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Galactic Unicorn (53x11 – 583 pixels, Pico 2W Aboard)

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Galactic Unicorn (53x11 – 583 pixels, Pico 2W Aboard)

SKU: PIM734 Brand: Pimoroni

Gorgeous programmable LED matrix displays with wireless connectivity and oodles of fancy extras! ??...

$144.95 AUD, inc GST

$131.77 AUD, exc GST

In stock, ships same business day if ordered before 2PM
Fastest delivery: Tomorrow* Disclaimer:
For next-day delivery, the shipping address must be in the AusPost next-day network, eParcel Express must be selected, and the order must be placed before 2PM AEST Mon-Thurs excluding NSW Public Holidays. Orders may be delayed due to AusPost pickup timings and order verifications. eParcel Express is typically a 1-day service within the AusPost next-day network, though it is sometimes 2+ days.

Quantity Discounts:

5+ $127.82 (exc GST)
10+ $125.18 (exc GST)

Gorgeous programmable LED matrix displays with wireless connectivity and oodles of fancy extras!

Our space Unicorns are very beautiful, all-in-one, RP2350 powered LED matrices perfect for conveying information fabulously (or for sprucing up your desktop, makingspace or imaginarium). There's a ton of features aboard, here are some of our favourites!

Loads* of RGB LEDs, all with individual colour and brightness control. Pimoroni are in mad love with these big bright squircular LEDs with their rounded apertures and built in diffusion.

Looks great on video - invoking RP2350 magic means we can update the LEDs really quickly (we measured around 300 fps at 14-bit precision). This means there's no nasty strobing, artifacting or brightness stepping when it's filmed, so it's perfect for adding to the background of your streaming setup.

2.4GHz wireless connectivity (courtesy of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W) so you can use it to display all sorts of interesting data from the internet.

There's also an onboard amp and little speaker for bleepy alerts and *futuristic noises* and a battery connector so you can power it without it having to be tethered to a USB port. Every Unicorn comes with a pair of sleek little metal legs so it can stand up on its own (and has a selection of mounting holes if you'd prefer to do something else).

Use it to make a very fancy clock, a very fancy weather display or a very fancy output for sensors (other very fancy use cases are available).

What's new?

As of mid-December 2024, Pico Unicorns are now Pico 2 W Aboard! Pico 2 W and it's souped-up RP2350 chip bring some exciting improvements - including a higher core clock speed, double the on-chip SRAM and double the on-board flash memory. RP2350 adds hardware support for floating point number crunching, which means graphical effects and demos should run even faster!

Which Unicorn to choose?

All varieties of Unicorn have the same great core features: buttons, a speaker, a battery connector and an onboard Pico 2 W. However, there's now three different shapes and sizes, with varying amounts of LEDs. Here's a little comparison chart to make sure you get just the right amount (like mecha-Goldilocks).

Unicorn	*How many LEDs	Arranged in a...	Size of board (L x W x D)
Stellar	256	16 x 16 square grid	108 x 108 x 10.2 mm
Galactic	583	53 x 11 wide grid	330 x 78 x 10.2 mm
Cosmic	1024	32 x 32 square grid	204 x 204 x 10.2 mm

Features

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W Aboard

Dual Arm Cortex M33 running at up to 150MHz with 520KB of SRAM
4MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
Powered and programmable by USB micro-B
2.4GHz wireless

256/583/1024 RGB LEDs in a 16x16/53x11/32x32 grid

3.5mm LEDs with rounded square apertures
6mm LED spacing
Driven by FM6047 constant current LED drivers

MAX98357 3.2W I2S Mono Amplifier (with 30mm 1W speaker)
Phototransistor for light sensing
9 tactile user buttons
Reset button
2x Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connectors
JST-PH connector for attaching a battery (5.5V max)
Fully assembled
No soldering required.
Programmable with C/C++ or MicroPython
Schematics - Stellar / Galactic / Cosmic

Kit includes

Stellar/Galactic/Cosmic Unicorn (with speaker attached)
2 x metal legs
USB A to micro-B cable

Getting Started

To make it easy to get started, all our Unicorns ship pre-loaded with pirate brand MicroPython and a demo reel of examples of pretty examples to stare at.

You can find more examples on Github:

Unicorn MicroPython firmware and examples

Not your everyday RGB LEDs

In our software, we use the Pico 2 W's PIOs (Programmable IOs) to drive the LEDs. Internally, Unicorn applies gamma correction to the supplied image data and updates the display with 14-bit precision resulting in extremely linear visual output - including at the low end.

The display is refreshed around 300 times per second (300fps!) allowing for rock solid stability even when being filmed, no smearing or flickering even when in motion.

Connecting Breakouts

The Qw/ST connectors make it super easy to connect up Qwiic or STEMMA QT breakouts. If your breakout has a QW/ST connector on board, you can plug it straight in with a JST-SH to JST-SH cable.

Breakout Garden breakouts that don't have a Qw/ST connector can be connected using a JST-SH to JST-SH cable plus a Qw/ST to Breakout Garden adaptor. Want to use >2 breakouts at the same time? Try this adaptor!

List of breakouts currently compatible with our C++/MicroPython build.

Notes

Power consumption stats! We measured Galactic and Cosmic Unicorn as consuming just over 1A at maximum brightness, full white. When choosing a battery, consider that the LEDs will look their absolute best when they have access to at least 3.6V of power. At lower voltage levels you will start to see the blue elements of the LEDs fading out - this starts to become very noticeable at 2.9V and below. For best results when running on battery, we'd suggest using a chunky LiPo (check out the extras for some suggestions).
Note that Unicorns have no battery charging hardware onboard - this is so you can use either alkaline or LiPo batteries safely. You'll need to charge up your LiPo battery with a separate battery charger (we like LiPo Amigo).
Squircle alert! Some batches of Unicorns have LEDs with more rounded apertures (though the LED specs and brightness remain the same). They all look good, but if you want a perfectly visually matched pair (or stable) of Unicorns it's probably best to buy them at the same time.

Printables

Want to cut a diffuser or 3D print a case? Check these out:

Stellar

Stellar's 4 mounting holes are M2 and 3mm in from the edge. The leg holes are M2.5.
.dxf files for the board outline:

Galactic

Galactic's 8 mounting holes are M2, 3mm in from the edge, and equally spaced 108mm horizontally and 72mm vertically. The leg holes are M2.5 (we've added two sets so you can adjust the angle).
.dxf files for the board outline:

Screen mount with pivot stand
Templates for box joint case and diffuser grill

Cosmic

Cosmic's 7 mounting holes are M2, 3mm in from the edge, and equally spaced 99mm horizontally and vertically. The leg holes are M2.5 (we've added two sets so you can adjust the angle).
Dimensional drawing
.dxf files for the board outline:

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We deliver Australia-wide with these options (depends on the final destination - you can get a quote on the view cart page):

$3+ for Stamped Mail (typically 10+ business days, not tracked, only available on selected small items)
$7+ for Standard Post (typically 6+ business days, tracked)
$11+ for Express Post (typically 2+ business days, tracked)
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Non-metro addresses in WA, NT, SA & TAS can take 2+ days in addition to the above information.

Some batteries (such as LiPo) can't be shipped by Air. During checkout, Express Post and International Methods will not be an option if you have that type of battery in your shopping cart.

International Orders - the following rates are for New Zealand and will vary for other countries:

$12+ for Pack and Track (3+ days, tracked)
$16+ for Express International (2-5 days, tracked)

If you order lots of gear, the postage amount will increase based on the weight of your order.

Our physical address (here's a PDF which includes other key business details):

Unit 18, 132 Garden Grove Parade
Adamstown
NSW, 2289
Australia

Take a look at our customer service page if you have other questions such as "do we do purchase orders" (yes!) or "are prices GST inclusive" (yes they are!). We're here to help - get in touch with us to talk shop.

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