WS2812 5050 RGB LED Wiring Question...

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

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burnerdev
 
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Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:06 pm

WS2812 5050 RGB LED Wiring Question...

Post by burnerdev »

Fairly new to the maker/wiring scene (have purchased from adafruit before tho and you guys make great products!) and I have been researching for a while a way to build a cool LED jacket. I was looking to use the LED strips (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1138), but the seemed to limit me a bit in my design. Then I came upon the individual LED pixels (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1379#Description) this would be perfect! However I am having a hard time finding any info on the best way to wire them up, I downloaded the data sheet and it appears the cannot be soldered end to end (why you have to ruin all my fun!) to make a strip (but if I wanted a strip I should just go with that) but what about power? I notice that on the LED strips there is a tiny "c1" component that I am not sure what it is... do I need something like that with the LED pixels? Or can i just bust out the soldering iron, solder up the right contacts from one pixel to the next and be ready to go?

Thanks!!!
(and I will post pics of my final project!!!)

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pburgess
 
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Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:29 am

Re: WS2812 5050 RGB LED Wiring Question...

Post by pburgess »

C1 is a 0.1 uF decoupling capacitor -- this makes sure there's steady current available to the LED control logic amidst the small surges and dips that can occur as the LED brightness changes. You can sometimes get away with skipping this, or sharing one cap between every two pixels, but it's generally Not a Good Idea -- the circuit might give the illusion of working in your test case but then fail when deployed in a broader real-world situation.

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