microsoft / microsoft/pxt-maker
add "show ring" light block (from pxt-adafruit)
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 130
- Forks
- 90
- Avg merge
- 1d 14h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 1
Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
https://github.com/microsoft/pxt-adafruit has a very cool "show ring" light block that is simple for my kids to point and click on each individual light bulb and choose the color for each one. You can see some kids demoing this feature at https://youtu.be/Q_wt7VoApFY?t=635
Describe the solution you'd like
Please consider porting this "show ring" light option to pxt-maker.
Describe alternatives you've considered
- pxt-maker has a "set all pixels to
<color>" block that sets everything to one single color. This is not the same thing as pointing and choosing individual pixels. - pxt-maker also has a "set pixel color at
<int>to<color>" block that controls one single pixel. This is much more complicated and requires reading, counting, etc. instead of the simplicity of visually pointing and clicking. Kids have to understand the following: Which bulb is "0"? Why does it start at zero, and not at 1? If there's ten bulbs, why is the last one "nine"? Does the circle go clockwise or counter-clockwise? It's a lot to just to get started, and makes it difficult to play around quickly.
Additional context
Here's a screenshot of the block in pxt-adafruit. This UI is extremely intuitive to children who are doing their first lessons:

Contributor guide
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by studying the “show ring” block in pxt-adafruit and comparing it with pxt-maker’s existing “set all pixels” and “set pixel color at” blocks. Done means pxt-maker offers an equivalent visually selectable per-pixel color block for ring lights, with behavior suitable for the child-focused use case described.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- embedded-iot, frontend
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100