You'll program your ornament to change colors based on the numbered buttons on the IR mini remote control by using CircuitPython.
- First, make sure you're familiar with the basics of using CircuitPython on the Circuit Playground Express. Follow this guide to familiarize yourself.
- Then, install CircuitPython on your board by following these instructions
- Next, install the library bundle onto your board as shown here. The libraries give us what we need to code easily with high level commands!
Lighting up the NeoPixel ring in different colors is simple to do on the Circuit Playground Express using CircuitPython. In fact, it only takes a single line of code to make them all bright red: pixels.fill(255, 0, 0) will do the trick in the case of our program!
To control which colors we see, we can use can use the IR remote control along with IR library that makes it easy to decode the IR commands.
IR commands are actually messages that are sent by the remote when it blinks its infrared light rapidly with very precise timing and duration. It's a little bit like Morse code in that sense.
Using its IR sensor, the Circuit Playground Express can decode those messages sent by the remote. For more details on how this works, check out this great IR sensor guide.
So that you don't need to deal with the low level complexities of the decoding process, the Adafruit IRRemote library makes it simple!
Download the Remote Tree Ornament Code
Download the code below by clicking 'Download Project Bundle.' Then, copy code.py over to the CIRCUITPY drive.
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2017 John Park for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
import adafruit_irremote
import board
import digitalio
import neopixel
import pulseio
pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.NEOPIXEL, 10)
red_led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D13)
red_led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
pulsein = pulseio.PulseIn(board.REMOTEIN, maxlen=120, idle_state=True)
decoder = adafruit_irremote.GenericDecode()
# among others, this example works with the Adafruit mini IR remote:
# https://www.adafruit.com/product/389
# size must match what you are decoding! for NEC use 4
received_code = bytearray(4)
# IR Remote Mapping
'''
1: [255, 2, 247, 8]
2: [255, 2, 119, 136]
3: [255, 2, 183, 72]
4: [255, 2, 215, 40]
5: [255, 2, 87, 168]
6: [255, 2, 151, 104]
7: [255, 2, 231, 24]
8: [255, 2, 103, 152]
9: [255, 2, 167, 88]
0: [255, 2, 207, 48]
^ : [255, 2, 95, 160]
v : [255, 2, 79, 176]
> : [255, 2, 175, 80]
< : [255, 2, 239, 16]
Enter: [255, 2, 111, 144]
Setup: [255, 2, 223, 32]
Stop/Mode: [255, 2, 159, 96]
Back: [255, 2, 143, 112]
Vol - : [255, 2, 255, 0]
Vol + : [255, 2, 191, 64]
Play/Pause: [255, 2, 127, 128]
'''
RED = (255, 0, 0)
GREEN = (0, 255, 0)
WHITE = (85, 85, 85)
BLUE = (0, 0, 255)
PINK = (128, 0, 128)
YELLOW = (148, 108, 0)
PURPLE = (200, 0, 55)
TEAL = (0, 200, 100)
ORANGE = (100, 45, 0)
BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
last_command = None
while True:
red_led.value = False
try:
pulses = decoder.read_pulses(pulsein)
except MemoryError as e:
print("Memory error: ", e)
continue
red_led.value = True
print("Heard", len(pulses), "Pulses:", pulses)
command = None
try:
code = decoder.decode_bits(pulses, debug=False)
if len(code) > 3:
command = code[2]
print("Decoded:", code)
except adafruit_irremote.IRNECRepeatException: # unusual short code!
print("NEC repeat!")
command = last_command
except adafruit_irremote.IRDecodeException as e: # failed to decode
print("Failed to decode:", e)
except MemoryError as e:
print("Memory error: ", e)
if not command:
continue
last_command = command
print("----------------------------")
red_led.value = False
if command == 247: # IR button 1
pixels.fill(RED)
elif command == 119: # 2
pixels.fill(GREEN)
elif command == 183: # 3
pixels.fill(WHITE)
elif command == 215: # 4
pixels.fill(BLUE)
elif command == 87: # 5
pixels.fill(PINK)
elif command == 151: # 6
pixels.fill(YELLOW)
elif command == 231: # 7
pixels.fill(PURPLE)
elif command == 103: # 8
pixels.fill(TEAL)
elif command == 167: # 9
pixels.fill(ORANGE)
elif command == 207:
pixels.fill(BLACK) # 0/10+
After you've copied everything over, your CIRCUITPY drive should look something like this:
The board will restart once the code has been saved. Now, point the remote at the board and press any number button 1-9. See how the lights change color depending on the button!
Code Tour
Let's have a look at how the code works.
First, we import a few libraries that give us easy commands to use for more complex tasks.
import adafruit_irremote import board import digitalio import neopixel import pulseio
Next, we'll do a bit of setup, creating the NeoPixel object named pixels, and the on-board indicator LED called red_led.
pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.NEOPIXEL, 10) red_led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D13) red_led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
To prepare the IR pulse detection and decoding, we'll initialize these objects:
pulsein = pulseio.PulseIn(board.REMOTEIN, maxlen=120, idle_state=True) decoder = adafruit_irremote.GenericDecode()
Next, we'll create a variable to store the decoded message number list:
received_code = bytearray(4)
The messages will be sets of four numbers. Here's a list of which buttons correlate to these messages. We'll use this later in the code to know which button has been pressed.
# IR Remote Mapping ''' 1: [255, 2, 247, 8] 2: [255, 2, 119, 136] 3: [255, 2, 183, 72] 4: [255, 2, 215, 40] 5: [255, 2, 87, 168] 6: [255, 2, 151, 104] 7: [255, 2, 231, 24] 8: [255, 2, 103, 152] 9: [255, 2, 167, 88] 0: [255, 2, 207, 48] ^ : [255, 2, 95, 160] v : [255, 2, 79, 176] > : [255, 2, 175, 80] < : [255, 2, 239, 16] Enter: [255, 2, 111, 144] Setup: [255, 2, 223, 32] Stop/Mode: [255, 2, 159, 96] Back: [255, 2, 143, 112] Vol - : [255, 2, 255, 0] Vol + : [255, 2, 191, 64] Play/Pause: [255, 2, 127, 128] '''
Next, we'll create a few variables that make it easier to call out colors by name. The colors of the NeoPixels are described with red, green, and blue values from 0-255.
RED = (255, 0, 0) GREEN = (0, 255, 0) WHITE = (85, 85, 85) BLUE = (0, 0, 255) PINK = (128, 0, 128) YELLOW = (148, 108, 0) PURPLE = (200, 0, 55) TEAL = (0, 200, 100) ORANGE = (100, 45, 0) BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
We'll also create a variable to store the value of the last command decoded from the remote, so that we can compare commands to the previous one to know if anything has to change.
last_command = None
The first thing we do is turn the red LED off. This way, when an IR command is received later, the LED can be turned on to indicate this. In the absence of that, the LED will turn back off.
red_led.value = False
This next section is where the IR pulses are detected, and then tested to see if they conform to the expected protocol. If so, the decoded pulses are turned into a message we can use.
try:
pulses = decoder.read_pulses(pulsein)
except MemoryError as e:
print("Memory error: ", e)
continue
red_led.value = True
print("Heard", len(pulses), "Pulses:", pulses)
command = None
try:
code = decoder.decode_bits(pulses, debug=False)
if len(code) > 3:
command = code[2]
print("Decoded:", code)
except adafruit_irremote.IRNECRepeatException: # unusual short code!
print("NEC repeat!")
command = last_command
except adafruit_irremote.IRDecodeException as e: # failed to decode
print("Failed to decode:", e)
except MemoryError as e:
print("Memory error: ", e)
if not command:
continue
last_command = command
print("----------------------------")
red_led.value = False
Color Commands
Lastly, we'll check the received commands against a list -- if the command corresponds to one of them, the code to change the NeoPixel colors is run.
if command == 247: # IR button 1
pixels.fill(RED)
elif command == 119: # 2
pixels.fill(GREEN)
elif command == 183: # 3
pixels.fill(WHITE)
elif command == 215: # 4
pixels.fill(BLUE)
elif command == 87: # 5
pixels.fill(PINK)
elif command == 151: # 6
pixels.fill(YELLOW)
elif command == 231: # 7
pixels.fill(PURPLE)
elif command == 103: # 8
pixels.fill(TEAL)
elif command == 167: # 9
pixels.fill(ORANGE)
elif command == 207:
pixels.fill(BLACK) # 0/10+
Next, we'll build the ornament and use it!
Page last edited January 22, 2025
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