Unexpected Maker Bling
by Unexpected Maker
There are 3 versions of BLING!
All versions of BLING come with a wonderful 40x8 RGB LED matrix made up of tiny 1x1mm addressable LEDs. They are all also the same size (99x22m) and come with 2.5mm half cut holes to allow for easy mounting using M2.5 screws.
What makes each version different is what components and features come on the back.
Hello BLING!
The full version of BLING comes with an ESP32-S3 with 8MB of Flash, 2MB of PSRAM, and a bunch of onboard features and peripherals. Want to build a cool RGB Clock with custom alarm sounds? No problem! Want to build a portable Web Radio device? Yup, you can do that too! Want to play with captured audio? Maybe a nice audio level display? BLING has you covered!
Bling also comes with a user programable power switch to enable or disable the power to the LED matrix (more on that below), plus 4 user programmable buttons and a USB-C connector for power and for charging a battery, if you connect one.
BLING! Features & Specifications
- ESP32-S3
- 32Bit Dual Core 240MHz
- RISC-V ultra low power core
- 2.4GHz WiFi - 802.11b/g/n
- Bluetooth 5, BLE + Mesh
- 8MB QSPI Flash
- 2MB Extra QSPI PSRAM
- 40x8 RGB LED Matrix
- 4 User programmable buttons
- User programmable Matrix power
- Battery charging
- USB-C Connector + ESD Protection
- Reverse USB back-feed protection
- 700mA 3.3V LDO Regulator
- I2S MEMS Microphone
- I2S Audio Amplifier
- Low Power RTC
- uSD Card Slot
- STEMMA/QT Connector
- JST Battery connector
- JST Speaker connector
Hello TinyBLING!
TinyBLING doesn’t have an included ESP32-S3 + peripherals on the back, but instead provides headers to plug in an Unexpected Maker Tiny board (TinyPICO, TinyS2, TinyS3 and the new TinyC6) to act as the brains for your project.
You also get a STEMMA/QT connector and a bunch of IO and power broken out on an extra header, for easy expansion. TinyBLING still has a user programable power switch to enable or disable the power to the LED matrix (more on that below), plus 4 user programmable buttons.
Finally, hello SoloBLING!
SoloBLING is just the 40x8 RGB LED matrix on its own. It provides the BLING, you provide everything else.
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Contribute
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CircuitPython 9.0.4
This is the latest stable release of CircuitPython that will work with the Unexpected Maker Bling.
Use this release if you are new to CircuitPython.
Built-in modules available: _asyncio, _bleio, _pixelmap, _stage, adafruit_bus_device, adafruit_pixelbuf, aesio, alarm, analogbufio, analogio, array, atexit, audiobusio, audiocore, audiomixer, binascii, bitbangio, bitmapfilter, bitmaptools, board, builtins, builtins.pow3, busdisplay, busio, busio.SPI, busio.UART, canio, codeop, collections, countio, digitalio, displayio, dualbank, epaperdisplay, errno, espcamera, espidf, espnow, espulp, fontio, fourwire, framebufferio, frequencyio, getpass, gifio, hashlib, i2cdisplaybus, io, ipaddress, jpegio, json, keypad, keypad.KeyMatrix, keypad.Keys, keypad.ShiftRegisterKeys, locale, math, mdns, memorymap, microcontroller, msgpack, neopixel_write, nvm, onewireio, os, os.getenv, paralleldisplaybus, ps2io, pulseio, pwmio, qrio, rainbowio, random, re, rgbmatrix, rotaryio, rtc, sdcardio, select, sharpdisplay, socketpool, ssl, storage, struct, supervisor, synthio, sys, terminalio, time, touchio, traceback, ulab, usb_cdc, usb_hid, usb_midi, vectorio, warnings, watchdog, wifi, zlib
Included frozen(?) modules: adafruit_sdcard, neopixel
CircuitPython 9.1.0-beta.1
This is the latest development release of CircuitPython that will work with the Unexpected Maker Bling.
Alpha development releases are early releases. They are unfinished, are likely to have bugs, and the features they provide may change. Beta releases may have some bugs and unfinished features, but should be suitable for many uses. A Release Candidate (rc) release is considered done and will become the next stable release, assuming no further issues are found.
Please try alpha, beta, and rc releases if you are able. Your testing is invaluable: it helps us uncover and find issues quickly.
Release Notes for 9.1.0-beta.1
Built-in modules available: _asyncio, _bleio, _pixelmap, _stage, adafruit_bus_device, adafruit_pixelbuf, aesio, alarm, analogbufio, analogio, array, atexit, audiobusio, audiocore, audiomixer, binascii, bitbangio, bitmapfilter, bitmaptools, board, builtins, builtins.pow3, busdisplay, busio, busio.SPI, busio.UART, canio, codeop, collections, countio, digitalio, displayio, dualbank, epaperdisplay, errno, espcamera, espidf, espnow, espulp, fontio, fourwire, framebufferio, frequencyio, getpass, gifio, hashlib, i2cdisplaybus, io, ipaddress, jpegio, json, keypad, keypad.KeyMatrix, keypad.Keys, keypad.ShiftRegisterKeys, keypad_demux, keypad_demux.DemuxKeyMatrix, locale, math, mdns, memorymap, microcontroller, msgpack, neopixel_write, nvm, onewireio, os, os.getenv, paralleldisplaybus, ps2io, pulseio, pwmio, qrio, rainbowio, random, re, rgbmatrix, rotaryio, rtc, sdcardio, select, sharpdisplay, socketpool, ssl, storage, struct, supervisor, synthio, sys, terminalio, time, touchio, traceback, ulab, usb_cdc, usb_hid, usb_midi, vectorio, warnings, watchdog, wifi, zlib
Included frozen(?) modules: adafruit_sdcard, neopixel
Absolute Newest
Every time we commit new code to CircuitPython we automatically build binaries for each board and language. The binaries are stored on Amazon S3, organized by board, and then by language. These releases are even newer than the development release listed above. Try them if you want the absolute latest and are feeling daring or want to see if a problem has been fixed.
Previous Versions of CircuitPython
All previous releases of CircuitPython are available for download from Amazon S3 through the button below. For very old releases, look in the OLD/ folder for each board. Release notes for each release are available at GitHub button below.
Older releases are useful for testing if you something appears to be broken in a newer release but used to work, or if you have older code that depends on features only available in an older release. Otherwise we recommend using the latest stable release.