effects?

light.setPhotonMode(PhotonMode.PenUp)
forever(() => {
    light.photonForward(1)
})

• Pick your favorite photon program and try it out?

Coarser control

At the core, photon is just turning on and off LEDs on the board. Let’s get down to that point.

We start by defining a subset of the pixels (0 through 4) so that only 1 column of pixels is turned on.

let left = light.onboardStrip().range(0, 5)

Then we add a while loop to repeat the animation step. A single step clears all the LEDs, turns on 1 location and increment the position counter.

let left = light.onboardStrip().range(0, 5)
let c = 0
while (true) {
    left.clear()
    left.setPixelColor(c, 0xff0000)
    left.show()
    c = (c + 1) % left.length()
    pause(5)
}