Blinkt!

by Pimoroni

Eight super-bright RGB LED indicators that are ideal for adding visual notifications to your Raspberry Pi without breaking the bank!

Inspired by Alex Ellis' work with his Raspberry Pi Zero Docker Cluster, we developed these boards for him to use as status indicators. Blinkt! offers eight APA102 pixels in the smallest (and cheapest) form factor to plug straight onto your Raspberry Pi.

Each pixel on Blinkt! is individually controllable and dimmable allowing you to create gradients, pulsing effects, or just flash them on and off like crazy. The data and clock lines are connected to GPIO #23 and #24 respectively but for simplicity you can just use our Python library to drive them.

Features

  • Eight APA102 RGB LEDs
  • Individually controllable pixels
  • Sits directly on top of your Pi in a tiny footprint
  • Fits inside most Pi cases
  • Doesn't interfere with PWM audio
  • Blinkt! pinout
  • Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
  • Python library
  • Comes fully assembled

Software

Our Blinkt! Python library will have you blasting out rainbows in two shakes of a unicorn's tail! There's a stack of examples too, from binary clocks to cheerlights and flickering candles to Larson scanners!

Notes

  • Be careful to plug in your Blinkt! the correct way round, it has curves on the top that match the corners of your Raspberry Pi
  • If you want to access the rest of the GPIO at the same time as using Blinkt! then our Mini Black HAT Hack3r is the ideal accompaniment, allowing you to combine Blinkt! with another HAT or pHAT, or just prototype using the GPIO pins for your own project
  • The dimensions of Blinkt! are 65mm long x 8mm wide x 8.5mm thick (thickness includes header and pixels)
  • Additional accessories shown in photos not included

We featured Blinkt! on a special episode of Bilge Tank where we tried to come up with as many different code examples as possible in one morning.

94 customer reviews

a month ago
A nice gadget to add on to your raspberry.
by Aleksandar about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
10 months ago
Great little LED boards. Can’t complain.
by Kory about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
Great LEDs for notifications. Also very easy to use with the python library! Videos shows a PI Zero 2 W with Blinkt!
by Joshy about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
I'm quite happy with my Blinkt! that I received (much sooner than the promised date). It's very bright so I run it on a low brightness setting as I have no case or any other filter in front of the lights. I use it to show my import/export rate of power useage. (I have solar panels and an Open Energy Monitor system. The Blinkt! LEDs are on a second Rhaspberry Pi that I've setup to receive and display the MQTT signals from the Open Energy Monitor Raspberry Pi.)
by Sean about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
Tested great. I haven't added it to the project yet.
by Philip about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Bright shiny lights, great for status indicator
by Nigel about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Super addon for a very small price. I needed some visual feedback on some processes and the Blinkt did the job with no fuss.
by Steve about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
A simple way to add some blinky, coloured lights to a Raspberry Pi, and a simple way to start doing something with Python for my 10-year-old.
by Anonymous about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Really pleased with this. I'm using this as a status indicator for Teams etc.
by Richard about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io

2 user photos