A Pimoroni Galactic Unicorn driving 583 RGB LEDs across a wide 53×11 matrix. RP2350 on board, speaker for audio alerts, buttons for interaction. Started as an excuse to have something glowing on the desk. Turning into something genuinely useful.
The Galactic Unicorn is a Pimoroni board — wide landscape format, 330mm across, 583 individually addressable RGB LEDs with 14-bit colour precision refreshing at 300fps. That last bit matters: it films cleanly, no flickering or strobing, which is relevant if you ever want to have it visible on a stream or video call background without it looking like a broken TV.
RP2350 under the hood (the newer, faster Pico 2 generation). Onboard speaker, phototransistor for light sensing, battery connector, Qw/ST port for breakouts. It stands up on its own with the included metal legs.
Working baseline is on the device. Code needs extracting and committing before anything else happens — same rule as always, don't change things until the starting point is safe in a repo.
The 3D printed case is designed and printed but needs sanding and finishing. Then final component fitment and it's done physically.
Medication / pill reminder — configurable times, visual alert across the matrix, audio from the speaker. Actually useful daily. High priority.
Desk clock — clean scrolling or static clock display as the default screen. The 53×11 format is actually really well suited to scrolling text.
Home Assistant integration — link the display into the HA setup for notifications, status alerts, whatever the house needs to shout about. The solar/battery inverter is already in HA, this would be a natural extension.
Instagram / notification display — pull in follower counts or notifications. Lower priority. Slightly vain. On the list anyway.
1. Extract baseline code and commit to repo 2. Sand, finish and finalise the 3D printed case 3. Final assembly in finished case 4. Medication reminder feature 5. Desk clock display 6. Home Assistant integration 7. Notification display 8. Future ideas to be logged as issues
Pimoroni Galactic Unicorn (Pico 2 W Aboard), MicroPython. 53×11 RGB LED matrix. Onboard speaker and phototransistor. Case designed in Fusion 360, printed, finishing in progress.