Tiny FX - LED Effects Controller – Board Only

Add smart light and sound effects to models and dioramas with this small-but-mighty RP2040-powered programmable controller board.

Tiny FX is an effects controller for the LED dots and strips that can be found in third-party LEGO®-compatible lighting kits. These LEDs are connected up by thin, flexible wires that can easily be concealed around/behind/within your model. Typically they're powered direct from an alkaline battery pack or USB, so the LEDs are lit all the time - and we wanted our illuminated creations to have more smarts!

Adding a Tiny FX means you can do fun stuff like:

• adjust the brightness of the LEDs
• simulate movement with dynamic lighting effects
• turn the lights on and off in response to environmental triggers/sensor readings
• pulse them atmospherically for spooky ambiance
• flicker them on and off to make cool fire effects
• accompany your light effects with appropriate sound effects (zhwhom)

Tiny FX can drive six channels of two-pin mono LEDs and one channel of four-pin RGB LEDs*, and it has indicator LEDs so you can see what each channel is doing. It's got an onboard amp and connector to attach a tiny speaker, a Qw/ST connector so you can add Qwiic or STEMMA QT breakouts and an additional sensor connector for hooking up hardware like buttons, potentiometers or PIR sensors.

Tiny FX is perfect for adding custom light and sound effects to your favourite construction kit models, dioramas, papercrafts, dolls houses, book nooks and shadowboxes!

LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this product.

• Powered by RP2040 (Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM)
• 4MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
• 6x 2 pin JST-SUR connectors for attaching mono LEDs, with white LED indicators
• 1x 4 pin JST-SUR connector for attaching RGB LEDs, with RGB LED indicator
• USB-C connector for power and programming (1A max)
• Reset and BOOT buttons (the BOOT button can also be used as a user button)
• 2 pin JST-SUR power input connector (1A max)
• 3.2W I2S mono amplifier with 2 pin (Picoblade-compatible) connector for attaching speaker
• Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector for attaching breakouts
• 3 pin JST-SH connector for attaching digital or analog sensors
• Fully-assembled (no soldering required)
  
• MicroPython firmware and library
  
• LEDs and other components are sold separately

You can buy a Tiny FX on its own, or bundled with a convenient selection of LEDs, a speaker and cables to help you start lighting stuff up ASAP - you'll just need to supply your own AA batteries. The kit includes:

• Tiny FX
• Adhesive Backed Mini Speaker 8O (1W)
• 6x LED dots (cool white)
• 5x RGB LEDs (plus expansion board and cable)
• 3xAA battery holder (batteries not included)
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• ...all packed up neatly in a reusable Pirate-brand Loot Box.

Tiny FX comes pre-loaded with pirate-brand MicroPython and our shiny new PicoFX library which makes it easy to run multiple simultaneous light and sound effects - Pimoroni has provided a bunch of examples to show you what it can do. If you'd rather roll your own software, I2S audio and toggling LEDs should be possible with most Raspberry Pi Pico ecosystems.

• Download a printable PDF version
• Schematic (coming soon)

If your breakout has a Qw/ST connector on board, you can plug it straight in with a JST-SH to JST-SH cable, or you can easily connect any of our I2C breakouts with a