“I wanted something ephemeral that would pass like a falling star...
The work had to just transpire, make people dream and talk, and that would be all.“
- Jean Tinguely
What I dreamed of
What I Built
Phase I: Planning
Project Idea
Identify Skills Needed
Research Hardware
Create A Mockup
Identify My Must-Haves
Assembly my Toolkit
Finally, I'm ready to code!
- Coding Skills
- Artistic Ability
- Experience Working With Hardware
- Wiring/Soldering Experience
Reality Check
Could probably handle the coding
Not a real artist
No experience with hardware
No experience with wiring or soldering
I started googling.
I needed to find a plug and play hardware option.
HATS
Hardware Attached on Top
Easily plugs into a Raspberry Pi's GPIO
No Soldering or Wiring!
HATS
They have established libraries!
Unicorn HAT
64 LED Lights
I saw Pixel Art
Project Idea
Identify Skills Needed
Research Hardware
Create A Mockup
Identify My Must-Haves
Assembly my Toolkit
Finally, I'm ready to code!
A Mockup of My Idea
Project Idea
Identify Skills Needed
Research Hardware
Create A Mockup
Identify My Must-Haves
Assembly my Toolkit
Finally, I'm ready to code!
Must-Haves
- Anyone in the world could interact with the application
- Users can create colorful pixel artwork!
- Build with Javascript & React to improve my skills
Project Idea
Identify Skills Needed
Research Hardware
Create A Mockup
Identify My Must-Haves
Assembly my Toolkit
Finally, I'm ready to code!
1. User Creates Art
Write the web app in React & React-Native
2. Display the art
Raspberry Pi + Unicorn HAT + Python
3. How do they communicate?
Other Unicorn HAT projects
- Github repos
- Blog posts
Raspberry Pi project made with React?
- Hard to find examples.
- But, I found one lightning talk video!
Socket.IO
Enables real-time communication between apps
Works on every platform, browser or device 💪
Easy setup: Only a node.js server & client libraries
Has client libraries for Python and React! 🎉
Project Design
Project Idea
Identify Skills Needed
Research Hardware
Create A Mockup
Identify My Must-Haves
Assembly my Toolkit
Finally, I'm ready to code!
Phase II: Building
“Taking on large tasks, or too many tasks at once, overwhelms us. You’re more likely to follow through if the task is small. Once successful, you can then try a new activity or increase the original task’s complexity.“
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