Got a costume ball coming up? Learn to adorn masquerade masks with LEDs, three ways! This guide will show you how to make three masks at different difficulty levels:

Super Simple Sequin Mask: A few LED sequins and battery pack, no programming or microcontroller required! Just a little soldering and glueing will get you illuminated accents in under an hour.

NeoPixel GEMMA Mask: If it's color-changing animations you crave, wire up some individual NeoPixels and a GEMMA microcontroller. Use our sample code or write your own animations! 1-4 hours, depending on your soldering experience

Audio-Reactive Mask: A microphone monitors audio levels and uses loudness to control the brightness of some LED sequins. Use our sample code or mod it up to do something different. 1-4 hours, depending on your soldering experience

Although each mask is made from different electronics components, there are a few tools and supplies that you'll need regardless of design:

For the NeoPixel and Audio-Reactive Masks…

This guide was written for the 'original' Gemma board, but can be done with either the original or M0 Gemma. We recommend the Gemma M0 as it is easier to use and is more compatible with modern computers! (The “Super Simple” mask requires no Gemma at all!)

GEMMA M0 boards can run CircuitPython — a different approach to programming compared to Arduino sketches. In fact, CircuitPython comes factory pre-loaded on GEMMA M0. If you’ve overwritten it with an Arduino sketch, or just want to learn the basics of setting up and using CircuitPython, this is explained in the Adafruit GEMMA M0 guide.

We’ll provide sample code for either CircuitPython or Arduino…use whichever you’re more comfortable with!

This guide was first published on Sep 23, 2015. It was last updated on Mar 17, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Sep 21, 2015.

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