For the first time in my life I have contributed to a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. It was back in April 2021. This one was for a slick little box build around a raspberry called “Lumicube”, by Abstract Foundry.
It is a cube sold as a kit to assemble around a Pi3A, with 3 faces made each of 8×8 colored LEDs. For a steady price of 125 pounds, it seemed back then to be a nice gadget to illuminate Christmas 2021 parties (and impress friends with my Python programming skills!), as its shipping was planned for septembre 2021…
Well, nice it is, but for Christmas …2022, since I received it in October 2022! Official reason for this delay in the shortage of components — which is as well an explanation why I haven’t received the extra add-on I ordered (called “interactive ad-on”, with sensors etc.)
Delay put appart, it is truly a very nice gadget. What for ? Not clear, but as said Cyrano de Bergerac, “C’est bien plus beau, lorsque c’est inutile“
Fortunately, I have ordered and received a Pi 3A way before I received the kit (and before the worldwide shortage of Raspberry Pi !) Assembling it is fairly straightforward, no soldering is needed. It took me a good two hours though, including the disassembling – reassembling as I forgot to connect some cables inside…
The result is very neat. Abstract Foundry provides a nice system kit to control and program the cube, based on a web connection to the Pi. Several Python scripts are provided as well, and although some of these examples of require the famous “interactive add-on” that I don’t have, there are some gorgeous examples, such as the “Lava Lamp”.
I have as well contributed to the community (via a chat room on Discord) with my own script: colored bouncing balls on the 3 faces.
Python script is here on my git : https://github.com/RaspiColas/lumicube
In conclusion: quite a slick little gadget, easy to program. I wish I had the interactive add-on to add nice features and impress even more my friends at the coming Xmas party!
The adventures of Nicolas and his Raspberry Pi 