Opinion time.
I created a wizard staff that lights up with a few patterns for a halloween prop using just 3 ws2812b. Since I ordered another hundred for a project that I only need a few dozen for, I figured I’d soup up the staff. From a programming standpoint, is it easier to apply, say, the Fire sketch to a matrix of sorts where the LEDs are laid out row by row horizontally or column by column vertically.
In case that makes no sense, I’ve attached an image.
I used a serpentine arrangement and fixed Mark’s 2D code.
UP: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Down: 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
and back up again.
I’d recommend wiring like you have on the right in your sketch, vertical columns. You can number from bottom up or serpentine as Andrew did. Either way you will need to fix some stuff in code for certain sorts of patterns you might want to run, but if it’s only 5 pixels tall it’s easy to run the Data Out from top back to the bottom so it’s always numbering upwards. That will make the Fire sketch easier at least.
Also, by running strips vertically the specific diameter of the staff doesn’t matter since you’re not wrapping around it trying to get pixel spacing to work with staff circumference. And if four columns doesn’t feel right you can easily add a 5th or 6th column.
great advice. Thanks gents. I wont be diving into this until after the silly season, but this will help me get started. I plan on 3d printing the core for each LED to fit into to help spacing and such.