ive been hoping for this type of really good tutorial for several years now! thank you so much for making this. Also very good work too, super easy to understand
Hi Matt, that's very kind of you, I'm so glad that people are finding it useful. I'll try to keep putting these out regularly when I can fit it around my real life!
@@ScottMarley yeah man I get it, I love how you talk quickly and to the point. No big "humms" or stupid Time wasting crap like that. I also like how you teach a concept and then pretty much immediately show how it affects the lights! I'm really looking forward to the rest of your series when you can get to it of course 😊
Thank you for this! I was the beginner poster in that reddit thread a few weeks ago. I appreciate you getting on this so quickly and this is a great starting point! Too many of the other beginner videos spend all their time on things like the wiring or getting your first LED to show. Getting all the way to gradients is a great way to start.
Good to hear from you and I'm really glad you're finding it useful. It turns out that there are a lot of people in your position who wanted a basics series. Hopefully I can keep making these around other commitments!
Hear ye: if you want to understand this stuff, STOP SEARCHING RIGHT HERE and sub. Straight to the point, comprehensive, zero-fat content. Trust me, I've been working with FastLED for over a year, completed multiple projects, and viewed many hours of tutorials. This is the one. Thank you, Sir. Fine job.
It's crazy how hard it is to find proper info on how to set up for power delivery. I've been struggling with a project that uses 300+ LEDS with an esp32 and I had to search forever just to learn about the amount of amps I needed. This is the first tutorial I've seen that mentioned anything about a resistor on the data pin, and a capacitor on the power delivery. Here's hoping that solves the boot looping issue I've been seeing. Thank you!
You definitely deserve at least 20 times more subscribers I really can't understand how RUclips promote other videos to be shown more than yours, Good luck!!
Thanks man, the algorithm is a mystery! Realistically though, there are only so many people interested in programming flashing lights. It's understandable ;)
Thank you so much for this video series! Have had a WS2812b strip for almost 2 years and figured out some basic things with other guides but your videos have covered pretty much everything I've wanted to do with it.
Excellent. Really clear video. I am starting from nowhere with 0.1 knowledge of electronics and coding - that is, I know a few of the principles but not much more. This has really helped, thank you
love your vids, so easy to understand you, and sorry to say about other RUclips bloggers you speak good English, and you make your vids easy to understand, please keep them up Scott...tried to find you elsewhere, no luck....Steve H
Thank you for the tutorials. " I'm trying to make sure it doesn't take other people as long as it has taken me to figure all this out! " - Scott Marley
1. Why are you using a resistor at 7:40 ? ( Newbie to FastLEDs ). Good tutorial. Interesting description and engrossing thruout. Thanks. Also- 2. when you do we use a 5v and when a 12v. 3. When do we use the microcontroller power supply to power the LED strip, and when to use an external power supply ?
This is good but I wish it had gone into the resistor & capacitor details more. An episode dedicated to that, plus wiring up with external current flow (instead of going through the board) would help me out heaps with closing some gaps in my knowledge.
Hi, I don't think there's is anything else to say on the R and C. Resistor should be 330-470 ohms on the data line, cap should be 470-1000uF across the power lines near to the strip. Both are optional, and I've never had a problem leaving them out. Not sure what you mean about external current flow though?
@@ScottMarley I think he means using an external power supply to power the strip versus using the board directly hooked up to the strip. I’m also curious about that. If I use an external power supply, one with one of those big boxes (like a laptop charger), should I still use a capacitor between positive and ground? Thanks for the video!
@@ScottMarley I'm also curious what's the advantage of using resistor and capacitor like mentioned in the video. Previously I've tried without them and it worked fine for some simple led control
Interesting video, very thorough so far (up to @8:50).. however, It would have been good to explain WHY you used the resistor, and WHY you use a capacitor. I've posted several projects using WLED and ESP32 and none of them have required a resistor or capacitor. Could you elaborate as to why you are choosing them to include in your circuit? many thanks.
Awesome! So glad I have sound this video. I'm OK at hardware build, but programming always takes me much longer to grasp, your explanation style and pace is perfect!! More more more please 😁
I have a question: Why do I need a resistor between the digital pin on the arduino and the data pin on the LED strip? The Ardunio Nano outputs 5V on the pins and the WS2812B data line uses 5V so why the resistor?
The voltage will be the same with or without the resistor as almost no current is drawn from that pin. It's used to reduce noise on the data line - it forms an RC filter with the capacitance of the pin to cut down on overshoot and ringing. It's not essential and will usually work fine without, but is recommended.
Personally I wouldn't use fill_solid unless you do want to fill from 0. You could do what you want something like this: for(int i = 6; i < 11; i++) { leds[i] = CRGB::Red; }
I've been watching videos from a few channels on these lights but I haven't seen anyone use the resistor on the date line. What does our do in your wiring?
I am trying to figure out to write the for loop so that there is a group of 4-5 LEDs moving down the strip, there is a delay, and then another group of 5 LEDs that start down the line. Any idea where I can find an example of how to write this to achieve the desired effect?
hi scott thank you so much ive a number of projects on the go to do for my son and with my son but so far being a nube all ive been able to do is use the examples that come with the lib. but not understanding how they work but slowly and surely from following your fantastic tutorials we're beginning to learn the hows and whys these are and how to use the leds strips and myself i did build a small (10x10) matrix with the few examples i found but sooni hope i will take a good look at your matrix vids and learn that too so here is a big thumbs up and thank you from the bottom of my heart Ade
Hi Ade, thank you for your comments! It's great to hear that you can do some of these things with your son, we need more dads like you, encouraging their kids into science and technology!
The capacitor acts as a power reservoir for the LEDs. Patterns often vary dramatically in the amount of power they are drawing, from almost nothing to several amps in a few milliseconds. The capacitor is there to smooth out the power demand from the power supply. It also somewhat reduces noise on the power rails, these LEDs are electrically very noisy and noisy power rails can sometimes cause errors. You don't need it if you only have a few LEDs, but there is no harm in adding it to every project.
how would I make a run where the LEDs light one at a time (and stay on) all the way down the strip until all are light (preferably in white) I can see how to turn them on, but don't know how to keep each one on while turning on the next LED. and with a short delay between each time a LED is turned on.
I wonder if this Query I have could be answered - I'm thinking of running three Uno's all with totally different lighting patterns from one power supply. My question is will the data travel/leek from one Uno circuit to the others and create havoc? I was thinking about adding a diode but believe the data feed also uses the ground/negative (not sure about this!) which won't work back to front so is not effective. Thanks for any help.
At 9:00 minutes you stated the wires 'usually' come pre-soldered to the end. I have no soldering skills, so it's very important to me that they do, indeed, come pre-soldered. Now looking at the various suppliers of WS2812B I've found, they ask for length and pixel density and so forth, but don't state one way or the other whether they come pre-soldered. When ordering, how can I ensure that I get the pre-soldered type...do you have any recommendations?
There is no guarantee on way or the other I'm afraid, although in my expreience I think every reel (5m) that I've bought has connectors on both ends (they look like this www.tinkerforge.com/en/shop/media/catalog/product/cache/3/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/r/bricklet_led_strip_ws2812b_reel_600.jpg). You would of course then need the opposite connector to plug into something. You will get one of these on the other end of the reel, but you would need to desolder it (or cut it off I guess) to use it in this way. If you want to play around with these lights, you will eventually have to learn to use a soldering iron, there are plenty of RUclips videos on how to solder, it's not difficult once you know how and I'm sure you would eventually find it fun! Without soldering how were you planning to hook up the lights to a microcontroller? You could use a breadboard but that's not a good permenanet solution. If you just want lights that play patterns with no coding / soldering etc there are plenty of controllers available on eBay / Amazon / aliexpress that are plug and play. Otherwise, bite the bullet and grab a soldering iron :)
Hello, I want to set the WS2812B leds (144leds) to light up linearly from bottom to top and keep lit until they turn off. When I turn them off, I would like them to turn off in reverse (from top to bottom, as if it flows backwards). I will have 3 rows of tape, 1 linear meter - one tape, 1.5 linear meters - one tape and 2 linear meters - one tape. please help me with the code for this setting, but also what should I buy as parts? thanks
Hello to you I would like to connect 2 rolls of 5 meter led strips ws2812 each end to end with arduino uno what would be the right power supply should I buy please thank you
Thank you Scott for making this series. Video quality and instruction is excellent! I'm learning how to put together a DIY TV Ambilight using Hyperion that will accept HDMI input. Some builds use a Raspberry Pi connected to an Arduino so these videos are a great foundation.
Turns out an ESP32 with WLED library is better for that. It has Hyperion / Ambilight built-in and runs over wifi. It can be voice controlled via Home Assistant. It supports emulating Philips Hue. And lots more. And, unlike FastLED, the WLED library actually supports RGBW LEDs for perfect white bias lighting for TVs. I would honestly not use FastLED for anything. WLED does every inaginable project better.
BEGINNER. Followed exact program to firstly define led strip RGB order using WS2812B and get an error "no matching function for call to (FastLED::addLeds(CRGB&,int)'.Any idea.?
When I put in this exact code at 09:22 it says "GRB cannot be used as a function" (although it turns blue when I write it.) And there is no example file in my FastLED library with the name colourTest. Has it been changed?
All of the code is on GitHub at the link in the description. I've just tested the file colorTest.ino and it works fine. There must be a mistake in your code.
Great video. I am having a hard time finding a good video on adding a momentary switch to turn light show on when switch is depressed. Do you know of any?
Thanks for this very informative video. I have a question, if I need to inject more power ( 7 rimes for a hyper led cube ) how do I split this? Do I solder the extra wires to the main power wire? Or use a breadboard ? Sorry if I'm asking the obvious.
Extra wires to the main power wire. Make sure you do the same with the grounds (remember the same amount of current flows through both power and ground!)
@@cerulean-crystal if your power requirements are lowish you might get away with it, but it's not a good solution. Breadboards are designed for very low currents, not power connections like this. I use wago connectors like these www.wago.com/gb/installation-terminal-blocks-and-connectors/classic-splicing-connector/p/222-415 to split multiple power lines out, or just solder the wires together.
I've only came across one type of led that was rgb and that is the 8mm pl9823 dip. You should have a go at them Scott. They're beautiful. Pricey though, almost 200 cad for 1000. I collect leds. I have around 100k at least of all different types.
Quite a few, at least 8. However... the number of strings doesn't really matter, it's the total number of pixels. Updating one string of 1000 pixels will take only slightly less time than 10 strings of 100 pixels. The more pixels you have, the longer the updates take, and the slower the frame rate. If you want to do hundresds if pixels, you're better off with a teensy, esp32 etc
No, a 3.3V one will usually work fine. I use the ESP32 in most of my LED projects. Sometimes you might need a level shifter on the data line from the micro to the strip, but I've never found it to be a problem.
Sorry to be a bother Scott, but I've got one other question. I'm attempting to hook up a circuit as you have at 5:47 (the DC Power Only circuit). This seems to power up without any explosions, but my MKRWIFI1010 doesn't seem able to connect to my IOT Cloud Dashboard anymore when powered like this. Why have you used to 5V pin rather than the VIN pin here? Any clever ideas why this might be the case? Everything is running just fine when Arduino plugged into USB and only using 5V power supply to power the LEDs... Appreciate any thoughts, I owe you a pint regardless :)
The power arrangements for the board you have are completely different to the original nano which I am using. On the original nano, the vin pin goes to a regulator, so it can only accept voltages >6.5V as there is some dropout. Therefore we use the 5V pin if powering it from a regulated 5V supply. Your board has a much more advanced power management system and you should use vin for your 5V power input. Be aware that the IO pins on this board run at 3.3V and the data line on addressable LEDs is supposed to run at 5V. Usually this isn't a problem and the LEDs work anyway. If you find your having data issues however, you will need to use a level shifter on the data line between the board and the strip. Hope that helps.
@@ScottMarley Incredibly helpful, thank you again Scott! Looks like I may need to use a level shifter after all as I'm not getting the expected results - really appreciate you pointing me in the right direction though!
I need to make a 8X8 led matrix in which each led blinks with it's own different (random) frequency. single color is fine, no need for RGB. should I use this or is there something simpler/cheaper?
Hi. I never done programming before but I need to learn this for my project. I want to ask, after the programming, are the adruino nano need to stay connected with the strip or we can detached it? (sorry for the bad English)
Great video, very useful, looking forward to the next one. I’m building a Xmas tree star for my baby boy with neo pixels and just getting round to to code so timing couldn’t be better. Hope you do more arduino tutorials 🤞
@@ScottMarley my dad made me one when I was born so thought it would be nice to make one for my son. Mine is a bit battered being 40 odd years old, no leds there small bulbs but still works fine. I’m trying to do different patterns selected on a push switch. One of which I would like to do the same as my star. It involves a couple of astables which is what I’m working on at the moment.
@@stephengrattage5219 wow, using astables is old school tech :) glad to hear it still works though. Electronics were much, much harder back in the day, we're spoiled now with how easy and cheap it is to make electronics.
Just a rule of thumb. Neither are essential, but they are recommended. Most of the time it works fine without, but if you have those things around, may as well use them
Hey, I was trying to make a moving Rainbow Pattern for my led strip. I got it working with a deltahue of 1, but I want the pattern to be more spaced out. So I tried using 255/NUM_LEDS/2 but that doesnt work and makes every led be the same color. Im guessing thats because im using 288 leds. Is there a way I can get this to work?
Hi Mr. Scott.. Thanks for all of your videos, I followed your tutorial about FastLED but it turns out my WS2812B is only showing white color LED after uploading the exact same codes. I'm using also 18LEDS, 330ohms resistor for the data and Arduino nano. Why it's only shows white? Thanks.
I have no idea. It could be wiring, the strip could be faulty, an issue with the power supply. I've never heard of a fault that makes the strip only light up white though! I hope you figure it out.
I'd like to underlight a crystal for a wizard staff. The lighting package and battery can't be any larger than 3"X3"X6". I need the LED intensity to be bright to go through the opacity of crystal. Thus, I don't need many. Secondly I would like to shift in color slowly. What kind of equipment do I need to accomplish this?
At a minimum you would need a battery, 5v boost converter to power the LEDs, a microcontroller (Arduino, ESP, Tinsy etc). If you want to recharge the battery in place, you would also need a charging and protection module. Also depends on your budget. There are so many variables involved I can't just say exactly what to buy unfortunately.
Hello, i am from Australia and i enjoyed watching the video, I am just starting out in the led strip area. I totally love the different patterns that can be achieved if i do it right. I have 3 questions to ask.......... 1/ Will i need to add more capacitors as well every 1 meter or just the 5v power supply ? 2/ If i was to add another 2 led strips, would i have to add another or maybe upgrade the power supply to cater for the extra strips and possibly add a capacitor to each strip (i will be using 5 meter strips) ? 3/ And with the rainbow effect, what would be the code for making it move along the strip backwards and forwards instead of just standing there, as i am sure it will have a long lasting effect if they do, possibly burning it out over time ?
Very nice tutorials! One question. I want to create an ARGB controller for PC based on FastLed. I don't know the type of the LEDs for example in a Fan. What happens if I define a wrong LED type and run the program?
I might get around to doing matrices eventually, but that's a huge topic by itself. Would have to be several videos so will have to see if I have the time. I've written the next one on waves and blur but haven't had time to record it yet!
best tut finally someone who actually shows and explains every step and all the material.
30-seconds in and this is already my favorite tut on RUclips. Thanks so much Scott! I hope you do more tutorials!
As someone who is looking to get started with Arduino and addressable LEDs, this is great. Much appreciated
Two years later and still this blows me away as a newbie in this matter.
Thank you for creating such quality content!
This is definitively the BEST video I have seen on using WS LEDs. Thank you so much!
ive been hoping for this type of really good tutorial for several years now! thank you so much for making this. Also very good work too, super easy to understand
Hi Matt, that's very kind of you, I'm so glad that people are finding it useful. I'll try to keep putting these out regularly when I can fit it around my real life!
@@ScottMarley yeah man I get it, I love how you talk quickly and to the point. No big "humms" or stupid Time wasting crap like that. I also like how you teach a concept and then pretty much immediately show how it affects the lights! I'm really looking forward to the rest of your series when you can get to it of course 😊
Thank you for this! I was the beginner poster in that reddit thread a few weeks ago. I appreciate you getting on this so quickly and this is a great starting point! Too many of the other beginner videos spend all their time on things like the wiring or getting your first LED to show. Getting all the way to gradients is a great way to start.
Good to hear from you and I'm really glad you're finding it useful. It turns out that there are a lot of people in your position who wanted a basics series. Hopefully I can keep making these around other commitments!
What a time to be alive! Can't wait to watch the whole series, thanks so much!
Hear ye: if you want to understand this stuff, STOP SEARCHING RIGHT HERE and sub. Straight to the point, comprehensive, zero-fat content. Trust me, I've been working with FastLED for over a year, completed multiple projects, and viewed many hours of tutorials. This is the one.
Thank you, Sir. Fine job.
Haha, amazing comment. Thank you :)
It's crazy how hard it is to find proper info on how to set up for power delivery. I've been struggling with a project that uses 300+ LEDS with an esp32 and I had to search forever just to learn about the amount of amps I needed. This is the first tutorial I've seen that mentioned anything about a resistor on the data pin, and a capacitor on the power delivery. Here's hoping that solves the boot looping issue I've been seeing. Thank you!
You definitely deserve at least 20 times more subscribers
I really can't understand how RUclips promote other videos to be shown more than yours,
Good luck!!
Thanks man, the algorithm is a mystery! Realistically though, there are only so many people interested in programming flashing lights. It's understandable ;)
Thank you so much for this video series! Have had a WS2812b strip for almost 2 years and figured out some basic things with other guides but your videos have covered pretty much everything I've wanted to do with it.
Really good to hear! Next video on noise when I get time to do it.
I just made my whole room light up and dance with your video. I used WS2811 straight into my arduino UNO without extra breadboard setups.
Nice video. Just starting and needed this little bit of info to get started. Will be viewing others along the way.
This certainly comes in handy for Christmas. Thank you for your initiative.
No problem, thank you!
the most effective tutorial on FastLED I've seen! 👏👏
This got me going and understanding the basics with the LED strip! Next up is to modify the code for my own personal need. Cheers!
Excellent. Really clear video. I am starting from nowhere with 0.1 knowledge of electronics and coding - that is, I know a few of the principles but not much more. This has really helped, thank you
Thanks man, i don't know why no one at the forums said trying to put the library the the Program files directory
thank you! i've been wanting to do this for a while now! best led strip tutorial ever!
yo i just googled this and got your video. dude it's like just 4 days old.what a world we live in
Glad it helped! I've only just started this series, so hopefully you can follow along
You made this way easier to understand then many other videos.
I suck at coding, but its part of what I want to do so I'm going to need to learn it.
love your vids, so easy to understand you, and sorry to say about other RUclips bloggers you speak good English, and you make your vids easy to understand, please keep them up Scott...tried to find you elsewhere, no luck....Steve H
Thanks Steven, I appreciate your comment :)
Great information provided about ws2812b eagerly waiting for full series .....
Already uploaded the next one!
Thank you for the tutorials.
" I'm trying to make sure it doesn't take other people as long as it has taken me to figure all this out! " - Scott Marley
Thank you, The way you explain things is clear (just a little fast for me ), but it taught me to get me started.
Cheers David, a few people have said I talk too fast which I totally do. I have tried slowing down but always failed almost immediately 😂
1. Why are you using a resistor at 7:40 ?
( Newbie to FastLEDs ).
Good tutorial. Interesting description and engrossing thruout. Thanks.
Also- 2. when you do we use a 5v and when a 12v.
3. When do we use the microcontroller power supply to power the LED strip, and when to use an external power supply ?
Exactly the type of tutorial I was looking for! Thanks for the detailed info!
Great video.
I do wish this video was around when I first started 😊
Looking forward to viewing all the following chapters
Glad it was helpful!
This is good but I wish it had gone into the resistor & capacitor details more. An episode dedicated to that, plus wiring up with external current flow (instead of going through the board) would help me out heaps with closing some gaps in my knowledge.
Hi, I don't think there's is anything else to say on the R and C. Resistor should be 330-470 ohms on the data line, cap should be 470-1000uF across the power lines near to the strip. Both are optional, and I've never had a problem leaving them out. Not sure what you mean about external current flow though?
@@ScottMarley I think he means using an external power supply to power the strip versus using the board directly hooked up to the strip. I’m also curious about that. If I use an external power supply, one with one of those big boxes (like a laptop charger), should I still use a capacitor between positive and ground? Thanks for the video!
@@zanemukhtiar7338 the board cannot drive a strip like that- the LEDs need their own power.
@@ScottMarley I'm also curious what's the advantage of using resistor and capacitor like mentioned in the video. Previously I've tried without them and it worked fine for some simple led control
@@Energizerrrrrr agree. he says to use them, but doesn't explain why, or what they do
thanks so much for this hole series i think i have watched about 15 times
do you need a resistor and the capasator to do fast led og could you just attach directly?
Interesting video, very thorough so far (up to @8:50).. however, It would have been good to explain WHY you used the resistor, and WHY you use a capacitor. I've posted several projects using WLED and ESP32 and none of them have required a resistor or capacitor. Could you elaborate as to why you are choosing them to include in your circuit? many thanks.
Great video! Thanks. I look forward to the rest.
Awesome! So glad I have sound this video. I'm OK at hardware build, but programming always takes me much longer to grasp, your explanation style and pace is perfect!! More more more please 😁
I have a question: Why do I need a resistor between the digital pin on the arduino and the data pin on the LED strip?
The Ardunio Nano outputs 5V on the pins and the WS2812B data line uses 5V so why the resistor?
The voltage will be the same with or without the resistor as almost no current is drawn from that pin. It's used to reduce noise on the data line - it forms an RC filter with the capacitance of the pin to cut down on overshoot and ringing. It's not essential and will usually work fine without, but is recommended.
@@ScottMarley Thank you!
Thank you ! I have one question. How can fill the led 6 to 10 using the fill solid() function?
Personally I wouldn't use fill_solid unless you do want to fill from 0. You could do what you want something like this: for(int i = 6; i < 11; i++) { leds[i] = CRGB::Red; }
brilliant series! please do more!!
Awesome video!! I’ll be following along on all of them!
Dude you are the goat for making this.
One question did you cut the cables on the led chain? Cauae mine has a weird black thing on it
I've been watching videos from a few channels on these lights but I haven't seen anyone use the resistor on the date line. What does our do in your wiring?
The resistor on the data line protects the first LED from any potential power surge when the board first boots.
Thank you. Allowed me to test my new strip. Thanks.
Thanks so much! I want to start a project with leds and this is explained very well!
Can you add resin epoxy to the non waterproof led strips?
I am trying to figure out to write the for loop so that there is a group of 4-5 LEDs moving down the strip, there is a delay, and then another group of 5 LEDs that start down the line. Any idea where I can find an example of how to write this to achieve the desired effect?
This was very well done, very relevant, and exactly what I needed. Thank you for explaining this so well!!
hi scott thank you so much ive a number of projects on the go to do for my son and with my son but so far being a nube all ive been able to do is use the examples that come with the lib. but not understanding how they work but slowly and surely from following your fantastic tutorials we're beginning to learn the hows and whys these are and how to use the leds strips and myself i did build a small (10x10) matrix with the few examples i found but sooni hope i will take a good look at your matrix vids and learn that too so here is a big thumbs up and thank you from the bottom of my heart
Ade
Hi Ade, thank you for your comments! It's great to hear that you can do some of these things with your son, we need more dads like you, encouraging their kids into science and technology!
This video was really nice and informative. Glad that I found this tutorial.
Thank you!
How do you attach the 5V power supply if using a breadboard ?
Love the tutorial Scott. I will definitely be following these 👍😀
I want to write texts inside a LED.Can you tell me how can i do that using FastLED?? Or if you have a video related to it?
can someone explain to me why you would add a capacitor?
The capacitor acts as a power reservoir for the LEDs. Patterns often vary dramatically in the amount of power they are drawing, from almost nothing to several amps in a few milliseconds. The capacitor is there to smooth out the power demand from the power supply. It also somewhat reduces noise on the power rails, these LEDs are electrically very noisy and noisy power rails can sometimes cause errors. You don't need it if you only have a few LEDs, but there is no harm in adding it to every project.
how would I make a run where the LEDs light one at a time (and stay on) all the way down the strip until all are light (preferably in white)
I can see how to turn them on, but don't know how to keep each one on while turning on the next LED. and with a short delay between each time a LED is turned on.
I wonder if this Query I have could be answered - I'm thinking of running three Uno's all with totally different lighting patterns from one power supply. My question is will the data travel/leek from one Uno circuit to the others and create havoc? I was thinking about adding a diode but believe the data feed also uses the ground/negative (not sure about this!) which won't work back to front so is not effective. Thanks for any help.
Is there a way to connect 2 different stripes to 1 Arduino and control them parallel but with different patterns?!
At 9:00 minutes you stated the wires 'usually' come pre-soldered to the end. I have no soldering skills, so it's very important to me that they do, indeed, come pre-soldered. Now looking at the various suppliers of WS2812B I've found, they ask for length and pixel density and so forth, but don't state one way or the other whether they come pre-soldered. When ordering, how can I ensure that I get the pre-soldered type...do you have any recommendations?
There is no guarantee on way or the other I'm afraid, although in my expreience I think every reel (5m) that I've bought has connectors on both ends (they look like this www.tinkerforge.com/en/shop/media/catalog/product/cache/3/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/r/bricklet_led_strip_ws2812b_reel_600.jpg). You would of course then need the opposite connector to plug into something. You will get one of these on the other end of the reel, but you would need to desolder it (or cut it off I guess) to use it in this way. If you want to play around with these lights, you will eventually have to learn to use a soldering iron, there are plenty of RUclips videos on how to solder, it's not difficult once you know how and I'm sure you would eventually find it fun! Without soldering how were you planning to hook up the lights to a microcontroller? You could use a breadboard but that's not a good permenanet solution. If you just want lights that play patterns with no coding / soldering etc there are plenty of controllers available on eBay / Amazon / aliexpress that are plug and play. Otherwise, bite the bullet and grab a soldering iron :)
Hello, I want to set the WS2812B leds (144leds) to light up linearly from bottom to top and keep lit until they turn off. When I turn them off, I would like them to turn off in reverse (from top to bottom, as if it flows backwards). I will have 3 rows of tape, 1 linear meter - one tape, 1.5 linear meters - one tape and 2 linear meters - one tape. please help me with the code for this setting, but also what should I buy as parts? thanks
Hello to you
I would like to connect 2 rolls of 5 meter led strips ws2812 each end to end with arduino uno
what would be the right power supply should I buy please
thank you
Thank you Scott for making this series. Video quality and instruction is excellent! I'm learning how to put together a DIY TV Ambilight using Hyperion that will accept HDMI input. Some builds use a Raspberry Pi connected to an Arduino so these videos are a great foundation.
Glad it was helpful!
Turns out an ESP32 with WLED library is better for that. It has Hyperion / Ambilight built-in and runs over wifi. It can be voice controlled via Home Assistant. It supports emulating Philips Hue. And lots more. And, unlike FastLED, the WLED library actually supports RGBW LEDs for perfect white bias lighting for TVs. I would honestly not use FastLED for anything. WLED does every inaginable project better.
Thank you very much! Very claerly explained and shown it. I am a very beginner and even don’t speak very good English. But I understand!
BEGINNER. Followed exact program to firstly define led strip RGB order using WS2812B and get an error "no matching function for call to (FastLED::addLeds(CRGB&,int)'.Any idea.?
Can you connect 2 led strips to one mains plug and if so how
Any info on the github fork for FastLED for the ESP32?
Great Scott! Excellent information! Thank you.
I have : a Arduino the same led strip (1m) and that's all .
Why this didn't work ?
Do i broke my led strip ?
Sorry for my english.
When I put in this exact code at 09:22 it says "GRB cannot be used as a function" (although it turns blue when I write it.) And there is no example file in my FastLED library with the name colourTest. Has it been changed?
All of the code is on GitHub at the link in the description. I've just tested the file colorTest.ino and it works fine. There must be a mistake in your code.
Great video. I am having a hard time finding a good video on adding a momentary switch to turn light show on when switch is depressed. Do you know of any?
Check out episode 5, not exactly what you want but will show you how to use a switch with FastLED.
Very helpful, thank you. So far it has always worked (copy and paste), but I didn't know why. Now I'm smarter.
How would it go if i wanted to make a led display for animated 48 × 48 pixel art?
Thanks for this very informative video. I have a question, if I need to inject more power ( 7 rimes for a hyper led cube ) how do I split this? Do I solder the extra wires to the main power wire? Or use a breadboard ? Sorry if I'm asking the obvious.
Extra wires to the main power wire. Make sure you do the same with the grounds (remember the same amount of current flows through both power and ground!)
@@ScottMarley will a breadboard suffice? Thanks for the answer
@@cerulean-crystal if your power requirements are lowish you might get away with it, but it's not a good solution. Breadboards are designed for very low currents, not power connections like this. I use wago connectors like these www.wago.com/gb/installation-terminal-blocks-and-connectors/classic-splicing-connector/p/222-415 to split multiple power lines out, or just solder the wires together.
Also unless your cube is huge, 7 power injections is probably overkill.
@@ScottMarley my cube is 35cm a leg, I've read 1 meter is max (at full white ) so I use 3 legs max.
That's very helpful. Subscribed!
I've only came across one type of led that was rgb and that is the 8mm pl9823 dip. You should have a go at them Scott. They're beautiful. Pricey though, almost 200 cad for 1000. I collect leds. I have around 100k at least of all different types.
Thanks for the great tutorial! I was wondering how many separate rgb led strips can you control on different data pins with the arduino nano?
Quite a few, at least 8. However... the number of strings doesn't really matter, it's the total number of pixels. Updating one string of 1000 pixels will take only slightly less time than 10 strings of 100 pixels. The more pixels you have, the longer the updates take, and the slower the frame rate. If you want to do hundresds if pixels, you're better off with a teensy, esp32 etc
Hello, thanks for the tutorial. Can we control the brightness of each LED?
Of course, you'll have to watch all the other episodes...
can we use only 5v micro controler for powering 2 meter led (60 led/m) ????
No, a 3.3V one will usually work fine. I use the ESP32 in most of my LED projects. Sometimes you might need a level shifter on the data line from the micro to the strip, but I've never found it to be a problem.
@@ScottMarley Will 5 volts of the controller be enough to run the 2 meter led strip?
@@pragyamtripathi7214 oh, I misunderstood. Absolutely not, you will need to connect a 5V power supply to the strip as I show in this video.
Sorry to be a bother Scott, but I've got one other question. I'm attempting to hook up a circuit as you have at 5:47 (the DC Power Only circuit). This seems to power up without any explosions, but my MKRWIFI1010 doesn't seem able to connect to my IOT Cloud Dashboard anymore when powered like this. Why have you used to 5V pin rather than the VIN pin here? Any clever ideas why this might be the case? Everything is running just fine when Arduino plugged into USB and only using 5V power supply to power the LEDs... Appreciate any thoughts, I owe you a pint regardless :)
The power arrangements for the board you have are completely different to the original nano which I am using. On the original nano, the vin pin goes to a regulator, so it can only accept voltages >6.5V as there is some dropout. Therefore we use the 5V pin if powering it from a regulated 5V supply. Your board has a much more advanced power management system and you should use vin for your 5V power input. Be aware that the IO pins on this board run at 3.3V and the data line on addressable LEDs is supposed to run at 5V. Usually this isn't a problem and the LEDs work anyway. If you find your having data issues however, you will need to use a level shifter on the data line between the board and the strip. Hope that helps.
@@ScottMarley Incredibly helpful, thank you again Scott! Looks like I may need to use a level shifter after all as I'm not getting the expected results - really appreciate you pointing me in the right direction though!
I need to make a 8X8 led matrix in which each led blinks with it's own different (random) frequency.
single color is fine, no need for RGB.
should I use this or is there something simpler/cheaper?
Excellent video .
Excellent Video - thanks for sharing your valued skill set. 🙂
almost 1000 likes ... Just what i was loking for . you have a new subscriber
Thank you, very kind!
Hi. I never done programming before but I need to learn this for my project. I want to ask, after the programming, are the adruino nano need to stay connected with the strip or we can detached it? (sorry for the bad English)
Yes, the Arduino is the controller and needs to stay attached.
Great video, very useful, looking forward to the next one. I’m building a Xmas tree star for my baby boy with neo pixels and just getting round to to code so timing couldn’t be better. Hope you do more arduino tutorials 🤞
Lovely idea. Hopefully these videos will get you up to speed. Should have the next one in a few days.
@@ScottMarley my dad made me one when I was born so thought it would be nice to make one for my son. Mine is a bit battered being 40 odd years old, no leds there small bulbs but still works fine. I’m trying to do different patterns selected on a push switch. One of which I would like to do the same as my star. It involves a couple of astables which is what I’m working on at the moment.
@@stephengrattage5219 wow, using astables is old school tech :) glad to hear it still works though. Electronics were much, much harder back in the day, we're spoiled now with how easy and cheap it is to make electronics.
Love your tutorials. Are you going to do any ESP32C3 tutorials?
What simulator or what do you do to show the led patterns at the bottom of your video screen.
It's not a simulator, it's a video of the real LEDs :)
Hi! I'm very new to electronics so how did you decide the value of the resistor and capacitor that is required?
Just a rule of thumb. Neither are essential, but they are recommended. Most of the time it works fine without, but if you have those things around, may as well use them
Hey, I was trying to make a moving Rainbow Pattern for my led strip. I got it working with a deltahue of 1, but I want the pattern to be more spaced out. So I tried using 255/NUM_LEDS/2 but that doesnt work and makes every led be the same color. Im guessing thats because im using 288 leds.
Is there a way I can get this to work?
Super Explained well for beginners continue so
Hi Mr. Scott.. Thanks for all of your videos, I followed your tutorial about FastLED but it turns out my WS2812B is only showing white color LED after uploading the exact same codes. I'm using also 18LEDS, 330ohms resistor for the data and Arduino nano. Why it's only shows white? Thanks.
I have no idea. It could be wiring, the strip could be faulty, an issue with the power supply. I've never heard of a fault that makes the strip only light up white though! I hope you figure it out.
I'd like to underlight a crystal for a wizard staff. The lighting package and battery can't be any larger than 3"X3"X6". I need the LED intensity to be bright to go through the opacity of crystal. Thus, I don't need many. Secondly I would like to shift in color slowly.
What kind of equipment do I need to accomplish this?
At a minimum you would need a battery, 5v boost converter to power the LEDs, a microcontroller (Arduino, ESP, Tinsy etc). If you want to recharge the battery in place, you would also need a charging and protection module. Also depends on your budget. There are so many variables involved I can't just say exactly what to buy unfortunately.
@@ScottMarley Anything pre-packaged which I can simply purchase? What wording should I use?
Sir have sofewere for simulation for it?
There is a simulator here which works wokwi.com/playground/fastled
This was an amazing help. Thank you so much.
I'm new to arduino, and I was wondering if this kind of led strip and library can be used tor a spinning POV display.
The library can of course be used with a POV, but for the strip you are better using something with a higher refresh rate such as the APA102.
Excellent tutorial
Thank You! Great video with clear instructions.
Hello, i am from Australia and i enjoyed watching the video, I am just starting out in the led strip area. I totally love the different patterns that can be achieved if i do it right.
I have 3 questions to ask..........
1/ Will i need to add more capacitors as well every 1 meter or just the 5v power supply ?
2/ If i was to add another 2 led strips, would i have to add another or maybe upgrade the power supply to cater for the extra strips and possibly add a capacitor to each strip (i will be using 5 meter strips) ?
3/ And with the rainbow effect, what would be the code for making it move along the strip backwards and forwards instead of just standing there, as i am sure it will have a long lasting effect if they do, possibly burning it out over time ?
Did you got the answer?
Great tutorial ! Thanks very much for your time !
Very nice tutorials!
One question. I want to create an ARGB controller for PC based on FastLed. I don't know the type of the LEDs for example in a Fan. What happens if I define a wrong LED type and run the program?
Nothing bad will happen, it just won't work if the LED type is wrong. Experiment and see if you can get it working!
This is a great video! Thanks for sharing.
Good tutorial on fastLED, would u be doing one tutorial of using website or software to draw animation on fastLED on LED matrix in the near future ?
I might get around to doing matrices eventually, but that's a huge topic by itself. Would have to be several videos so will have to see if I have the time. I've written the next one on waves and blur but haven't had time to record it yet!