Question, can FastLED be used to control LED strips "live"? As an example,

Robert_Teshinsky · December 4, 2016, 8:13am

Question, can FastLED be used to control LED strips “live”?
As an example, how about changing color or brightness with an analog dial or slider? Can arduino + FastLED handle that?

Ashley_M_Kirchner_No · December 4, 2016, 9:16am

The microcontroller never stops running as long as it has power. Thus, your code never stops getting executed either. So, if you have a routine that constantly checks for an analog dial or slider, you can easily tell the microcontroller to refresh the data being sent out to the LED strips.

Robert_Atkins · December 4, 2016, 4:36pm

Absolutely it can! Just hook your potentiometer (linear or circular), touch sensor, buttons, light sensor or whatever other input device up to pins on your arduino and read them each iteration through your main loop(). Then modify your leds array depending on the values.

marmil · December 4, 2016, 5:05pm

Hello @Robert_Teshinsky Here’s an example that uses two potentiometers to control hue and brightness.

github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/hue_and_brightness_example.ino

//===============================================================
// hue_and_brightness_example.ino
//
// Example setup for using two potentiometers to control hue and
// brightness with FastLED.
//
// Every time the function checkKnobs() is called it will read
// the current value of both potentiometers and map those values
// to a hue and master brightness for FastLED.
//
// Marc Miller, 2015
//===============================================================

#include "FastLED.h"
#define LED_TYPE NEOPIXEL
#define DATA_PIN 6
#define NUM_LEDS 12
#define MASTER_BRIGHTNESS 255  // Set the master brigtness value [should be greater then min_brightness value].
uint8_t min_brightness = 30;   // Set a minimum brightness level.
uint8_t brightness;            // Mapped master brightness based on potentiometer reading.

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Robert_Teshinsky1 · December 4, 2016, 9:52pm

Great, thank you all.