I am trying to find ANY DOCUMENTATION for explaining and using the functions in FastLED. Can someone please send me a link to this if any exsists? I am new to programming LEDs and cant seem to figure out the syntax for using these functions. (or even the names of the functions).
Start by messing around with the built-in demos and codes people have uploaded.
The Wiki is your friend - start there and you should get some good ideas, with plenty of examples and how-to examples
I would start with some of the examples and go from there. Also, if you install the FastLed library in the Arduino IDE, you should see Fastled example code in the Examples section; take a look at those for ideas too.
Once you have dug around there and experimented, a lot of the code and questions here should start to make more sense, and you can ask any specifics where the documentation leaves you confused.
A start has been made on some formal documentation, but for now you have to go directly to the .h files—they’re quite well commented.
My opinion…FastLED is primarily designed for people that ‘kinda know what they are doing’ already. To start from the beginning is a steep learning curve - that is my starting point.
What I have found best is: upload a simple example, go into the code and make a few changes and see result. Look at others code and look for similarities. Basically, play around with the examples and, sometimes, screw the whole thing up and need to start again. Once you have screwed enough code up, starting from beginning again and again, you will have a question to prevent that from happening. That is where this forum comes in. Ask a specific question, those that already ‘know what they are doing’ will… probably roll their eyes at such a basic question, give you the answer, then you will think you just unlocked the secrets to the universe!
For me, it has just been a progression of building on the above… once you start to ‘see’ where the answers are in the documentation, things get a ‘little’ easier… it’s like a Where’s Waldo of LED programming. Plus many on here are too smart for their own good and have answered my ridiculous questions… so you should be able to “Find Waldo” also.
@Stefin_T LOL!, Very well said indeed! Good advice, I will keep trudging along.
@Robert_Atkins A-HA! The .h files, I have not looked there yet. THANKS!
Also, I’ve found that searching on http://gist.github.com is fun for finding out how other people do stuff, like: https://gist.github.com/search?q=fastled
Especially stuff by this guy, whoever he is: https://gist.github.com/kriegsman
I’m very much a noob as well. The sample sketches are great. Go in an dchange stuff to see what happens.
I also google a lot of the specific commands to see what they do and often stumble on examples.
And I also google things like “FastLED project” or “WS2812 hat”. A lot of people post code with their projects.
And this group is amazingly friendly, helpful, and patient with new people. Especially if you try things out yourself first, and then ask questions about your results – rather than “how do I make this blink this way while that blinks that way?”
This might be handy too
http://fastled.io/docs/3.1/annotated.html
BINGO!!! Thank you Sir!!!