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

6 days 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
3 years ago
Perfect way of adding indicators or blinkenlights to a point. Inexpensive and easy. Also very easy to zap by plugging it in the wrong way so pay more attention than I did and plug it in with your Pi powered off…
by DAVID about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The delivery was faster than expected (to Germany). I used the Blinkt! LED-Strip for my iPhone Photo-Backup Project (shoutout to Justin Pearson - GitHub: https://github.com/justinpearson/Raspberry-Pi-for-iPhone-Backup). The code was implemented in the project, so it was fine for a beginner, which I am. Big fun and a good result for me. The LEDs Show the status of the backup process, that you can run it entirely headless and standalone in a plug and play mode..
by Daniel about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very simple to setup but very effective, I have programmed each light to indicate the status of key items on my Pi's, unfortunately I couldn't use an LCD screen and these lights with an extender but still playing around with it so who knows maybe I'll figure it out.
by Scott about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
As bright as the actual sun. Works very well.
by James about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Such a superb and versatile little stick of fun! And an absolute bargain too! Currently using with the example cheerlights code from the blinkt GitHub
by Ryan about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Works amazing! Using it with Kubernetes on my Raspberry Pi 4. Even at '10%' these are bright! I use them with some polarised glass to nice effect. Currently I have it set to a rainbow effect, but soon I hope to have each Blinkt! light turn on when an extra pod spins up on my K3s Pi cluster!
by James about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Great device. Be cautioned that integrating it with a RaspPi 4 B, especially running Ubuntu Server instead of the default Raspbian, is a bit more involved than the online instructions would leave you to believe. That said, manual installation of the RPi.GPIO and blinkt python packages worked once the /dev permissions for GPIO were worked out.
by Anonymous about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Very bright and easy to install and use
by Iman about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
You will want one for all your raspi!
by Daniele about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
I bought three of these and one of them doesn't seem to work. Haven't managed to get hold of a multi meter to test it yet. They look good and the python library has plenty of examples, but sometimes they don't all turn off when the script exits.
by Jim about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
It's small enough to fit in my Raspberry Pi case, it's easy enough to operate in Home Assistant - and it is blindingly bright. Literally, I was blinded for a few hours after playing around with it for a short minute or so. I can't think of a better possibility to add so much lighting to a Pi with so little real estate. Not to mention how inexpensive it is! I can just recommend it for anyone who wants to add well visible notifications, a friend even suggested lighting a dance room with it. Well, it has the needed oomph for that! Very nice product indeed.
by Anonym about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Awesome! And Pimoroni was very helpful in exchanging a defective set!
by Wilm about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Excellent gadget for my Raspberry Pi 4B. Only downside was that i ordered a heat sink which i had to modify to make Blinkt! fit.
by Tim about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Really useful to get status signal from the raspberry pi without having to deal with too many LEDs
by Anonymous about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Blinking light are always nice!!! :-)
by Bart about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
I use these to get a graphical representation of Docker usage on my Raspberry Pi cluster.
by Răzvan-Teodor about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
It fits very well with my little raspy cluster :-)
by Thomas about Blinkt! via REVIEWS.io

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