Had some good progress. Two more milestones reached. I finally got some time and rigged a standard LPD8806 strip to test. With the WS2801 I had to slow the process way down, almost to a full 3000us, so it would work right, otherwise it would corrupt the data? With the LPD8806, I can run full blast, no delays what so ever. Display stays perfect, no corruption. So that seals the grave for the WS2801 … not going there again.
Other Milestone: the string is running off of one single Li-Ion 18650 battery @ 3.7V and capable of discharging at an incredible 20A (so the specs say). I pushed the entire reel, all 240 LEDS full white and measured an almost 13A draw. With the LPD8806 pushing 18mA per channel, that number seems correct. Guess the manufacturer wasn’t kidding. 
Waiting for the PCBs and LEDs to arrive this week, need to finish the controller and get the PCBs made. Woo.
