From the mail bag… Light painting rainbow machine.
Hello Adafruit
I just wanted to let you know how awesome the digitally addressable RGB LED strip is. We got three meters to create a light painting rainbow machine for Bring to Light last weekend. Like every weekend this summer, it rained, but we weren’t (too) worried because the RGB LED strip was waterproof! Here are some photos of the strip while we were setting up in the rain… Thank you for all the forum help and wonderful tutorials and documentation and everything you do in general!
Best,
-Reid
Digital Addressable RGB LED with PWM waterproof flexi strip. These are our LPD8806 based chipset – a chip that has hi-speed full-color PWM built in and can display 2 MILLION colors per pixel
These LED strips are fun and glowy. There are 32 RGB LEDs per meter, and you can control each LED individually! Yes, that’s right, this is the digitally-addressable type of LED strip. You can set the color of each LED’s red, green and blue component with 7-bit PWM precision (so 21-bit color per pixel). The LEDs are controlled by shift-registers that are chained up down the strip so you can shorten or lengthen the strip. Only 2 digital output pins are required to send data down. The PWM is built into each chip so once you set the color you can stop talking to the strip and it will continue to PWM all the LEDs for you
This chip has built in 1.2 MHz high speed 7-bit PWM for each channel – that means it can do 21-bit color per LED (way more than the eye can easily discern). Once you set the brightness level for the LEDs, your microcontroller can go off and do other things, no need to continuously update it, or clock it. This chip can drive 2 RGB LEDs at the same time!
The strip is made of flexible PCB material, and comes with a waterproof sheathing. You can cut this stuff pretty easily with wire cutters, there are cut-lines every 2.5″/6.2cm (2 LEDs each). Solder to the 0.1″ copper pads and you’re good to go. Of course, you can also connect strips together to make them longer, just watch how much current you need! We have a 5V/2A supply that should be able to drive 1 or more meters (depending on use)
They come in 5 meter reels with a 4-pin JST SM connector on each end, and are sold by the meter! If you buy 5m at a time, you’ll get full reels. If you buy less than 5m, you’ll get a single strip, but it will be a cut piece from a reel which may or may not have a connector on it.
Digital Addressable RGB LED with PWM waterproof flexi strip!