Smallest/Cheapest arduino that can support fastled?
I’m looking to make about a dozen or so of my LED stickman
I used a teensy 2.0++ on my own prototype, but im looking to find something cheaper/smaller for the “mass” production. Keeping the effects pretty simple.
Any suggestions? Im pretty clueless when it comes to chips and stuff.
Would digispark have enough juice?
http://digistump.com/products/102
How Many lights? You can do up to 300+ or so pretty easily on a Arduino Pro 328 which on DX.com you can get for $6. I have heard of people doing 400+ but that does not leave much in the SRAM for controlling them or your own variables.
only about 120! seems like a great one to use at that price point.
Im just using multiple strips on the one pin, so math-wise is only 25ish leds.
Now I’ve found how to reset them, I’m recommending the Beetle: http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1075
The Beetle seems good, with the caveat that it has no onboard reset button.
Programs like a Leonardo (ATmega32U4), small form factor, easy to get-at soldering pads, two pairs of really well-labeled + and - pads.
At 100 LEDs (total, single string), a single Tiny85 will drive that. However, it will only drive ONE single string like that. Cutting it down into shorter lengths works except it won’t have enough pins to drive them individually. Something like a 328p or 32U4 will work just fine. The 32U4 has built-in USB so you won’t have to bother with something like an FTDI for the 328p. There are a couple of tiny boards using the 32U4. You’ll just have to find one that works for you.
Alternatively, you can design your own boards with a 32U4 and make it as small as you want (or physically possible) with the specific pin breakouts that you need.
And let me just say that ATtiny boards are notoriously a pain in the butt to use with the Arduino IDE; they’re not officially supported. To say the least. (Adafruit provides add-on packages that add support in the IDE for their Gemma and Trinket.) And FastLED does support Gemma and Trinket. (And officially: NO OTHER ATtinys. You’re on your own.)
For the price of an ATtiny Trinket, you could get a full ATmega Beetle…
ya, i’ll think i found a 328P with built-in usb.
I’m strapped for time before now and festival season, so it has to have usb builtin. thanks for all the input folks!
Let us know what you choose!
328p doesn’t have built-in USB support. It’s either an external addition of an FTDI (USB to Serial), or it’s a bootloader hack to use two pins as the USB data lines just like the Trinket does. Just saying …
This is what i found, a few bucks more than the ones without the usb: https://www.dx.com/p/arduino-nano-v3-0-81877
an extra $1/per is worth it for my situation
Ah yeah- the Nano 3.0. I have used a bunch of these and they’re solid.
wont be ordering for another week or so, so I’ll still be looking around
Oh yeah, the Nano would work just fine. It has the FTDI on board (it’s on the bottom.) So yeah, plug and play …
Several of them eBay as well …
I 2nd the beetle. You can get it quickly and less $10 each.
If you are looking to purchase more than 50-100. You might want to contact some of the vendors on http://alibaba.com to see about a discount rate.
Sorry for the delay wading in hre, I’m using nano’s now and they are rock solid, think I paid around £8 each for mine but I would have thought a bulk by would get you a good discount, they also have 328 so any code you o for the uno will run on the nano (unless it’s for an ethernet shield which I found out the hard way DOH!)