Regarding addressable leds

Projects
#1

So i’ve been interested in maybe buying some of those addressable leds, now I have a few small questions about these leds

Would I need a Flex board? and how would i connect that to my pro?
Would any form of ws2812 or ws2812b led strip work?
Most of these ws2812 led strips i find have 5V instead of the 12V i’m currently using, should i then change my power adaptor to a 5V as well?
And how would i be able to connect those led strips to the pro adapter i currently use? seeing as i have 4 connections on the adapter (R, G, B and 12V) and only 3 on addressable leds (GND, DI, 5V)

If there’s something i’m forgetting please let me know!

I will also apologise for my lack of knowledge about these things, i’ve never quite been good in this sort of tech, although i’ve always been interested to learn more about it and in all honesty blinkstick and leds is a fun and educative way to learn a few extra things.

Thanks in advance!

#2

Hey Arno,

first of all you should study the help on blinkstick.com. There are tutorials for examples of how to connect WS2812 pixels to the Pro BlinkStick | BlinkStick Pro and Adafruit NeoPixel strips
You can use a Flex board, but keep in mind that Flex can control up to 32 LEDs while a Pro can control up to 192 LEDs (64 on every channel, R, G, B).
You can control both WS2812 and WS2812B.

No apologies, as you say it is a educative way, means learn a bit more with every glow and blink :smile:
I encourage you to take a search through the forum, you will find answers to most of your questions.

If you need more info let us know, please.

#3

Thanks! I did actually go through the tutorial page, but i guess i must have skipped it by accident! I do not see any mention of the pro adapter on the page, is the adapter possible to be used in these setups or not?

Thank you!

#4

After a bit of speculating i think if I were to use the adapter which has 4 input’s ( R, G, B and VCC) it would be the same idea whereas VCC = 5V instead of 12, and red could be connected but there is no more GND available, does this mean i cannot use the adapter for this?

#5

Ok, missed one of your questions…
The LED adapter is for basic single RGB LED strips only, not for WS2812 LEDs.
On the other hand you cannot drive the BlinkStick Pro itself with 12V LED devices.

I hope I understand you correctly.

I´dont have an idea why “newer” LED adapter boards do not offer a soldering point for GND anymore. But there could be a workaround if you nearly need it.

#6

Thank you I will look into this!