Little Bird
Unicorn pHAT
What's going to protect your beloved Raspberry Pi from an onslaught of rainbow-coloured fusion? That's right, it's Unicorn pHAT.Sporting a matrix of 32 ...
Get notified when back in stock
What's going to protect your beloved Raspberry Pi from an onslaught of rainbow-coloured fusion? That's right, it's Unicorn pHAT.
Sporting a matrix of 32 (8 x 4) RGB LEDs and powered directly from the Pi, this is the most compact pocket aurora available.
Unicorn pHAT provides a wash of controllable colour that is ideal for mood-lighting, pixel art, persistence of vision effects, status indications, or just blasting colour into your surroundings.
Features
- 32 RGB LEDs (SK6218 - 3.5mm x 3.5mm)
- LED data driven via DMA over PWM
- Unicorn pHAT pinout
- Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W
- Python library
- Female header requires soldering
Software
Unicorn pHAT uses the same Python library as Unicorn HAT, so it's super-easy to use, should automatically detect that you're using the pHAT and includes some examples written specially for Unicorn pHAT.
Our software does not support Raspbian Wheezy.
Notes
- Warning: SK6218 LEDs are bright enough to cause eye pain, do not look at them directly when brightly lit. We recommend using Unicorn pHAT at lower brightness levels.
- Photo-sensitivity warning: flashing, strobing, and patterns of lights may cause epileptic seizures. Always take care and immediately stop using if you feel unwell (dizziness, nausea, affected vision, eye twitching, disorientation).
- Power: Unicorn pHAT works best with a >2A microUSB power supply for your Pi. We recommend the official Raspberry Pi power supply.
- Compatibility (audio): as Unicorn pHAT uses PWM and GPIO18, it will interfere with analogue audio playback (random colour patterns and flickering). HDMI should work just fine! :D
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- HDMI
- HDMI is a common digital video and audio connection used by computers, media players, and many displays. If a display kit has HDMI input, it is usually much easier to test with a single-board computer because it can act like a normal monitor.
- 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.
- pHAT
- A smaller add-on board format for Raspberry Pi, similar in idea to a HAT but usually not full-sized. It matters because pHAT compatibility can affect how neatly a board stacks or fits into a Raspberry Pi project.
- PWM
- Pulse Width Modulation is a way for a digital pin to simulate variable output power by switching on and off very quickly. It matters for controlling things like LED brightness, motor speed, or servo-style signals from a microcontroller pin.
- 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.
Find this product in
Brands
Raspberry Pi
Related Tutorials
Free guides on learn.littlebird.com.au
