Rainbow Ring
With the LED ring, you make a spinning rainbow. Each light gets a different color, and all colors move around.
🧰 What do you need?
🗺️ Wiring diagram
Follow the wires from the Arduino to each part. You can choose the wire colors yourself.
| From | To |
|---|---|
Arduino UNO · D6 |
RGB LED ring (8 LEDs) · DI |
Arduino UNO · 5V |
RGB LED ring (8 LEDs) · 5V |
Arduino UNO · GND |
RGB LED ring (8 LEDs) · GND |
🛠️ This is how you build it
- Connect the LED ring: DI to pin 6, 5V to 5V, and GND to GND.
- That is all! Leave DO free.
💻 The code
// Rainbow ring
// The LED ring spins all the colors of the rainbow around.
#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>
const int RING_PIN = 6; // DI of the ring is on pin 6
const int LED_COUNT = 8; // The ring has 8 lights
const int SPEED = 20; // Smaller means it spins faster
Adafruit_NeoPixel ring(LED_COUNT, RING_PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);
void setup() {
ring.begin();
ring.setBrightness(40); // Not too bright: 0 = off, 255 = super bright
ring.show();
}
void loop() {
// Move the rainbow a little bit each time
for (long color = 0; color < 65536; color += 512) {
for (int i = 0; i < LED_COUNT; i++) {
// Each light gets a slightly different color
long lightColor = color + (i * 65536L / LED_COUNT);
ring.setPixelColor(i, ring.gamma32(ring.ColorHSV(lightColor)));
}
ring.show();
delay(SPEED);
}
}
🧠 What does the code do?
- We use the
Adafruit_NeoPixellibrary to control the ring. ColorHSV()makes a color from the rainbow. Each light gets a spot a bit further in the rainbow.- By moving the color a little each time, the rainbow looks like it is spinning around.
🎯 Try this…
- Make the rainbow spin twice as fast
- Turn it into a police light that flashes red and blue in turns
- Make one light go around in circles, like a little light running around
🚀 Build this project with Codey: open codey.online/starter-kits/uno/projects/rainbow-ring and click MAKE THIS. Then the code and the wiring diagram are ready right away.
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