Little Bird
Little Bird Macaw WS2812B Rainbow Board 3 LED
The Macaw is a compact programmable RGB LED board with 3 WS2812B LEDs, commonly known as NeoPixels. It is ideal for adding bright, addressable colour effects...
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The Macaw is a compact programmable RGB LED board with 3 WS2812B LEDs, commonly known as NeoPixels. It is ideal for adding bright, addressable colour effects to small electronics, robotics and classroom projects.
Its chainable design lets you connect multiple modules together to extend your project, while controlling the whole chain from a single microcontroller pin on boards such as Arduino, micro:bit or Raspberry Pi Pico.
The board can be used with the Adafruit NeoPixel libraries, making it straightforward to get started with existing example code. With just 3 LEDs, it is also a neat choice for simple traffic light indicators or status displays.
The pack includes one RGB LED strip module. A 3-pin to loop jumper wire is recommended when using it with the micro:bit.
Specifications:
- Input voltage: 5V input voltage.
- LED: WS2812B(datasheet) - RGB LED
- Interface: Single Wire Serial
- Headers: 2x 3 pin header
- Dimensions: 9mm (width) x 45mm (height) x 5mm (depth)
- Constant current drive: 18mA constant current drive
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- Headers
- Rows of connector contacts on a fixed pitch (commonly 2.54 mm) used to link a board to a breadboard, jumper wires, or another board. They come as male pin headers and female socket headers; when a module ships with pre-soldered headers it can be used straight away, whereas bare pads require soldering the pins yourself.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode (LED) is a small electronic component that emits light when current flows through it in the correct direction. Because it only conducts one way, its polarity matters, and a through-hole LED must be soldered the correct way around to light up.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a single chip that runs a stored program and controls connected inputs and outputs such as buttons, sensors, displays and communication interfaces. In a device built around one, it is the part that executes the code and coordinates the device's behaviour.
- NeoPixel
- A type of addressable LED system where colour data is sent along a single digital data line from one LED or controller to the next. Compatibility matters because the timing and signal format must match for the lights or driver board to respond correctly.
- RGB
- Short for red, green and blue, the three primary colours of light that are mixed in varying amounts to make a wide range of colours. In electronics RGB can refer to an LED or pixel that blends these three colours, or to a colour signal or interface that carries separate red, green and blue channels.
- WS2812B
- A smart RGB LED chip with a tiny built-in controller, commonly used in addressable light strips and panels. It matters because many WS2812B LEDs can be chained together and controlled from one microcontroller pin, but they need compatible code and careful power planning as the number of LEDs grows.
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