Become an LED Wizard with Chromatron!

Perhaps you’ve used programmable LEDs with some success. While colorful and inexpensive, this type of lighting doesn’t come without its set of challenges. This can involve wiring an LED strip incorrectly, having to take apart a project to change code, or even interfacing with a non-5V control system. To help you get through these obstacles, level 33 LED wizard — yes, that’s right, level 33! — Jeremy Billheimer created the Chromatron, now available on Kickstarter.

His device helps mere mortals “avoid the arcane incantations of pulse-width modulation and serial interfaces,” and create light art without many of the normal hassles. Chromatron can control up to 300 pixels per unit, and can even receive pixel data over Wi-Fi. One feature that is especially interesting is that it’s capable of live coding, where LEDs update each time you save a program on your computer. This means that you get instant feedback on your design, letting you perfect your color scheme with ease!

Physically, Chromatron takes the form of a small PCB equipped with an ATxmega128A4U MCU and an ESP8266 module, and features screw terminals for power and LED connections. In other words, you won’t have to break out (and heat up) your soldering iron every time you need to secure a wire!

As soon as Billheimer hits his $10,000 Kickstarter funding goal, hardware and software will be released as open source. Once that’s available, if you need something just a little different, you’ll be able to design your own custom Chromatron as you please!