LED strip and connectors are sold separately, check out the extras tab for some options!
Getting Started
Plasma 2040 is firmware agnostic! You can program it with C/C++ or MicroPython in the same way as you would a Raspberry Pi Pico. You can find (lots) more information on how to do that (as well as download links for the firmware/SDK) on the?RP2040 landing page. You can find documentation for our MicroPython Plasma module?here.
You can also use CircuitPython on your Plasma 2040! CircuitPython is an easy to use, well-established ecosystem with lots of example code and drivers for interfacing with different kinds of hardware.?Click here?to download the CircuitPython firmware for Plasma 2040 and?click here?for a getting started guide.
Click?here?for a beginner friendly tutorial that covers how to hook up different kinds of LEDs to Plasma 2040 and how to use it to build a simple busy light. It includes both MicroPython and CircuitPython code!
You can find a list of which breakouts are currently compatible with our C++/MicroPython build?here.
We’ve also broken out a set of I2C pins, analog pins and debug pins so you can solder things like breakouts or analog potentiometers directly to them (or solder on a strip of header and plug the whole shebang into a breadboard).
Notes
Our C++/MicroPython software uses the RP2040’s PIO state machines to drive each strip separately – this board only has one set of LED strip connectors, but if you’re up for some inventive wiring it’s possible to drive multiple strips simultaneously, even if they’re of different types!
If you’re curious about how much current your LEDs are consuming, we’ve incorporated some current sensing circuitry onto this board, which you can measure by reading ADC3. You could use this in your code to do things like adjusting the brightness of your LEDs based on available power!
About RP2040
Raspberry Pi’s RP2040 microcontroller is a dual core ARM Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz. It bundles in 264kB of SRAM, 30 multifunction GPIO pins (including a four channel 12-bit ADC), a heap of standard peripherals (I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, clocks, etc), and USB support.
One very exciting feature of RP2040 is the programmable IOs which allow you to execute custom programs that can manipulate GPIO pins and transfer data between peripherals – they can offload tasks that require high data transfer rates or precise timing that traditionally would have required a lot of heavy lifting from the CPU.
Swathe everything in rainbows with this all-in-one, USB-C powered controller for WS2812/Neopixel and APA102/Dotstar addressable LED strip.
Plasma 2040 is a RP2040-based driver board for addressable LED strip (also known as magical rainbows by the metre). It’s designed to make rigging up bits of?custom, programmable lighting?as straightforward as possible – perfect for whipping up some quick under-cupboard illumination, dramatically underlighting your sofa or providing some atmospheric mood-lighting for your workspace, PC or vivarium.
Plasma 2040 is?powered and programmable by USB-C?and, because USB-C is capable of drawing up to 3A of power, that’s enough to power a healthy chunk of LEDs. There’s three?useful buttons?that you could use for turning the lights on and off or to switch between colours or effects, plus a reset button and an eternally popular?onboard RGB LED.
We’ve also popped a?QW/ST connector?on there, to make it super easy to plug in?Qwiic?or?STEMMA QT?breakouts – how about hooking up an?RGB potentiometer?to adjust the speed or hue of your lights, an?air quality sensor?to make your desk lighting into a giant thermometer or tell you when you should crack a window or a?light sensor?to turn them on automatically when it gets dark?
We’ve designed this breakout board so that you can solder on the piece of right angle female header and pop it straight onto the bottom left 5 pins on your Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header (pins 1, 3, 5, 7, 9). The right angle header also has the advantage of positioning the breakout away from the Pi’s CPU so as to minimise radiated heat.
Software
Bosch provide a C library,for this sensor, but we’ve also updated our BME680?Python library?(with a quick and painless one-line-installer) to work with the BME688, making it straightforward to combine it with our other boards (why not use a Blinkt! or Unicorn pHAT to visualise air quality in real time?)
In our testing, we’ve found that the sensor requires some burn-in time (at least 20 minutes) and that readings may take a couple of minutes to stabilise after beginning measurements
The trace on the back of the board marked ADDR can be cut to change the I2C address from the default of 0x76 to 0x77, meaning that you can use up to two sensors on the same Raspberry Pi or Arduino
The BME280, BME680, BMP280 and BME688 breakouts all share the same I2C addresses, so if you’re using two together then you’ll need to change the I2C address on one of them using the solder bridge or cuttable traces.
Dimensions: approx 19mm x 19mm x 5mm (L x W x H, including connector)
We’re?big fans of electronic paper?at Pirate HQ – it makes for a lovely, crisp, high contrast display that’s readable even in bright sunlight and it doesn’t squirt unnecessary blue light into your environs like LCDs do. It’s also ultra low power (EPD displays only consume power while they’re refreshing), and the images on the display stick around for a really long time whilst the display is unpowered.
Using a RP2040 chip means we can drive the hardware in fun, experimental, low level ways. We’ve written custom drivers for the EPD display that prioritise low power consumption whilst enabling lightning fast refresh rates.
Features
2.9″ black and white E Ink? display (296 x 128 pixels)
Ultra wide viewing angles
Ultra low power consumption
Dot pitch – 0.227 x 0.226 mm
Powered by RP2040 (Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM)
2MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
Five front user buttons
Reset and boot buttons (the boot button can also be used as a user button)
White LED
USB-C connector for power and programming
JST-PH connector for attaching a battery (input range 2.7V – 6V)
High-precision voltage reference for battery level monitoring
We’ve designed this breakout board so that you can solder on the piece of right angle female header and pop it straight onto the bottom left 5 pins on your Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header (pins 1, 3, 5, 7, 9). The right angle header also has the advantage of positioning the breakout away from the Pi’s CPU so as to minimise radiated heat.
Software
We’ve put together a?Python library?for using the BME280 sensor with a Raspberry Pi, with handy functions to read all of the values, and?a few nice little examples.
In our testing, we’ve found that the sensor requires some burn-in time (at least 20 minutes) and that readings may take a couple of minutes to stabilise after beginning measurements
The trace on the back (marked ADDR) can be cut to change the I2C address from the default of 0x76 to 0x77, meaning that you can use up to two sensors on the same Raspberry Pi or Arduino.
The BME280, BME680, and BMP280 breakouts all share the same I2C addresses, so if you’re using two together then you’ll need to change the I2C address on one of them using the cuttable trace.
Dimensions: 19x19x4.7mm (LxWxH, including connectors)
Tiny 2040 is firmware agnostic! You can program it with?C/C++ or MicroPython?in the same way as you would a Raspberry Pi Pico, though you’ll need to bear in mind that it has a reduced number of pins. You can find (lots) more information on how to do that (as well as download links for the firmware/SDK) on the?RP2040 landing page.
You can also use?CircuitPython?on your Tiny 2040! CircuitPython is an easy to use, well-established ecosystem with lots of example code and drivers for interfacing with different kinds of hardware.
The RGB LED is connected to GP18-GP20 and?active low?(so the on/off state will work in the opposite way to the LED on a Raspberry Pi Pico). You can PWM the pins to dim the LED – check out?Tonygo2’s MicroPython example.
About RP2040
Raspberry Pi’s RP2040 microcontroller is a dual core ARM Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz. It bundles in 264kB of SRAM, 30 multifunction GPIO pins (including a four channel 12-bit ADC), a heap of standard peripherals (I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, clocks, etc), and USB support.
One very exciting feature of RP2040 is the programmable IOs which allow you to execute custom programs that can manipulate GPIO pins and transfer data between peripherals – they can offload tasks that require high data transfer rates or precise timing that traditionally would have required a lot of heavy lifting from the CPU.
