For decorating outdoor spaces, these NeoPixel-equipped Cafe / Patio Light Bulb Strands each have 20 bulbs with a triple NeoPixel RGB LED inside. They’re just like the café lights you see folks string up to add some ambience, but you can control them just like NeoPixels to set any rainbow color you want, and each one is individually addressable as well.
To control them you’ll need two things: a 12V power supply and a NeoPixel/WS2812 controller. Unlike many NeoPixels we stock, these lamps use 12VDC power because there’s three LEDs in series and over the long wires a 5V power supply would dip too much. Each bulb draws 60mA maximum with all the LEDs on bright white, so make sure you have a 12V 1A or 12V 5A power supply. If you have a USB Type C PD supply that can provide 12V, you could also use a 12V PD Cable or 12V PD power tip to power them that way
Secondly, you’ll need a NeoPixel driver, and please note that these bulbs are picky about the voltage signal: they really want 5V logic voltage, so if you’re using a 3.3V microcontroller board without a built-in level shifter, pick up a separate Adafruit Pixel Shifter!
Each strand comes with 20 bulbs, separated by 4″, with little hooks that can be used to attach them to a wire or fence. There’s ‘weatherproof’ 3-pin DC connectors on both ends, so you can easily connect them up for longer runs if necessary (you’ll want to cap the ends with some hot glue or plastic wrap).
Please note: These are very bulky compared to their weight, and so shipping costs will be dimension-based not weight-based.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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