Just ordered my 3 150 Pixel 16.4' long strips, Arduino Mega,

Trey_Coursey · November 15, 2017, 2:46am

Just ordered my 3 150 Pixel 16.4’ long strips, Arduino Mega, 60amp power supply and am looking to get started this weekend. Going to make a semi permanent light display on the house. Of course Christmas is going to be first. I will play with some examples I’m sure with FastLED but wanted to know if there is a place that people post finished sketches or templates? I want a red and white candy cane look that chases back and forth, green and red blink etc…

I’ve never done any of this but do a lot of HTML CSS programming, so hoping I can get the hang of it! Thanks for any info.

Andrew_Tuline · November 15, 2017, 3:52am

http://github.com for managed repositories. http://gist.github.com and http://pastebin.com for quick pastes.

Both myself and Marc Miller have a lot of examples online.

There’s loads of others as well.

Trey_Coursey · November 15, 2017, 4:16am

Awesome, really appreciate it. Looking forward to playing around. Thanks.

marmil · November 15, 2017, 7:20am

@Trey_Coursey You might like these:

github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/marquee_v3.ino

//***************************************************************
// Marquee fun (v3)
//  Pixel position down the strip comes from this formula:
//      pos = spacing * (i-1) + spacing
//  i starts at 0 and is incremented by +1 up to NUM_LEDS/spacing.
//
// Marc Miller, May 2016
// Updated June 2018 - reordered some stuff and small bug fix.
//***************************************************************

#include "FastLED.h"

#define LED_TYPE LPD8806
#define NUM_LEDS 32
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB
//#define LED_TYPE APA102
//#define NUM_LEDS 39
//#define COLOR_ORDER BGR

#define DATA_PIN 11

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github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/repeating_pattern.ino

//***************************************************************
// If we want a pattern to repeat every 5 pixels then the
// first pixel set to light up would be: 0,5,10,15,20...
// This can be represented by:  leds[5 * (x - 1) + 5]
//
// Let's put this into a loop with some variables!
//
//
// Marc Miller, Nov 2015
//              May 2020 - replaced all delays with EVERY_N
//***************************************************************

#include "FastLED.h"
#define LED_TYPE LPD8806
#define DATA_PIN 11
#define CLOCK_PIN 13
#define NUM_LEDS 32
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB
#define MASTER_BRIGHTNESS 100
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];

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github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/repeating_block_pattern.ino

//***************************************************************
//  Basic example that repeats colored blocks of random size down
//  the strip.  The block size is changed every several seconds.
//
//  Important to note is there is a check to make sure we don't
//  try to write data to pixels that don't exist (ie. values
//  equal or greater then NUM_LEDS).  Trying to write pixel
//  data to pixels that don't exist the causes bad things to
//  happen in memory.
//
//  Marc Miller, July 2017
//               May 2020 - replaced delays with EVERY_N
//***************************************************************


#include "FastLED.h"
#define DATA_PIN    11
#define CLOCK_PIN   13
#define LED_TYPE    LPD8806
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB

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Trey_Coursey · November 15, 2017, 2:21pm

Thank you Gentleman, I love well commented code! This should help jump start my experimenting very well. I really appreciate it.

Stephen_Co · November 25, 2017, 6:01am

60 amps? That is one beefy power supply!

Trey_Coursey · November 25, 2017, 5:01pm

@Stephen_Co Yea it was same price as others that were less so I thought I’d have more than enough. Turns out though I’ve not had luck getting everything to work like I want. So I’ve returned most of it. Will continue to learn and figure things out. I think 2812’s might not be the best for me as I was getting some wierd stuff near the end of the 3rd string happen. I was able to inject the power and all was good down the string but not sure about upping the signal.

Andrew_Tuline · November 25, 2017, 5:06pm

I’ve always recommended that people start out with small projects and work up to larger ones. Oh, and different types of strips and/or microcontrollers for different requirements.

Trey_Coursey · November 25, 2017, 5:09pm

@Andrew_Tuline Funny thing is I thought a 3 string 150 each project wouldn’t be considered a big project. I had no problems with one string and the data transmission. What would you suggest, I wont hold you to it, but will use it to research more…for such a project. I just want to string up the front of the house with some lights permanently to use for different seasons/events.

Andrew_Tuline · November 25, 2017, 5:14pm

I don’t work on anything that size myself, but you might want to consider:

Putting each strand on a separate Arduino pin.
Using APA102’s (or other strand with separate clock/data).
See what others who have done this type of thing have to say.
Consider using a Teensy 3.2 (or whatever other people use).
Oh, and don’t forget to power both ends of each strip.

Trey_Coursey · November 25, 2017, 5:22pm

@Andrew_Tuline If I run a different strand on a different pin wont that mean I have a long data cable that isn’t getting any repeating from the IC’s? I def read that the clock chips work better with longer lengths. I also read about es8266 I think they were, giving me wireless upload…that would be nice. Thanks for the thoughts.