I just completed a new guide on the Adafruit Learning Center detailing how to build your own giant 36 pixel LED poi. You can upload hundreds of images, and they have a really great giant battery that will last all night long.
Build your Own Supernova LED Poi
You can make a set of these for around $150 or so, and they more than rival some of the commercially available LED POV poi that are for sale for around $600-$700. Plus, you get a weekend DIY project and lots of pride when you take them out to shows or festivals and show them off.
I’m really excited about these, and have my first performance with them this Sunday night for a Chinese New Year celebration.. so I’m uploading lots of monkey and dragon images. 🙂
These poi use Dotstar APA102 LEDs which have a really fast chipset, so the images come out beautifully crisp and bright. They have an infrared remote control, with brightness controls for battery life, image switching and turning auto-play mode on and off. There are lots of extra buttons on the remote to program for whatever you’d like — I’ve got a few set up for custom scripting functions and I’m currently working on adding choreo modes so I can sync them up with a piece of music for performances.
They run on the Teensy 3.2 — it’s pretty easy to use, there’s lots of support available and this thing has so much space that I can upload a ton of images.
Enjoy, and if you make a set, send me pictures!
