Dotstar LEDs are super fast and super bright -- they're the best LEDs available for drawing persistence of vision images or light painting.  This guide combines Dotstars with a Teensy 3.2 -- a super fast Arduino-like board with 256K Flash Memory and 64K RAM.  The Teensy has enough space for hundreds of images and patterns, so with a little time and a little imaging knowhow, these poi can go all night without ever repeating a pattern.

We even added IR remote support so you can change programs with the press of a button!

Materials

To make one poi (get two of everything for two poi):

  • 1/2 m 144 LED/m Dotstars
  • Teensy 3.2
  • Pro Trinket Lion/LiPoly Backpack Charger
  • Lithium Ion Cylindrical battery - 3.7 v 2200mAh
  • On/off switch - SPST Submini Slide Siwtch from Radio Shack
  • IR receiver sensor
  • Mini remote control

Housing

 Tools

  • Soldering iron & accessories
  • Drill and Rotary tool or saw for cutting tubing & dowels to length
  • Hot glue gun
  • E6000 glue
  • Micro USB cable for programming & charging

This guide was first published on Feb 10, 2016. It was last updated on Mar 24, 2024.

This page (Introduction) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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