You're going to write your own function now. Functions keep your code tidy. At the bottom of the sketch, click after the } (so, outside the loop function) and press Return a couple of times. Then type the following code:

     void lightAll() {
         strip.setPixelColor(0, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.setPixelColor(1, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.setPixelColor(2, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.setPixelColor(3, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.setPixelColor(4, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.setPixelColor(5, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.setPixelColor(6, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.setPixelColor(7, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));
         strip.show();
     }

All the code in a function goes in between a pair of curly braces { }

Now change your setup code so that it looks like this:

     void setup() {
         // put your setup code here, to run once:
         strip.begin();
         strip.show();
         lightAll();
     }

The last line calls the function you made. That means it tells the function to run.

Verify and upload your sketch to the Flora. Did all the pixels light up blue?

• You might have figured out that the first number in the line strip.setPixelColor(0, strip.Color(0, 0, 255)); decides which pixel to light up. Have you noticed that the first pixel is zero instead of one? So if you have eight pixels the last one is number 7.

Change the second line of the lightAll function from

     strip.setPixelColor(1, strip.Color(0, 0, 255));

to

     strip.setPixelColor(1, strip.Color(255, 0, 0));

Verify and upload the code to the Flora. Can you spot the difference?

On a computer, colours are made by mixing the three primary colours of light, red, green, and blue. You use numbers from 0 to 255 to say how much of each colour to mix. So the code strip.Color(0, 0, 255) makes blue because the value for red and green are both zero.

• What colour do you think strip.Color(0, 255, 0) will give you? Try it out!

Here are a few more colours that are good to know

     void lightAll() {
         strip.setPixelColor(0, strip.Color(0, 0, 255)); // blue
         strip.setPixelColor(1, strip.Color(255, 0, 0)); // red
         strip.setPixelColor(2, strip.Color(0, 255, 0)); // green
         strip.setPixelColor(3, strip.Color(255, 0, 255)); // magenta
         strip.setPixelColor(4, strip.Color(255, 255, 255)); // white
         strip.setPixelColor(5, strip.Color(255, 255, 0)); // yellow
         strip.setPixelColor(6, strip.Color(0, 255, 255)); // cyan
         strip.setPixelColor(7, strip.Color(255, 127, 0)); // orange
         strip.show();
     }

Try experimenting with the numbers to get different shades. What do you think you will get if you set a value of 0 for all three colours, strip.Color(0, 0, 0)?

Are you seeing stars yet?! Those NeoPixels sure are BRIGHT, aren't they! Luckily, if you want to, you can change the brightness of them with this code: strip.setBrightness(10); Add it to the setup function, in between the lines strip.begin(); and strip.show();. Just like with colours, the number can be anything from 0 to 255.

You may find that the colours are not showing up properly towards the end of the chain. This is because the circuit is losing power due to resistance in the thread. You can add more power by stitching an extra thread along both the negative and the positive tracks in your circuit.