Hardware · build

Ten DIY lamp builds for the early-sunset season

Adafruit's roundup of lamp projects, from NeoPixel rings and edge-lit acrylic to a LEGO head lamp and a 3D-printed dragon with glowing fire.

Can I build this?Intermediate · AI 4/5 · $20–60

Difficulty: Intermediate
AI-buildability: 4/5
Time: A weekend
Cost: $20–60

Tools

soldering iron3D printer

Starter prompt

Based on "Ten DIY lamp builds for the early-sunset season" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/ten-diy-lamp-builds-for-the-early-sunset-season

Write CircuitPython code for a Circuit Playground Express that drives a NeoPixel ring as a desk lamp. Add button presses to cycle between warm white, a slow color fade, and an off state. Keep the animation logic in a separate function so new modes are easy to add.

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

Story

Adafruit's blog is treating the early sunset as a build season, and this post is a roundup of lamp projects rather than a single build. The list runs from a NeoPixel ring lamp and a BLE Feather lamp that can change color through Adafruit IO and IFTTT, to a Star Fragment lamp that turns on at sunrise and off at sunset.

Other entries include a 3D-printed dragon with glowing fire, a LEGO head lamp with audio, an edge-lit acrylic NeoPixel lamp, a 3D-printed stained glass lamp and a 3D-printed LED Shoji lamp. Jeff Epler's LED sculpture lamp uses about 3 meters of LED strip and has a dimmable power supply.

If you want a starting point, the NeoPixel ring and the Circuit Playground Express Ikea-lamp hack are the simplest, since both are CircuitPython projects on Adafruit hardware.