In this mode, Sparkle's center light will not flash: it sends all flashing data to the lightboards, though the tiny red LED will be lit.
(If your Sparkle kit came with lightboards and sensors, it can work in this mode)

All components (sensors, lights, motors) have a tiny microcontroller that allows them to communicate with Sparkle, so you can interact with the different sensors and actuators without writing special code to deal with each one.

Sparkle has a tiny red light that tells you what's going on:

1. double-check your connections
2. make sure you sewed through the holes several times for a tight fit
3. look for short circuits, places where two threads might be touching
4. use a new battery
5. review the sparkle sewing tutorial
6. totally undo the circuit, and sew only two things: Sparkle, and battery
7. now add other lightboards, one by one, testing each time you add one, and then finally the sensor.

• Connect Sparkle to the battery holder using conductive thread, conductive paint, or regular wire
• Use two separate threads, one for plus and one for minus
• Go through each hole 4-6 times to make a good connection, not just once
• Make sure there is no short circuit
• Insert a 3 volt battery. It should start flashing

while it's still connected to the battery, turn Sparkle over briefly connect the reset pad to the reset hole with tweezers or needle wait 1 second repeat steps 1-3 until Sparkle's center stops, but the tiny red LED stays on You can do this even after the project is sewn down, just use a pair of tweezers

• Next, with the power on, add a lightboard (with single dot) to the right of Sparkle
• Use two separate threads, one for plus and one for minus
• Make sure lightboard plus is connected to the top right hole on Sparkle
• Make sure lightboard minus is connected to the bottom right hole on Sparkle
• Go through each holes 4-6 times to make a good connection, not just once
• When this lightboard is flashing, add the other lightboards in the same way

• You can connect lightboards on either side of Sparkle
• You can use up to 20 lightboards, in any color combination
• For sensors, the plus side is at the top, closest to the sensor name

There are two types of inputs for Sparkle:

• Sensors that measure how much of something there is: sound, light, accelerometer, temperature, and custom.
   
   
   
   
  
• Switches that measure if something exists. These switches don't report the amount of sensed value, but they let Sparkle know if they have been touched, if there is a magnet nearby (about 2 inches or less), or if it's receiving an infrared signal from any remote control.
   
   
  

You can use one sensor AND one switch in a project, but not two sensors at the same time. So you could combine light sensor with magnet switch, or an accelerometer with infrared switch, but not sound and light sensors.

The custom sensor senses resistance, so you can connect (e.g.) resistive fabric to the two holes to make a pressure sensor, or stretch sensor. Its built in resistance is 100 kilo-ohms.

The accelerometer normally measures movement, but if you connect these two holes, it will detect 1 of 6 orientations. Tutorial coming soon.

With this switch, Sparkle can react to your touch. You can also connect the hole on the side to a patch of conductive cloth to create a larger touch pad.

Because sensors need to communicate with Sparkle, we have to use lightboards  instead of regular LEDs or sequins. Each one has an ID (1-5), marked by the number of strokes or dots it has. Connect up to 20 in any color combination.

• Hold your finger, a needle, or tweezers to the strip under the tiny red LED
• After 1 second, the tiny red LED should start flashing
• Keep your finger on the touch strip for more than 1 second
• The red LED will fade off, and Sparkle will go to sleep
• Press the touch strip again to wake it up.
• Check out the video for more

• Go to: aniomagic.com/program
• Hold your finger, a needle, or tweezers to the strip under the tiny red LED.
• After 1 second, the tiny red LED should start flashing.
• Put Sparkle in front of the icon on the screen and click send.

• Hold Sparkle closer to the screen.
• Make the screen brighter or change the contrast.
• Dim the lights; a brightly lit environment overpowers the sensor.
• If your web browser is playing a video or doing some other activity, it throws off the timing.
  Close all other browser windows and see if this solves the problem.

• Making choices from the programming menu
• Writing textual programs

Detect a wide range, like completely dark to very bright.	Detect a small range, like changes in room temperature.	Set a high threshold, so Sparkle responds only when it gets really loud.

You can also write programs in the textual programming language, for example:  
 

 
Get more in-depth with programming.