Neo Pixel Project Help

General project help for Adafruit customers

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SweetFlower4564
 
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Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by SweetFlower4564 »

Greetings,

I'm working on my first LED project and I have very little skills with electronics, but am very eager to try out new things. I have drawn out what I need below
Led Help.png
Led Help.png (11.86 KiB) Viewed 605 times
and I would really love for the lights to look like the rainbow colored shoes in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... R8naw#t=34. However instead of the all the colors appearing at the same time, I would like to be able to have all the lights be one color at one time and then rotate through the other colors. It would be even better if I can control the speed they run at as well. Would this project be possible for a novice like me or is there someone who can help me program this if I were to purchase what they need? I have tried to look through the tutorials, but the knowledge of circuits that is there is quite intimidating. Thanks

Kathy

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

What you describe is quite easy, using our NeoPixel library and the example code we provide.
We'll also give you some programming guidance here in the forums, if you get stuck!

SweetFlower4564
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by SweetFlower4564 »

Thanks for the quick response!

So can we start with the basics? Purchasing the neopixels are obvious, but is there a type of circuit board you can recommend me that is very small and will work for this project?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Start with the NeoPixel Uberguide, written by our master of all things blinky, Phil Burgess: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neo ... e/overview

When you've gone through that a couple of times, there are lots of NeoPixel based projects in the Learning System you can look at for a more broad-based understanding of how NeoPixels are used.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

SweetFlower4564 wrote:is there a type of circuit board you can recommend me that is very small and will work for this project?
Simplest thing would be to start with an Arduino Uno. You can connect the LED strips directly to it.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/50

You are going to use a total of 4 meters of NeoPixel strips? Do you know if you're going to use the 60 pixel/meter strips or the 144 pixel/meter strips?

Will you want them to show full white, or just colors?

The answers will help us determine how much power you need for the pixels.

SweetFlower4564
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by SweetFlower4564 »

Thanks Mike! I'll read that a few times as you said

Rick, I'd like to create two of these with a larger and smaller size, so I'm going to make a smaller version first. I plan to purchase the Arduino Uno that you recommended along with 2 meters of the 60 pixel/meter strips. Is there anything else I should purchase?

My plan for the lighting is that the strip will display one color at a time, but run through all the rainbow colors that is shown in the sneaker from your video. Hopefully this picture I drew up explains what I need:
Attachments
Color Scheme.png
Color Scheme.png (7.13 KiB) Viewed 561 times

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

OK.

You'll need to buy a power supply for the pixels. This 5V 10A supply is more than enough for 2 meters:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/658

You'll also need a plug adapter for the power supply.
https://www.adafruit.com/products/368

Some jumper wires for the digital signals are handy
https://www.adafruit.com/product/758

You'll also need a 1000uF 6.3V electrolytic capacitor, and two 470 Ohm resistors. We don't sell those exact parts - you can get them at a Radio Shack. The NeoPixel UberGuide Best Practices page describes how to hook them up.

SweetFlower4564
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by SweetFlower4564 »

Bleh I should have mentioned that I would like this to be a portable item. Something that preferably runs on AA batteries, but anything that uses batteries should be fine.

If this is the case, what would I be purchasing?

Thanks

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Portable, eh? Oof! You aren't going to do that with AA batteries. You need at least 5A to run that many pixels.

Probably the best approach would be this battery:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/353

and a FLORA, instead of an Arduino Uno. You can then run the entire thing on the 3.7V produced by the battery
https://www.adafruit.com/products/659

The battery will plug into to the FLORA, and you can power the pixel strips from the VBATT pad on the FLORA.

SweetFlower4564
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by SweetFlower4564 »

Thanks a lot for the recommendation Rick.

However, I have been reading through the guide mentioned earlier and a lot of the information seems to be flying over my head as I am quite illiterate at a lot of computer related tasks. I can follow it halfway, but after awhile I have no idea where to find the information to finish the project the way I want it to be.

Do you guys offer any sort of commission service? It seems like an easy task for you guys and I would be more than willing to pay for the parts and labor to create a project like this.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Unfortunately, we don't offer any engineering services. However, we do have a Jobs board - you're welcome to post there:
https://www.adafruit.com/jobs/

SweetFlower4564
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by SweetFlower4564 »

Greetings,

I am attempting to try this out for myself and I have purchased 2 60 LED Neopixel strips (https://www.adafruit.com/products/1138) from you guys as well as the Arduino Uno (https://www.adafruit.com/products/50). I am currently working on the power solution and I was wondering if this 9 volt clip is viable (https://www.adafruit.com/products/80) or should I go with the 3.7 volt (https://www.adafruit.com/products/353). Also how should I wire this project up? Thanks!

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Neo Pixel Project Help

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Neither one of those will work. A 9V battery is nowhere near powerful enough to run 120 NeoPixels, and 3.7V is not enough to run the Arduino, which requires a minimum of a 5V regulated supply.

60/m NeoPixel strips require up to 3.6A per meter. For 2 meters, you should go with something like our 5V 10A supply:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/658

We have a tutorial on powering NeoPixels here:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neo ... uide/power

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