In a very timely manner for me I saw this thread (https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/issues/283) on the FastLed githgub, which directed me over to https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/wiki/Interrupt-problems.
I’ve been working on a board using the ATMega32u4 to drive a number of on-board WS2812B leds, but it also uses I2C for a captouch sensor and serial for networking via RS485, and have been seeing issues with sporadic data loss. So it sounds like exactly the problem with disabling interrupts mentioned here.
I was using the WS2812B because they’re common and fairly cheap now as well as being easy enough to hand solder (which I tend to need to do with my milled prototypes, but I do reflow once I get PCBs properly printed), but with this info I want to switch to some 4wire SPI based chip.
What are people suggestions for all-in-one addressable LEDs that use SPI? My goal is something that is still < $0.25 in batches of 100+ from Aliexpress, but beyond that I don’t have any other requirements (that I know of). It looks like the APA102 would work, are there other better options than that?