The CLUE microcontroller is a powerful little board. In this project, we've used it to power a NeoPixel strip installed in a frame around a vertical moss garden.

The CLUE does a great job of lighting the plants artfully, and we've taken it a step further by incorporating data from the CLUE's onboard weather sensors. This vertical garden functions as a barometer or thermometer, showing colors based on the current and recent air pressure or temperature. Five different light zones show you at a glance whether the air pressure is rising or falling, turning the art piece into a functional barometer.

This lovely vertical moss garden predicts the weather. It's art with a superpower! That's pretty neat.

We used fresh moss from the backyard, preserved in glycerine and dyed to maintain its vibrant green color. That means there's no watering needed -- the moss will stay fresh and soft indefinitely on its own. 

We installed the moss into a pre-existing frame cut down from an old, broken shoji screen we found in the basement. Then we added a frame for the lights made from corner trim from the hardware store.

The electronics build is fairly simple, with no soldering required. This is not really a beginner project, but you don't have to be an electronics wizard to hook everything up. The trickiest part for me was the woodworking -- building a frame from corner trim is harder than it looks!

The rest of the magic happens with CircuitPython code and your imagination. Customize the type of data shown: we've included code to visualize temperature or air pressure, and it wouldn't be too hard to add your own code that would visualize humidity, ambient light, sound or other data collected by the CLUE. 

You can also customize colors, data thresholds, and pixel mapping (how the colors are laid out) in the CircuitPython code, so it's fun to use this guide as a starting point to create something unique and beautiful.

Parts

Moss Prep & Preservation

• 1 qt of glycerine
• Warm water dyes in your favorite greens
• White vinegar
• Fluorescent pigments in yellow and green

Frame Materials

• Picture frame or screen with backing
• 2" corner trim
• Stain or paint as desired
• Silicone Adhesive to secure the LEDs to the frame
• Picture hanging hardware

Tools & Other Stuff We Used

• Table saw or miter saw
• Drill
• Screw driver
• Heat gun
• Solder Seal Wire Connectors
• Bolt-on kit to attach the wires to the CLUE
• Silicone stranded wire in various colors

A soldering iron is NOT required for this project, though if you've got one, you can use it in place of the solder seal wire connectors and the bolt-on kit.