Summer Morris- Electrical Engineering Major
Christmas is a wonderful time for creativity to shine. Consumers can purchase several different Christmas light colors and patterns online. The goal of this project is to use a Raspberry Pi Pico and addressable RGB LED string lights to design light patterns using various colors. This project is important because promotes creativity and can enhance the festivity and joy experienced by others. This project was designed for the honors portion in ECE 1000 Explorations in ECE.
The result of this project includes four main patterns and two similar patterns that can be used on the RGB LED string lights. The first pattern coded was a spiral or chasing effect. The RGB LED’s will start purple, but the LED’s will change to gold one by one starting from the bottom LED with a speed of 0.04 seconds. Once the gold reaches the top of the Christmas tree, purple will follow the gold in the same manner. The next pattern will alternate the colors, purple and gold, along the string lights. The LED’s will toggle between purple and gold every second. By removing the section of code that shifts the colors, the code will just create an stationary pattern that alternates the LED’s colors between purple and gold. Another pattern inspired by the toggling pattern will turn all RGB LED’s to gold and will alternate between gold, purple, and white every second. The next pattern created will change each LED to a random specified color every 0.5 seconds. The last pattern will slightly change the hue in each RGB LED in the string lights to create a rainbow of colors. The colors will then shift down the string lights, creating a moving rainbow effect.
- Raspberry Pi Pico
- WS2811 RGB LED string Lights
- 3D Printer
- To print out the 3D ornament
- small, white christmas tree
- Used to demonstrate the lights