Experienced makers looking for a flash of inspiration for their next project should check out the latest guide from Adafruit’s Philip Burgess. He shows us how to make the DotStar Pi, a large light painter made with the Raspberry Pi and Adafruit’s DotStar LED strip.
Philip says this light painter has practically no size limit, but he suggests that you stick to a 1m to 1.5m (3.3ft. to 5ft.) long strip. A longer strip means you’ll need more power, and it’ll be harder to hold and transport too. In addition, while the sheer size and resolution of the DotStar Pi’s resulting images make even simple patterns a sight to behold, you might have to go through a lot of hardware and software troubleshooting before you can kick off your light show.
Perhaps you can start with a short test strip before building the Death Star II of light painting brushes. But once you’ve got it down – and practiced shooting with a friend! – the results are more than worth your troubles:
How cool is that? Head to Adafruit’s website for the guide. Or if you’re not feeling up to the DIY challenge, there’s always the $349 Pixelstick.
