The stars in her hair

We did some simple testing of the fiber optics and the neopixel strip test code today.

We made 3 bundles of about 40 fiber optic strands by putting each into coffee stirrers that had been cut on the bias. We then used some hot glue to seal the bundles.

We also flashed the Gemma with the strandtest code included in the Neopixel library. Currently, the plan is to use 3 of the pixels to drive the bundles however it was tough to wire up all 3 pixels using the alligator clips. We hooked up 2 and edited the code appropriately.

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(2, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

//snip

void loop() {
  rainbow(60);
  rainbowCycle(60);
}

I decided to test flashing the Gemma before sitting down with Silly Goose Monkey (SGM). I am so glad I did since it did not go smoothly. Following the instructions at Adafruit, it turns out the programmer on the Gemma has known issues with USB3.0. I ended up having to order a USB 2.0 hub to provide protocol translation. After I tried flashing through the hub, I was able to quickly flash the Gemma with the test sketch.