Unicorn HAT

Unicorn HAT: compact pocket LED-RGB matrix for Raspberry Pi

The Unicorn HAT provides you with a rainbow-coloured LED-RGB matrix.

This product is powered directly from the Raspberry Pi and it has a matrix of 64 RGB LEDs (8 x 8). It is also considered an extremely compact pocket aurora.

The Unicorn HAT has controllable colours, making it perfect to use for status indications, mood-lighting, persistence of vision effects, 8×8 pixel art or simply adding colour into your surroundings.

The Unicorn HAT features are:

• 64 RGB LEDs (WS2812B)
• LED data driven via DMA over PWM
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi 4B, 3B+, 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero and Zero W
• Unicorn HAT pinout
• Python library
• Comes fully assembled

Software

At the following link, you can find the Python library for the Unicorn HAT, which includes many examples and can be easily installed with a single command.

Raspbian Wheezy is not supported by the Python library.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTES
WARNING: when brightly lit, WS2812 LEDs can cause eye pain. It is highly recommended NOT TO LOOK AT THEM DIRECTLY when they are turned on and to use a diffuser.

PHOTO-SENSITIVITY WARNING: epileptic seizures can be caused by this product’s flashing, strobing and patterns of lights. You must take care and instantly stop using it if you do not feel well or if you feel affected vision, eye twitching, dizziness, nausea, disorientation, etc.

Power: Unicorn HAT requires a >2A microUSB power supply for your Raspberry Pi. It is recommended to use the official Raspberry Pi power supply, but any other 5V microUSB power adapter will work as well.

Compatibility (audio): as PWM and GPIO18 are used by the Unicorn HAT, it will interfere with analogue audio playback. If you use the audio this HAT will randomly show colour patterns and it will also start flickering. However, HDMI should work correctly.

Pimoroni name: Unicorn HAT – Compact RGB Pixel Matrix [PIM054]