Light up goggles

Light up goggles

These goggles are a lot of fun. I wouldn't recommend wearing them for anything like.. walking or cycling or moving in anyway! Your vision is definitely obstructed! Think of them as a sit down party costume :D
I attach them to a bowler hat cause it gives you somewhere to mount the micro:bit. Here's the Hubster modelling them in a Mad Hatter's costume
fin

Equipment

Build

  1. The ZIP circles need pins soldering onto them. You can buy some of the Zip range with pins already soldered on but not 2 circles together: https://www.kitronik.co.uk/5603-zip-zip-leds-add-on-pack-for-kitronik-inventors-kit-for-microbit.html
    IMG_20180915_202058
  2. Connect 3 female to female jumper wires to +5V, DIN and GND on the circle pins
  3. Connect 3 male to female jumpers to these wires, this makes the wiring longer so it can reach the goggles from the back of the hat.
  4. From the circle to the breakout board, connect
    a. +5V to 3V
    b. Connect GND to 0V
    c. Connect DIN to 0
  5. Do steps 2 to 4 for the second circle except on step c, connect DIN to 1
    IMG_20180915_172316

IMG_20180915_172341
7. Plug the micro:bit into the edge connector breakoutboard and code it before attaching everything to the hat

Code

Add the Neopixel package

  1. Go to microbit.makecode.com
  2. Add the Neopixel package
    1. Select Advanced
    2. Select Add Package
    3. Select Neopixel

microbit_addNeopixelPackage

There are two circles connected to the micro:bit. They are not connected in series. So we need to declare two variables, LeftEye and RightEye and set them to the neopixel strips on Pin0 and Pin1

bothEyes

Put some rainbow code to test the lights:
setup

To learn how to create the code above see the previous post:
/power-rangers-light-up-sword/

Download and test the code

  1. Plug your micro:bit into your computer with a USB cable
  2. Select Download
    1. In Chrome the file will go to your Downloads folder. Go to your Downloads folder and drag your file onto the micro:bit
      microbit_download_chrome
    2. In Internet Explorer it will ask you where to save your file to. Select "Save As" then select the micro:bit
      microbit_download_ie

Enjoy your shiny goggles!
Try creating some flashing code by changing the colour of each eye

Alternative build

Instead of using the normal battery pack which is awkward, can dangle and only takes 2 AAAs try out the bat:bit from proto-pic. It has 2 AAs and the micro:bit sits in front of the batteries and (most importantly) it has an on/off switch.

Full disclosure: I ordered a cool arm keyboard from proto-pic and they put a bat:bit and other things in the parcel, for free.

bb1
The micro:bit slots in front of the batteries:
bb2
Then it can slot into the edge connector:
bb3
Shiny!
bb4

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