Evelynestallation Blog Post #2!

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Hello! Thank you for taking a look at my second blog post!

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been planning how to test various types of lights and connectors to see what would work best in the HCC. I put together a purchase list with 2 types of lights (strand lights and strip lights) and 2 types of microcontrollers, or chips. One of them can connect to WiFi! Another thing I added to my purchase list was a power converter that takes power from a wall outlet and dials it down so that I can use my boards without frying them. Typical wall outlets are designed to put out 120 volts of power, which can power a TV. The hard-coded chip I’m going to test runs on 7-12 volts, and the WiFi connectable one runs on 5, so if I fed 120 volts of power into either chip, I’d probably start a fire. When I’m testing, I plan to connect the WiFi connectable chip directly to my computer for power.

Pro tip: never attach your computer to a system that’s also powered by a battery or a wall outlet. It will probably destroy your computer, and it could also cause a fire. Maybe “things that could cause a fire” should be the title of this blog post!

Here’s the list of things that I hope to purchase, with links:

I’ve added more fun sparkle lights code below! Try this code out and see what happens. I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to writing all about my adventures testing lights and chips! 

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

#ifdef __AVR__

#include <avr/power.h>

#endif

#define PIN 5

#define NUMPIXELS 50

Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels(NUMPIXELS, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

#define DELAYVAL 10

void setup() {

#if defined(__AVR_ATtiny85__) && (F_CPU == 16000000)

clock_prescale_set(clock_div_1);

#endif

pixels.begin();

for(int i=0; i<NUMPIXELS; i++) {

pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0, 125, 255));

pixels.show();

}

}

void loop() {

int x=255;

int y = 0;

for (int z = 0; z<255; z++){

for(int i=0; i<NUMPIXELS; i++) {

pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0, x, y));

pixels.show();

}

delay(DELAYVAL);

x--;

y++; }

for (int p = 0; p<255; p++){

for(int i=0; i<NUMPIXELS; i++) {

pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0, x, y));

pixels.show();

}

delay(DELAYVAL);

x++;

y--; }

}