My third ChrisLights project is something I've been meaning to try for quite some time: building an interactive staircase. I reached the #1 spot on /r/arduino with over 600 upvotes and 11K views.I've launched a new YouTube channel called ChrisLights. It's devoted to my love of lights, sound, games and code, and to projects that combine these elements into something unique and fun.Today, I released The LED Pixel Master Course on Udemy! I've wanted to create a Udemy course for quite a while now, and I figured a course on LED pixels was the perfect place to start.I decided to temporarily shelve my game and throw myself back into Christmas lights. I dusted off Sparkled and got to work. I'm really proud of what I accomplished in the last three months of the year.Halloween isn't a traditional Australian holiday, but it is becoming more prevalent with each passing year. I thought it'd be neat to try my hand at making a jack-o'-lantern.I was really proud of myself for getting a display working with LED strips. I failed plenty of times along the way, but I got there in the end. I'm utilising the FastLED library, which does a lot of the heavy lifting for me.As I began learning how to solder, I found the third hand quite useful for holding circuit boards and wires. However, as I progressed I grew more and more frustrated with the lack of manoeuvrability the third hand provided.Messing around with 240V wiring isn't something I've ever been particularly eager to do, but I wanted a way to programmatically toggle one or more devices running on mains power.This is what made me want to create my own Christmas light display; I wanted to create something that would give people that same feeling.Today was a good day. I've been ordering electronic components on eBay like crazy over the past few weeks, many of them from China. Today, the first of these arrived.Having nearly completed the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit guidebook, I went on a purchasing frenzy, acquiring loads of various electronic components online.
Amongst these was a Dual Colour 8x8 LED Matrix.Hi there, nice to meet you. This is my first ever blog post.