“Incredibly impressed with this, it's beautifully built and looks amazing.
I needed something to get my Python skills working again and this turned out to be the perfect project, I've got it pulling data from my Home Assistant/MQTT to draw out graphs for power, internet and network traffic, with loads of room for more.
The included example code was invaluable in getting ideas on the best way to go and was very easy to follow, I was up and blinking test lights really quickly, and whilst I was concerned that I'd have problems with the power of the Pico W, it's proven more than up to the task.
Only two recommendations:
1 - Buy the diffuser with it, it's definitely worth it
2 - The shop page shows me that I'm one of those idiot users. :) - After you pick the Galactic Unicorn, the diffuser option stays defaulted to the Stellar and if you click the blank area of the button it'll add that to cart. Don't be like me - make sure you click the text so it shows you a dropdown to pick the right one!
That said, I'm so chuffed with the Galactic, I'll probably be back for a Stellar soon anyway. Thank you for making such a great product.”
“One of the best, most fun boards I've bought from Pimoroni. Currently have it connected to Spotify API showing a scrolling "Now Playing" display. It's great.”
“This thing is ace. Its beautifully made, like really lovely. I've had a lot of stuff from Pimoroni and its always been super high quality, but this takes it up another notch. Easy to program in python, comes with demos out of the box. Can't recommend this enough if you want a led sign and want to tinker. Well worth the money.”
“Simply stunning!! The board itself is a lovely well made piece of kit. Nice solid feel, and the Unicorn graphics across the rear of the panel, along with the Pimoroni branding just give you a high quality look and feel. As for the LEDs themselves, they are really high quality. Colours are strong and vibrant, and the peak brightness is almost too bright lol! But, overall a fantastic bit of kit, very easy to hook up and start coding and scripting with. Highly recommended, for any projects, and a must have if you fancy buying yourself a Picade Max for the Marquee!!”
“I love this display. It is well built and nicely integrated with the Pico W. The software libraries are good though need better documentation. If the board broke out SWD and UART I would give it 5*s.
I show some example code using the board in this video on YouTube: https://studio.youtube.com/video/F9HNypiFc8w/edit”
“This display is so incredibly gorgeous in person, and having the pico w built in and loaded with examples makes it really easy to get going. It’s a really well done and unique product!”
“The LEDs look great, very bright and vibrant colours. The photos don't really do it justice. With the included code samples, and a bit of messing around I was able to get the weather/clock programme running. I had ambitions of doing something else, but the clock was exactly what I needed anyway. Once combined with a 3D printed case (which was easy to find the plans for), i was able to assemble it and put it on a sheft as a great background during video calls, and a nice conversation starter.
My only sightly negative is that the world has moved to USB C, but this still has micro USB.”
“The Galactic Unicorn is a nice display. It seems to have better diffusion and control over low brightnesses than typical RGB pixels. It doesn't have the super higher brightness of other RGB pixels but arguably that's a positive as it keeps the current capped at 1A (Pimoroni's documented value). The small speaker on the back is surprisingly loud for such a small device.
It's easy to connect to i2c peripherals but not so easy to connect to analogue devices or i2s ones. I would have liked for at least one of the ADC-capable GPIO to be made available on a connector. Or use the existing connectors and have some PCB tracks to cut to get rid of the pullup resistors for anyone who wants to use i2s or analogue peripherals.
It comes with two metal pins for a stand. These work well for the Inky Frame (with a heavy battery pack changing the centre of gravity) but not so well on the Galactic Unicorn from a brief experiment. I don't think they are high enough on the board so it stands near vertical and is prone to being knocked over. I'd imagine the weight of a battery pack would help.
There's a lot you can do with the board and its Pi Pico W in MicroPython. I've switched to C++ as I need to squeeze a bit more performance from it. I've added an external microphone module and enhanced the Pimoroni Blunicorn software to use that. I've also added a guitar/instrument tuner feature to it. All of that can be found on Instructables, links below.
https://www.instructables.com/Making-a-Guitar-Tuner-and-Audio-Spectrum-Analyser-/
https://www.instructables.com/Adding-a-Microphone-to-Pi-Pico-W-on-Pimoroni-Galac/”
