Rainbow Glow

Let’s light up the ImagiCharm with a glowing rainbow! Follow the steps below to learn how to make the rainbow glow.

Step 1: Start with a Blank Canvas

First, we need to clear the ImagiCharm’s display to make sure it’s ready for the rainbow.

# Create a blank canvas
pixels.clear()

What This Does: Clears the screen so nothing is left from before.
Try running just this line. What happens on the ImagiCharm?

Step 2: Turn on the First Pixel

Let’s start by turning on the top-left pixel with a bright red color.

# Turn on the first pixel
pixels[0][0] = (255, 0, 0)  # Red

Explanation:
- pixels[0][0]: This picks the first pixel in the top-left corner.
- (255, 0, 0): This means the pixel will glow red (255 for red, 0 for green and blue).
Challenge: Can you change this to green? (Hint: Set the second number to 255.)

Step 3: Add More Colors

Now, let’s turn on more pixels to make a rainbow on the first row.

# Turn on the pixels for a rainbow!
pixels[0][1] = (255, 165, 0)     # Orange
pixels[0][2] = (255, 255, 0)     # Yellow
pixels[0][3] = (0, 255, 0)       # Green
pixels[0][4] = (0, 0, 255)       # Blue
pixels[0][5] = (75, 0, 130)      # Indigo
pixels[0][6] = (238, 130, 238)   # Violet

Explanation:
- Each pixel in the row is assigned a color.
- The colors of the rainbow are added one by one, using (red, green, blue) values.
Activity: Try changing one of the colors. What happens if you mix red and blue?

Step 4: Show the Rainbow

Finally, let’s display the rainbow on the ImagiCharm.

# Show the rainbow on the ImagiCharm!
pixels.show()

What This Does: Lights up all the pixels we set!

Full Code

Here’s the complete code to make your glowing rainbow:

# Create a blank canvas
pixels.clear()

# Turn on the pixels for a rainbow!
pixels[0][0] = (255, 0, 0)       # Red
pixels[0][1] = (255, 165, 0)     # Orange
pixels[0][2] = (255, 255, 0)     # Yellow
pixels[0][3] = (0, 255, 0)       # Green
pixels[0][4] = (0, 0, 255)       # Blue
pixels[0][5] = (75, 0, 130)      # Indigo
pixels[0][6] = (238, 130, 238)   # Violet

# Show the rainbow on the ImagiCharm!
pixels.show()

Explore More

Change the brightness of the pixels. (Hint: Use pixels.brightness = 0.5 before the pixels.show() line.)
Create a second row of rainbow colors. What patterns can you make?

Press “Run” to see your rainbow glow! 🌈