The code presented on this page can be downloaded or found in the Arduino examples menu under Examples → SpinWearables → Dancing_with_Color → 1D_Rotation_Light_Up_Basic.

Dancing with Color: Changing color in response to rotation in the x-direction.

Here we go through in detail how to change the color of the SpinWheel in response to the rotation of the device. For more information and other examples, refer to the dancing companion page.

You’ve probably seen these include statements in some of the other code examples. They allow the program to access a set of tools for the SpinWheel for us to use.

#include "SpinWearables.h"
using namespace SpinWearables;

The instructions we write in the setup block are executed once when the SpinWheel device powers on. We run one single instruction called SpinWheel.begin() which prepares all the LEDs to accept new colors.

void setup() {
  SpinWheel.begin();
}

Instructions in a loop function are repeated over and over again, in other words, “in a loop”.

void loop() {

The readIMU function checks if the sensor is ready and takes its current rotation data, which we will use below to change the color.

  SpinWheel.readIMU();

Below we will use an if/else statement. “If” statements are vital tools in programming. Essentially, if a condition is true, we will follow the given instruction.
In this case, if the x rotation (gx) is large enough, then we will change the color of the large LEDS by changing the spinning variable. We picked 100 degrees per second because that made it turn on without decting too small motions. However, you can make this more or less sensitve. The abs function makes it so that the direction of the rotation (clockwise or counter clockwise), does not matter.

  if (abs(SpinWheel.gx) > 100) {

As before, the setLargeLEDsUniform function tells the SpinWheel to show the color we would like it to show. We will use (0,255,255), which is a light blue.

    SpinWheel.setLargeLEDsUniform(0, 255, 255);
  }
  else {

Since no motion has been detected, we will instead use (0,0,0), which turns off the LEDs.

    SpinWheel.setLargeLEDsUniform(0, 0, 0);
  }

Finally, we need to tell the SpinWheel to light up the LEDs according to the instructions in setLargeLEDsUniform.

  SpinWheel.drawFrame();
 }