MQTT controlled LED Christmas Baubles with Raspberry Pi Pico -- Episode 530

It's been really pretty, I wish I'd found more time to make some changes over the holidays, but hopefully I can sort it for next year. The biggest is to automate the change in pattern, so one pattern for days&times I should be working, and a different one at other times that I'm just having some time playing in the workshop.

Awesome decoration. It sparks lots of ideas.

I don't know exactly what they do for the droid swarms, but I wouldn't use this setup. The similarities would be the wireless comms, microcontroller and LEDs, although this project was only single colour, but controllable colour would be an easy modification.
I would use a main processor though, to control all the drones from a central location, drones feed back their location, and the main computer sends instructions to each drone for their movements and display, whilst knowing what other ones are currently up to.

Merry Christmas! and have an awesome New year! I am not a programmer per say, but I am just curious if this set up, hardware and the program together can be used with certain modifications and additions to build a swarm of drones lighting up sky in dazzling light show as I have seen in videos online. Perhaps it can be. Keep doing good stuff my lady. The insights from an expert technician like yourself, shared in the video would certainly be useful to a learning technology enthusiast like myself. Thank you. 

I've not seen addressable LED filament yet but you do get different colours off-the-shelf.
https://thepihut.com/pages/search-results?q=flexible%20led%20filament%20chip&force_and=true

Glad  you liked it. It came out really great, even if the mix of communicating between the pico and the esp drove me mad at times. I have realised a much better way to talk between the two, now I've had a moment to think about it, so there should be a completely new set of firmware out soon.

Thanks

I hadn't thought of that, but sounds super nice, would be completely different. with addressable led strip then the colour and patterns of flashing could be changed.
Another reason I really need a laser cutter!

My first plan was edge connectors, but I dropped them to help reduce the overall cost and the size/bulk. But I can see the benefit of being able to collapse for storing.

I really like the idea of a main board and connectable wings though, like you say, It would be super easy to change the shape

Hi Katie,

This is a very comprehensive and great-looking project! Love the complete end-to-end solution, and the large mix of technologies. It's superb, lots for people to discover and adapt and create their own projects based on this in-depth, well-explained content.