hello. I have recently been messing with FastLED again.

Andy_Smith1 · June 13, 2017, 2:52am

hello.

I have recently been messing with FastLED again.

If I want to limit the colors that CONFETTI shows to just GREEN and BLUE
is there a way to do that in the code. I have tweaked every variable I can and they seem to just adjust brightness, spread, etc…I also tried adjusting the gHue but that didnt seem to change it either.

I am also interested in limiting the JUGGLE and SINEON patterns to just GREEN/BLUE.

I am helping with a water themed costume.

I am running either on TEENSY 3.2 or ARUDINO UNO.

thanks.

marmil · June 13, 2017, 4:18am

Here’s a version of Confetti that does only Green and Blue hues.
https://pastebin.com/kCaiVzMf
Note there is a percentage variable in there too. Put it back to 100 if you want max confetti!

For Juggle, the variable dothue is the color. It starts out equal to 0 (red), but you could set it start at green. And then also comment out line 123: dothue += 32;
so it won’t change the color as it loops. Then you can make a copy of the whole juggle pattern subroutine and set dothue to blue so you will have both a green and blue version in your pattern mix.

You should be able to do similar for Sinelon. Just add your own “hue” variable and set to hue green or blue. Replace gHue with the “hue” variable.

marmil · June 13, 2017, 4:27am

[I edited the above a bit to hopefully be a bit more clear.]

John_Sullivan · June 13, 2017, 12:38pm

Use palletknife to select a set of colir variants you like and shift through that pallet. I did that to demoreel100 bpm sample.

Andy_Smith1 · June 18, 2017, 9:26pm

Thanks for the info Marc Miller. I was able to get juggle and confetti to work perfectly. A few questions:
-I can get Sinelon to stay on a specific hue but it seems to randomly skip LEDs. The tail of the streak is not uniform and its odd. Any thoughts?
Also, I want to have a mobile controller and a way for someone to quickly change LED pattern. I have some experience with button inputs but thought it may be easier to just have 4 data pins on the Arduino outputing 4 different patterns (Confetti, Juggle, Sinelon, Rainbow) and have a 4 way switch that could be moved to only feed 1 data line to the strip. I cant seem to get this to code correctly. Any help appreciated !!

marmil · June 18, 2017, 10:41pm

Super, glad you got those to work. Post your code to http://gist.github.com with the pattern you’re having trouble with.

If you have four pins always outputting four different patterns all the time, while yes that’s possible, in my opinion that’s wasting a lot of processing power and unnecessary. If you want to use a 4 way switch, instead consider hooking it up to 4 /input/ pins to determine which pattern to run. Or use a button. I’m sure we can get you sorted out.

Here’s a few examples of using a button for changing patterns.

github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/DemoReel100_with_button.ino

//***************************************************************
// This is Mark Kriegsman's FastLED DemoReel100 example with
// a modificaiton to use a button for changing patterns.  The
// timer used for picking a new pattern has been commented out
// and there is a button check inside the main loop now.
//
// Search for "button" to find the various button related
// code additions.
//
// You can view the serial monitor to see a message when the
// button is pressed.
//
// Marc Miller, March 2017
//   Updated Jan 2020 - for JC_button library updates
//***************************************************************

#include "FastLED.h"
#define DATA_PIN    11
#define CLK_PIN   13
#define LED_TYPE    LPD8806

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github.com

atuline/FastLED-Demos/blob/master/button_test/button_test.ino

/* button_demo
 * 
 * By: Jack Christensen
 * 
 * Modified by: Andrew Tuline
 * 
 * Date: January, 2017
 * 
 * This demonstration uses a button to set a 'mode' and to read/store it with the Arduino EEPROM. 
 * 
 * Run this sketch and open up the serial monitor.
 * Read the starting mode from EEPROM.
 * Press the button (attached to pin 6) quickly to change to the next mode.
 * Press the button for at least 1 second to write the current mode to EEPROM.
 *
 */

#include <Button.h>                                           // https://github.com/JChristensen/Button
#include "EEPROM.h"

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Andy_Smith1 · June 20, 2017, 3:54am

Hey Marc, thanks for the help.
I have a simple 4 button that I will use for this project:

I tried to add code using the Button-Master library (renamed Button) to the Demo Reel. Its very confusing to know where to add the code.
I would simply like to display the first pattern Confetti_GB and if a button 1 is pressed to stay on that pattern. If button 2 is pressed to show Juggle and stay on that pattern. If button 3 is pressed to show Sinelon and if button 4 is pressed, to show rainbow. If button 1 is pushed, show Confetti_GB and wait for more input.
Basically if any button is pushed, to switch to that pattern and stay there. Is this possible?

I know I need to add an if/else statement for each button.

I tried to merge the code and keep running into rainbow not being declared in the scope. What does that really mean??

I have very little coding experience but have occasionally been able to make things hustle along.

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/slurrybowl/f3384199a2998c99c9ba5ee8dabda156

gistfile1.txt

#include "FastLED.h"

FASTLED_USING_NAMESPACE

// FastLED "100-lines-of-code" demo reel, showing just a few 
// of the kinds of animation patterns you can quickly and easily 
// compose using FastLED.  
//
// This example also shows one easy way to define multiple 
// animations patterns and have them automatically rotate.

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A few other questions. Why is the website called Github and what is gist?

Thanks very much.

marmil · June 20, 2017, 8:32pm

Yes, that button should work and you can do what you have in mind. I recommend with most projects consisting of multiple parts and also when you’re learning, break things up into small parts where it’s easier to learn and test. Make multiple simple setups (for example, use the FastLED “Blink” example and have each button set a color to blink). Once you learn how to use the buttons and library and confirm how to wire things then move on to integrating it into a larger project. Plus those small examples you build for yourself are super for testing other things out in the future.

Have a look at my DemoReel100_with_button example again. Note where I commented out:
EVERY_N_SECONDS( 10 ) { nextPattern(); }
at line 67, and added my button check in that location.

For your four buttons you’ll need four sets of these lines:

const int buttonPinA = 4; // Set digital pin 4 for button A
Button myButtonA(buttonPinA, true, true, 50);

const int buttonPinB = 5; // Set digital pin 5 for button B
Button myButtonB(buttonPinB, true, true, 50);
etc.

And in my readbutton() function at the bottom of the code you would end up with four checks of reading each button.

void readbutton() {
myButtonA.read();
if(myButtonA.wasPressed()) {
//A was pressed so set a variable or do something
}
myButtonB.read();
if(myButtonB.wasPressed()) {
//B was pressed so set a variable or do something
}
etc.

}

I think of http://gist.github.com (somewhat similar to pastebin) as more for just sharing single files or pieces of code. http://Github.com is more for collecting all the files for whole projects or larger collections of files (can be different file types too).

Andy_Smith1 · June 21, 2017, 3:17am

thank you. I look forward to digging into this

Andy_Smith1 · June 28, 2017, 3:42pm

Thanks for the help thus far.
I have added what I believe to be the correct code for 4 buttons. I have not added the 4 lines of code at the bottom to specifically tell strip to show different patterns. I think there is a single line using FastLED to do this…also when I compile my code as it stands now, I get an error stating

"no matching function for call to ‘Button::Button(const int&, bool, bool, int)’ "

Any help greatly appreciated. Here is my current code:

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/slurrybowl/836be7a236456f229037e2d5437abc4c

gistfile1.txt

#include "FastLED.h"

FASTLED_USING_NAMESPACE

// FastLED "100-lines-of-code" demo reel, showing just a few 
// of the kinds of animation patterns you can quickly and easily 
// compose using FastLED.  
//
// This example also shows one easy way to define multiple 
// animations patterns and have them automatically rotate.

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marmil · June 28, 2017, 6:06pm

Looks like you’re missing a closing brace } on the readbutton() fuction.

Keep going!

Andy_Smith1 · June 28, 2017, 6:11pm

Also, when I try to upload your demoreel w/button code, I keep getting an error stating no matching function for call to ‘Button::Button(const int&, bool, bool, int)’

seems like a library discrepancy, dunno

marmil · June 28, 2017, 6:40pm

You downloaded the Button library, unzipped it, renamed it to just Button if needed, put it in the same location as the FastLED library, and closed and restarted Arduino?

Andy_Smith1 · June 28, 2017, 8:17pm

yes. I even deleted Arduino program and reinstalled. When I try to compile the basic_usage example from the button library, it compiles. But when I try to compile your demo w/button, it gives me that same error code:

"no matching function for call to ‘Button::Button(const int&, bool, bool, int)’ "

Andy_Smith1 · June 28, 2017, 9:14pm

the problem may be that there are 2 button libraries. Master-Button which is supposed to be renamed button and another also named button

marmil · June 28, 2017, 9:25pm

Oh yes, multiples of same library can/will be a problem. Delete one so you just have one Button library folder. Hopefully that’s it.

Andy_Smith1 · June 29, 2017, 6:22pm

Yup, your code works if I rename Button-master to Button, but the Button library in the arduino Lib. manager is diff. and wont work !

marmil · June 29, 2017, 6:38pm

I don’t use that library manager at all. I specifically get the libraries I want and put them in my custom library location (which is on Google drive so my libraries are the same on all my systems/devices).

Andy_Smith1 · July 6, 2017, 3:58pm

Hey Marc and community. I have resolved my library issues and have successfully uploaded code to use 1 button to scroll through patterns. I am now attempting to use 4 buttons and not having success. When I call readbutton at the end of my void loop, I need it to reference my read button functions at the end of my code and react to presses. Currently I am just trying to keep it simple and set the strip to a different color, but ultimately I want to have each button set a different pattern. Is there a FastLED command to set a pattern that I can put in my read button functions?

thanks as always
Here is my current code:

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/slurrybowl/53177ff1c70de8959c8aab514d159505

attempt at 4 buttons (not working)


#include "FastLED.h"

FASTLED_USING_NAMESPACE

// FastLED "100-lines-of-code" demo reel, showing just a few 
// of the kinds of animation patterns you can quickly and easily 
// compose using FastLED.  
//
// This example also shows one easy way to define multiple

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marmil · July 6, 2017, 4:15pm

On line 31 you’ve set the variable i = 12. But when that gets plugged in down below in the button read area that won’t work since 12 is beyond the number of pixels you’ve defined. You’re on the right track though.