BlinkStick has been a key device in a few of my projects, some completed and some still WIP.
Since every time I order another one I get a nice “thank you for purchasing again” message, I thought I’d finally share what I’ve actually been doing with them.
I’ve been using both C# and Python for these, though I’ll admit I’ve skipped most of the prebuilt functionality to allow me to use RGBW LED strips rather than plain RGB.
All of these projects use the BlinkStick Pro.
[size=150]The Ember Deck[/size]
First of all, the original project was The Ember Deck, a Pi-powered jukebox I built.
I was getting a bit sick of “LEDs that dance to music” which just listen through a microphone and produce what can fairly be described as RGB vomit. Instead, I used the BlinkStick to mimic a normal audio spectrum visualiser, using colour and brightness to represent the height of each frequency band, as well as a few others I added:
[list]
[]Bounce: normal spectrum visualiser
[]Aurora: firefly/starfield shimmer
[]Tails: centre-out pulses propagating toward both ends
[]Illusion: water-like travelling wave/ripple
[/list]
50 Hz updates were more than enough for this, and for a relatively small strip the BlinkStick was plenty powerful enough to handle this.
This was my first ever Raspberry Pi and electronics project, so the USB interface was fantastic for keeping at least this part of the project simple. The finished visualiser looks fantastic and honestly became one of the key features of the whole thing.
[size=150]FoxDash[/size]
Following that came a still-unfinished project: FoxDash, a car computer which uses a BlinkStick for telemetry.
The software and lighting are working, but I’m just waiting for a Pi Zero 2 at a reasonable price before I finish it and permanently fit it inside the car. For now, it sits in the centre console flashing away.
The strip essentially tells me three things: when I should shift up or down, whether I’m being a bit harsh on the car, and whether I’m driving economically.
It communicates those three things using the position, width and colour of the illuminated section, so I can read it in my peripheral vision without needing to look at another display.
[size=150]Desktop Shrine[/size]
Finally, there was something oddly familiar.
Everyone who saw The Ember Deck loved the LED visualiser, so I decided to port it to my Windows PC. I ended up making two of these, one for myself and another for my friend.
And then the scope expanded. A lot.
It now uses an old GOverlay screen alongside the lighting to bring the whole thing together as a desktop widget. When no music is playing, the BlinkStick acts as a CPU and GPU telemetry visualiser. As soon as music starts, it switches back into being an audio visualiser.
These projects can be found here: https://awoo.ltd/projects/
Images, videos and GitHub repos are linked from there as I am limited to image uploads and links on this post.