Here’s a neat rotary encoder with a ring of RGB Neopixel LEDs to indicate where its pointing:

Neopixel Rotary Encoder

What is this?

This is a super-overkill rotary encoder. Not only does it encode in a rotary fashion, it also lights up! It includes a ring of 20 ultra bright and even more ultra tiny Neopixel LEDs. Ever have trouble deciding between different LED colors? Well here you don’t have to. Add this to your next project to give it a brilliant flare in whatever color, or combination of colors, you want.

What can I use it for?

I originally designed this to control digital effects in a guitar. Because the knob would potentially be mapped to several different controls, depending on the active effect, an ordinary potentiometer wouldn’t cut it. What if, for example, in one mode it was set to 50%, and in another it was set to 100%? Enter the LED ring. Now, whenever you change modes, the indicator can reflect the correct value.

But what can it actually do?

Anything! Assuming that ‘anything’ refers to reporting positions from a rotary encoder, acting as a pushbutton, or lighting up. The lights don’t do anything on your own, you need to include some code in your project that takes the encoder signal and does something with the lights. Thankfully, I already wrote that part for you! Here are a few examples of different modes I prepared for you, all of which are included in the example code.