Colour Star Wand

Introduction

Creating a magical star wand with the Star Colour Tail is easy. Colour Tails are plugged into CodeBug using the black Extension connector at the bottom of CodeBug.

Colour Tails give your CodeBug easy control of colourful lights in interesting shapes. They are really fun to play with and easy to use. The LED lights on Colour Tails are RGB (Red Green Blue) so they can produce any colour you can think of, by mixing different brightnesses of the Red Green and Blue light.

Colour Tails can be controlled with a few simple blocks.

You will need
CodeBug CodeBug
Micro USB cable
ColourStar ColourStar
Corrugated cardboard
Zipties
USB battery pack
Scissors

Connecting your Colour Star

It is recommended that you connect your Colour Star after plugging in the Micro USB cable into CodeBug and disconnect your Colour Star before unplugging the Micro USB from your CodeBug to avoid damaging the devices. Take care when plugging in or unplugging devices from CodeBug.

To fit your Colour Star to CodeBug, place the Colour Star on a table with the LEDs facing upwards, then placing CodeBug with LEDs side up, gently slide CodeBug’s expansion socket onto the 6 pin connector on the Colour Star.


Controlling your Colour Star

There are special blocks to control your Colour Star.

Follow the tutorial below to make a nice pattern for your star wand to display.


Creating your Colour Star Wand

The CodeBug Colour Star has two mounting holes that you can use to mount the Star to anything you like. Print out this wand template and use it to cut out your wand from thick strong cardboard (or stick multiple layers of card together). You can paint your cardboard wand to make it look magical. Use zipties to secure your Colour Star and CodeBug to your cardboard wand’s mounting holes.

Secure a battery pack to the bottom of the wand if you want it to be portable, and plug the USB cable into this battery pack.

Paint the zipties the same colour as the rest of your wand so that they blend in.


What next?

Try creating different wand designs and code different patterns for your CodeBug Colour Star.


Back to top