My titles are very strange...
This is Groot! He's a pot plant. John Gallaugher tweeted about how he made it say "I am Groot" when you touched the leaves.
https://twitter.com/gallaugher/status/1039268843997343744

I loved it and bought one to make my own version.
I'm not a plant fan, I have enough trouble keeping my children alive without pets/plants in the house. So I bought a slightly different pot plant to John's - one where Groot his holding is hands in front of him, just enough to hold something that I could add a light to.

Equipment

• Groot Pot Plant https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leegoal-Flowerpot-Cartoon-Action-Figure/dp/B07DPR8ZG8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1537529912&sr=8-3&keywords=groot+pot+plant
• Adafruit Circuit Playground Express
• Adafruit breadboard friendly neopixel (or any WS2812b with pins)
• 3 x Male to Female Jumper wires
• 3 x short crocodile clips
• 19mm ping pong ball https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142850990634?ViewItem=&item=142850990634
• Lipo battery

Build

This video describes how the wiring is done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultGW7PKQV4

1. Drill a hole in the front of groot, large enough for 3 jumper wires to go through.

2. Widen the hole from the bottom of Groot to the plant pot. It's not quite large enough for the jumper wires

3. Thread the jumper wires from the front of Groot into the bottom. The male end first
   

4. Thread them up through and out the plant pot - the male ends up in the plant pot, the female end at the front
   

5. Cut a hole in the ping pong ball so the light sits in it

6. Solder the pins onto the breadboard friendly neopixel on just one side - the IN side

7. Attach the jumper wires to the neopixel

8. Sit the ping pong ball on the neopixel, with the hole sitting on the LED

9. Place the ping pong ball in Groot's hands. I haven't secured this with glue yet, it just fits at the moment
   

10. Attach a croc clip to each male end of the jumper wire
    

11. Attach the croc clips to the Circuit Playground Express
    a. Attach the DIN to the pin A2
    b. Attach - to GND
    c. Attach + to VOUT
    d. Plug in the Lipo battery
    

Before tucking everything into Groot's head, code up the Circuit Playground Express

I put some bubble wrap on top of the board. The board has neopixel lights built it and they look a lot better if you add a filter like bubble wrap.

Code

I've put the code on GitHub: https://github.com/Lorrainbow/Light-up-Groot

When you press button a, it waits for 10 seconds to give me a chance to put the head on and get the camera setup! Then it says "I am Groot" and the lights light up with the colours of the Infinity Stones!

Setup your board first:

1. You need to change your Circuit Playground Express to accept python code. Instructions here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-circuit-playground-express/circuitpython-quickstart
2. I had to add some libraries, instructions here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-circuit-playground-express/circuitpython-libraries
3. If you want to edit the code, I recommend downloading and installing mu: https://codewith.mu/en/download