11

LEDs, lots and lots of LEDs

BEST OF BREED

e were big fans of the

original Unicorn HAT with its

64 RGB LEDs, but it pales in

comparison to the new and

improved Unicorn HAT HD,

boasting 256 tightly packed

RGB LEDs. With four times as many pixels as the

original Unicorn HAT, you are able to generate much

more complex and smooth animations.

The board features an ARM STM32F and three

LED drivers. These components take care of all the

fast processing needed to control all 256 LEDs. This

allows your Raspberry Pi to do other things, rather

than worry about the refresh rate of a bunch of

LEDs. There is a nice Python library to help you get

up and running, along with tons of examples which

really show off the power of this board.

he Rainbow Light Show from

SpikenzieLabs is a fun kit that allows

you to control a strip of RGB LEDs

with a simple wave of your hand.

The kit is available in a traditional bring-

your-own-soldering iron version, or you

can pick it up in a simple no-solder version too. Once

assembled, both kits allow you to adjust the red,

green, and blue colour mixing of the LED strip. The

kit comes with a strip of 16 addressable LEDs, but it’s

expandable up to 64 in total. That’s enough to light up

a room!

W

T

Unicorn HAT HD

Rainbow Light Show

UNICORN $42 shop.pimoroni.com

RAINBOW LIGHT SHOW $29.95 spikenzielabs.com

Make your Raspberry Pi glow

Dancing lights

More LEDs than

we thought was

possible to pack

into a HAT form

factor board.

VERDICT

10 / 10

A fun way

to create a

light show with

the swipe of

your hands.

VERDICT

Left

256 LEDs all

packed into

this HAT

Below

Make your own

light show with a

wave of your hand

8 / 10