For those who were unable to attend, our presentation was all about adding switches and sensors to lights to make things "happen" on your costume or prop. Lights are fun, but they're more fun when they blink or react to your environment.

Programming seems intimidating, but the best place to start is by grabbing some examples, following along, and modifying them to suit your own needs. You don't have to start from scratch. Virtually everything here began with an example program, and I'll show you where to grab those examples. For these examples you will need the Arduino IDE. You can get it here. If you are running Windows 8.1 or better, you can get a version in the Microsoft store. No matter where you get it, the software is free and open source. The site has lots of references and tutorials so you can get up and running quickly. (And yes, you can run the IDE on a Mac or in Linux. But of course!) 

I'm going to list these and hope I remember them all!

Sound Reactive Hat (Video Gallery)

I started with this Adafruit project and played around with the code to get the lights to react to sound. (You may need to do this depending on the microphone you use and its placement. Mine is inside of the hat, so I had to changet the sensitivity a bit.)

Tilt Switch Tiara (Video Gallery)

I started with this Adafruit project and modified the software just a bit to use a tilt switch to make the colors change.

Pokemon Lure And Candy (Video Gallery)

Again, I started with an Adafruit project. This one is pretty awesome as it was used in a wedding. The code is very easy to modify to get the results you want. I cut the distance way down since we were working in a small room. I also made some modifications to use a different Feather board. The one for this project is really good, but I had the other on hand. 

The "lure" and "candy" were made from a pair of lamps I bought at Daiso. I used one of the lamps last year in another project, and Paul remarked at how much it looked like a Pokemon Go! lure, so as an avid player, I knew I had to do that. I will do a tutorial on this because. To see similar projects, check out the video page and view the Tiki God and the Magic Wand.

Rocket Pack (Facebook)

Capacitive Touch Color Mixer (Video Gallery)

This uses a Gemo M0 as the base. The Gemma has a Dotstar on board, and I found some Python code on the Adafruit site to utilize the capacitive touch pins as "buttons." From there I sewed runs of capacitive thread to some capacitive fabric. The longer you touch one of the fabric "buttons," the more the color changes in intensity. When it gets the most intense, it resets. Use two or more buttons to mix colors. 

I'm trying to find a link to the original code. In the meantime, this code for Digital Valentine flowers will give you a pretty good idea, not to mention a complete project you can easily do on your own. 

Adafruit (yep, we keep coming back to them because they have the best tutorials ever) has the tutorial, not to mention a better video than we were able to capture.

Paul has made some modifications to this project, but you can find the original instructions here. 

Put The Candle Back! (Video Gallery)

For this one we use an off-the-shelf dollar store candle. Paul added a microswitch and an small MP3 module. When the switch opened it turned on the module, whicy played the sound. It was powered with a small LiPo battery. We think the battery ought to last a long time between charges since it's not doing anything unless the switch is open. We just left the candle part alone, which uses its own switch and battery.

Here is the sound module Paul used. If you use it you may also need the JQ6500 rescue tool.

Here's another MP3 module he talked about.

I'll note updates and changes at the top of the post.