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Moving Rainbow Kits

These lesson plans are designed to be used with a Raspberry Pi Pico and an addressable LED strip. The total parts cost is typically under $10

Standard Parts

Our standard kit contains the following parts:

  1. Microcontroller - A Raspberry Pi Pico ($4) or "W" ($6). We often solder our own headers in, but if you are not familiar with soldering you can purchase them with header pins soldered in place.
  2. Breadboard - A 1/2-size solderless breadboard (400 ties) ($2)
  3. LED Strip - A 60-LED/meter addressable RGB LED strip (WS2812B) ($4). We purchase 1-meter strips and cut them in half and solder connectors on the ends. You can also purchase NeoPixel rings, arrays and fairy lights. Fairy lights are ideal for costumes but the thin wires are easily damaged.
  4. Headers - 3 terminal screw headers (optional) - This makes it easier to connect and disconnect the LED strip connections without soldering.
  5. Buttons - Two momentary push buttons. We purchase these in packages of 100 to keep the per-button cost down.
  6. Wire - 22 gauge insulated wires. We get red, black wire for power and ground and other colors for data. We use yellow wire for the data connections.
  7. LED Strip Connectors - Many of the LED strips come with a somewhat standardized 3-pin connector. This is often called a 3-pin SM JST connector. It is designed so the users can't plug in the LED strip incorrectly. Only about 1/2 of our current kits use these connectors.

Optional Parts

USB Connectors

Most of our classrooms will also have the right USB cables for these boards. If you have a PC or a Mac you will need a USB-A-to-micro-USB or for a Mac, you will need USB-C-to-micro-USB connector.

Batteries and Battery Packs

If you are using these kits to make a costume, you can also purchase a battery pack that holds 3 AA batteries or a USB power pack used to recharge phones. We find that even the small 2,500 milliamp hour packs will power a costume of 60 LEDs for many hours (depending on the brightness of the pattern)

LED Strip and Rings

WS-2812b types

There are hundreds of variations of WS2812B LED strips and fairy lights. We usually purchase them in 1-meter strips with 60 pixels per meter. Since 2020 there are now very lightweight fairy lights that are ideal for lighting up costumes.

EBay Search for SW2812B

If you are creating costumes that might get wet in the rain, we suggest getting the versions that are encased in a waterproof silicon tube or in a waterproof silicon coating.

LED Fairy Lights