BRIGHTLY INSTRUCTIONS

How to make colorful and dynamic light patterns using:

• a CircuitPython enabled micro-controller
• programmable LEDs
• the BRIGHTLY code generator

Hardware:

Connect your programmable LEDs to your CircuitPython enabled microcontroller - noting which pin carries signal to the LEDs. The connection method depends on which microcontroller you have, if you have an LED strip, sewable NeoPixels or some other configuration.

Software:

These instructions assume that you already have CircuitPython installed. if not, see the Adafruit tutorial here: https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython/installing-circuitpy If you are using an older version of CircuitPython, you may need a newer version to be compatible with the BRIGHTLY library. The BRIGHTLY library GitHub page will tell you which version you need.

Download the BRIGHTLY library, brightly.mpy from the link here: https://github.com/BrightWearables/brightly/releases USE THE CORRECT MPY FILE FOR THE VERSION OF CIRCUIT PYTHON YOU ARE RUNNING - EITHER 2.X OR 3.X Or download the whole GitHub repository here BRIGHTLY GitHub page and extract the brightly.mpy file. Connect your microcontroller to your computer, and after a moment, it will show up as a drive. Below is a picture of a Gemma M0 connected to my Windows 10 computer. I've deleted some of the files that ship by default with the Gemma M0, such as the Windows 7 Driver folder and Readme.txt to save space.

Drag the brightly.mpy library into the lib folder:



The only libraries required to run a BRIGHTLY program are brightly.mpy and neopixel.mpy . If you have edited the BRIGHTLY-generated program to add functionality, you may require other libraries. Go to the BRIGHTLY code generator and create your program. Be sure that the pin number and #LEDs in the "run once on start" code block match your configuration. When it's complete, download it by clicking the "Download Code" button.

Download Code


The downloaded CircuitPython code should be called main.py, but if you already have a file with the same name, it may download with a name like main(1).py (or main(57).py if, like me, you don't clear out your Downloads folder often). Drag your downloaded CircuitPython file onto the MicroController drive.



If you need to, delete the existing main.py file, and rename the file you copied over to "main.py". Your code should start to run shortly thereafter and you should see your LEDs changing colors