BEGINNERS Guide to Individually Addressable RGB LED Programming with Arduino

[@marcelomoreira24]

Please keep doing videos with the explanation of the code, I'm trying to learn and that helps a LOT. Thank you for another great video

[@TheDanielsherer]

As a long-time programmer, I still appreciate learning your thought processes around why you coded something in a certain way (as opposed to some other way). Keep your videos coming and I also REALLY appreciate when you include reference materials (annotated) like in your "Best pins to use for ESP8266" video. I started downloading those so that I can find them faster during my projects! Please, please, please continue to explain hardware too! It's one thing if I have to tinker-around with code to get it the way I want, but knowing when I'm supposed to solder-on some kind of resistor or something like that is not the kind of thing I have the background to know without some guidance.

[@achmed20]

funny, i just bought myself some LED strips to tacle this and here you come and making a video about it ^^

[@deanwoodard850]

I have tinkered with Arduino a little, but I will be honest, the addressable LEDs have been a bit beyond my comfort level. I loved how you stopped to explain how the LEDs work, and the differences between the strip LEDs and the individually addressable LEDs. Keep it up! Awesome stuff. Thanks!

[@adamlane6453]

This video and the ease of finding it is proof that we didn't screw up *everything* about the internet. I am so thankful that you do what you do. You're making the world a better place.

[@joeboyc2]

I'd love to see more explanation videos, it really helps me to understand exactly why and what something is in the code, keep up the great work, looking forward to see what comes out in the future

[@WitherandFronst]

You're the best instructor in this space. Thank you for the tireless work.

[@ChunkySteveo]

Can't wait for the expansion on the holiday lights. Ben's videos were great, but we needed more real life examples to help hook up our lights and get them to work. Keep it up!

[@wayneperryman4146]

I can't wait either!!

[@rjmiller2553]

98% of KZbin videos about LED light strips basically explain nothing, never anything that helps us make better choices when buying or using. Many videos "testing quality" of strips never find a criticism.. because its all done so people click the affiliate link to buy strips... Thank you for being the very rare exception.

[@Firespyer]

I like the code walk through, I have a rough time learning by just weeding through code. Thanks for the video.

[@paulbaird1351]

Your style of teaching is fantastic! This really helps me understand things a lot easier than most videos.

[@TheHookUp]

That's great to hear since my day job is teaching high school science.

[@zachhoy]

Ahhh! You're a chemistry teacher. That explains why your explanations and pacing are really effective. My high school chemistry teacher was so good that I choose Chemical Engineering as a major! I hope your students appreciate the efforts you make.

[@williammiller4143]

Thanks for another great video. My preference is that you follow this format and explain the code in the video. Your students are lucky to have you as a teacher.

[@stellaanderson5481]

Future STEAM teacher here! Thank you for your videos, don't know what I'd do without them!

[@PLF...]

*STEM

[@TheHookUp]

STEAM is the new term, it includes arts.

[@RafaelKarosuo]

Thank you, you helped me finish my prototype in no time, a great explanation from basic to necessary to get things done. Great work on your videos.

[@shortnr]

I didn't see any comments regarding this, so I'll throw it out there. The brightness of the LEDs are controlled via pulse width modulation, whereby you change the percentage of the time that a signal is on, with respect to the period of the signal. All LED strips (that I'm aware of) have current limiting resistors built in and will have a constant brightness when the nominal voltage is applied, usually 12V. Hope this helps!

[@garyseaman6105]

Your'e a good teacher mate. I've never forgotten my maths teacher from uni. She made everything id found too much for my brain to why did i find this so hard. Thank you.

[@hannojaanniidas9655]

Both. I want to make a set of chaser LEDs for the turn-signal indicators of my car. Myb1st project and seeing the actual code with a supportive explanation would really help.

[@samueletorres]

Dudeeeeeeee!!!!! I love this video!!!! Now, I can says that I truly understand how to work with addressable LEDs!!! I like the way that you explain your code, that is simply awesome!!! Is noted that you are a teacher (a really Good one)!!!! I subscribed to your channel... Again, the video is awesome and your way to explain it is even more!!! Thank you!!

[@VAKUL-DC]

Thanks Professor Rob....excellent explanation of the code. and YES to projects with code explained...... a tip....for those who think its boring, add a time bookmark so they can skip forward....But there are too many yt videos that show a project and provide the code, so explanation and the though process helps in tweaking the project for individual needs. thanks

[@RobertAnthonyPitera]

I have to agree with the other commenters that both aspects of your videos are extremely valuable. I came here not really that interested in doing the project, but I enjoy your vids so I watched it anyway. And in the end I came away with a much better understanding of programming functions, which was an unexpected bonus. Keep up the excellent work! (And more node red vids please!!!)

[@tornadokat]

Great series of videos on RGB strips. I would like to note a correction in this one, @1:25 regarding the statement "by changing the resistance...", virtually all controllers use PWM, not "resistance". Also possible to adjust them using variable voltages on each channel.

[@TheHookUp]

Spot on. Sometimes I’m disingenuous to be able to explain a topic a bit quicker. My dimmable ceiling light video has a full explanation of pwm led drivers.

[@CarlosOrtiz-ht6rn]

Thank you for this video! You are a great teacher and that countdown lighting you used in your classroom was ingenious! I am ordering the 5v led lights now and can't wait to start learning this. I hope in the future you will consider making a video of how to connect the 12v led lighting. You mentioned a voltage regulator would be needed, but I am unfamiliar with that. I'll start with baby steps and learn how to work with the 5v version. Thank you again very much Sir.

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

Explaining the code helps. I know a bit or 10 about coding, but always run across new ideas.

[@TheHookUp]

There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

[@rusticagenerica]

This video is one of the very best videos I have ever seen on the internet. Don't change anything. The way you describe stuff is perfect. Keep doing more and tell if you need money or any type of contribution :-)

[@EdwinPWeston]

Thank you and yes, I like to see videos like this one, I finely understand the map() function I just started playing with Arduinos and it was the visual with the arrows that did it for me!

[@cambodiafireworkscompany9854]

Thanks for making these videos. I have wanted to do addressable lights on my house for years and it all seemed so overwhelming until now.

[@MarkSaenz]

I'd like to see a video where you have all the hardware and connect it all together. Then you show how you're entering the code into your computer and how it communicates with the board that runs the lights. Soup to nutz for super noobs. This video is certainly starting to part the clouds. Thanks for making great, professional content. It's obvious you put time and effort into your videos.

[@kmecheckj]

Very cool, I'm 37, and I've always avoided coding and such. But I'm also Mechanical Designer and love 3d Printing. So this old dog needs to learn new tricks. Thank you for the informative video. And explaining the code really helps with understanding the intent as I'm a very visual/ hands on learner.

[@TheHookUp]

Coding opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

[@danialkappus]

I love your videos, so thank you. It's because of yours and Dr. Zzzs videos that I have started tinkering with Arduino, tasmota, D1mini, NodeMCU, and LED Strips. I haven't looked through all comments, but I would like to make a suggestion for the timer. For the mappedTimer, I would use this instead: "mappedTimer = (totalMinutes * 1000) / NUM_LEDS;". This makes it useable with strips using more than 60 LEDS and also wanting access to a shorter timer like 1 minute.

[@roddroid]

Love your videos. You're simply the boss when it comes to teaching how to control and handle any kind of LED strip on the world wide web ;-) Thanks so much (and deep respects !), Sir.

[@andregardener6042]

Like that you make really clear explanation of all your codes

[@rottison]

Please keep Explaining the code it helps for a lot of us that have a hard time just writing from scratch Thank you for taking the time to do it and for making the video

[@davidrandle5362]

Your presentation and way of explaining are excellent and make me want to build my own. Thank you

[@ehoworka]

Thank you for the most clear and lucid explanations and advice.

[@StefanLudwig123]

I am really looking forward to any new video you make. Thank you very much for making them. Also congrats to the 10k subscribers! :-)

[@kineticpaintings]

Thanks. I found this really helpful and particularly well explained (Well done👍😀👏) If you do more videos... including the description is particularly useful for people like me who find writing code difficult. Thanks again 🙌

[@alexandertorres6332]

this video is amazing! thank you. It helps so much when the code its explain. I can wrap my head around FASTLED Way better after this.

[@DannyMullen]

Like this style video with the code. You have the correct balance of code and content!

[@markferrick10]

Great video. I really like the code deep dives. It helps my learning experience. Specifically arduino code, but your Node-Red examples are really great also. Oh, oh, oh, don't forget hardware. Love to see your circuits. So, keep it up. Thanks.

[@dishendra.]

I was trying to use Fastled library to drive my sm16703 led strip using a nodemcu but got no luck. I saw your code example on github and it worked like a charm. I was missing => #define FASTLED_ESP8266_RAW_PIN_ORDER the right pin order in the sketch. Thanks a ton man!

[@nuttcorp]

Definitely explain the code.

[@bretthouser13]

I enjoy seeing the code with explanation.

[@thomashelman9971]

hey, I have a question, I copied the timer code and downloaded the libraries however I had an error saying that 'class SimpleTimer' has no member named 'disable'. What should I do to resolve this issue?

[@michaelmgx]

Great video! This is the stuff I need to get my kids to do more programming. Thank you soooooooooooo much!

[@MrLRankin2]

I think that it's more beneficial to explain your projects the way you did in this video. The other suggestion should be added too as some people learn better that way. Some people are visual learners while others are quite comfortable perusing a textbook.

[@aribasadme]

Hi Rob, first of all, congratulations on sharing your knowledge. These videos are very inspirational and helpful. I just came out with a doubt: in another video called "Year Round Holiday LEDs Part 2: Software" you say that to use a logic level converter for the 5v led strip and where you are saying that it's not necessary. Can you clarify this, please? Thanks!

[@ChrisTopher-wl6pd]

I love the in depth explanation! Also... High school teacher? Do you teach the kids to write code!?!?!? I thought for sure you worked in IT! You must be one hell of a hobbyist! Hahaha!

[@TheHookUp]

I'm a biology teacher by trade, I've recently started teaching AP computer science and introduction to engineering though.

[@SimonMenu]

This video format is super instructive ! keep going, we need more ! :)

[@AsurDJ]

Watched Ben's video and have orders those pieces but am super interested in the custom created animations! Also being new to all this hearing both is great! I actually started an LED project, but using an SD card LED programmer called LED Edit. Not happy since I have to program and upload to an SD card to change things... Would be super cool to get this or something similar to it in home assistant. Ben has something similar but just using pre built effects, the addition of customization would be AMAZING

[@TheHookUp]

Check out my LED playlist, all the code is ready and waiting for you :)

[@marcinjamrozik5603]

Do videos like this! Great job, and looking forward to Xmas 🎄 lights 😀

[@derricklayne1365]

Rob Great video, @lflacayo said it before I had a chance to write back, All your videos have helped me, I got some projects finished some I'm still working on, but having a time with the code. But your videos and the explanation of the code helps me to understand all the different parts of the code. Please keep up the Great work as we all are learning.

[@alcidesmarcano]

Well done Rob!!! Thanks again for another great video!

[@jc-zh9kl]

huh, i need the code man but i need the explanation too LOL, i barely got homeassistant running with drzzz,bruh and you, i have no idea what im doing but i love this stuff and i need LIGHTS! youre the man.

[@0tanCZ]

Hey, I was wondering: Can I use 2 different strips (for example the same 2x 1m strips) and assign them the LED0> you were talking about, or is the last one going to reset it and the new strip is LED0 again? Im asking because 2x 1m is cheaper than one 3m, and I only need 2m.

[@NahYeahMate]

I'm waiting for my ws2812b strips to arrive so I can start a 25m project which is also my first ever led project. So your videos are coming at a perfect time! Something that I never found an answer to no matter how much I researched, was how to build animations starting from a specific point of a strip(s). Think of a house exterior peak... Also, is there any animation simulator software in existence? Rather than trying to work out what it would look like based on coding in an arduino sketch, you could see it in action in a simulator first. I doubt there's something like this but it would be really cool!

[@TheHookUp]

Yep, that first part of the for loop where it says i = 0, that means it will start at LED0, if you make i=50 it will start with led50 so you can start them at different places. I'm going to make a video specifically about this subject a little later.

[@NahYeahMate]

That would be amazing my friend, keep up the great work. By the way, sorry for the lack of commenting on your roller blinds video that I was very eager to see prior, I decided to just buy a ready made tubular motor because the price ease of use outweighed your step motor project. It's a little above my paygrade :)

[@coolspeed8084]

Very great explanation sir. Please make more videos

[@YKSGuy]

We need a part two / advanced follow up version of this on effects etc.

[@AlanTuringWannabe]

I recommend you continue to explain the code but also use github so people can clone your repo and follow along.

[@ishaankelkar2394]

Quick question - do you have to do any soldering? I’m a arduino newbie and I have the arduino starter kit circuit board and breadboard. I *believe* they were made to make things without soldering. Did a few projects without having to do any of that.

[@RobertoCarvalho-0]

Loved the video!! I know that what I'm asking below is tailored to my situation but I honestly think that would be a good concept for a "modern" house. Im planning to light up my living room only with individual addressable led strip no bulbs whatsoever. So I see myself using it most of the time with white colour, though there's a party time when I change it to different colours and animations through home assistant light selection. Also I know it's possible to make it reacts to music while still lighting up the room, think this as a default colour to a dimmed down white and colourful bright leds when reaction to the music. The thing is to make it useful for a permanent lightning solution, it would be important to be able to change the colours easily back to white. Just like using Philips hue bulbs. If the lights is other than white and someone turns the switch off and on the lights would turn it to white. Also be able turn on/off the music reaction animation. Please keep posting the code. That helps a lot! Specially for those not good at coding. Sorry if it's too much to ask for it. Yet loving the videos. All the best

[@TheHookUp]

I would highly recommend looking into RGBW strips rather than RGB. There isn't as much library support, but the white color produced by RGB alone just isn't that great. The other things you want to do (defaulting to white after color) are really simple and I can help you or point you in the right direction with that stuff.

[@fahrbierde]

Hi there, I am so happy I found this channel and I am about to get started with my son - though, a question: You Link to a 16ft LED strip here - did you cut that into the right length of 57 LEDs? Can I just use scissors to shorten those strips or do I need special tools?

[@TheHookUp]

Just scissors

[@fahrbierde]

@@TheHookUp Hello again, I have a follow up question - I gathered now a ESP8266, the light strip and a power brick. How did you connect the ESP8266 to the light strip? I was suspecting a breadboard but I couldn't find any in the the "Hardware Video" of yours. Did you solder those two together? Do you by chance have a wiring schema somewhere in your videos? I guess, the ESP8266 also needs to be connected to the power brick, like the light strip... Thanks!

[@chrisperrywv]

A sketch for a countdown to New Years? With fireworks at the end? That would be sick...

[@rusticagenerica]

Dear The Hookup, you know it already, but your video is just super awesome. I had a question to ask after making this compliment : where can I find high wattage addressable RGB leds with high CRIs ? Deepest thanks.

[@howtimflies204]

I'm just getting on board with the Arduino and R.Pi world. I took COBOL, Pascal, Fortran, Basic, HTML, and so on so I should be able to pick it up quickly. Where should I start? I'll look at the Arduino site now and go from there. Thanks for the info on your videos.

[@paulbehrens5842]

Wasn't aware of the HSV function. Nice!

[@jamesjohnson2342]

Great video! I purchased the board and lights you linked to in the description. I was able to control the LEDs with FastLED. However, once I connect to WiFi, FastLED stops working completely. I don't get anything happening on the LED strip. I know this is an old video and you have a lot of comments, but was just wondering if you might know what is going on.

[@imho2278]

Love this! Well explained!

[@hypnosisspl]

Hey, lets do in next video communication of nodes in smart home with master on RS485 or canbus

[@DavidDrummerOFC]

could you do a video on installing the digital addressable leds on portable type accessories. i'd like to learn about what controllers, power supplies and just overall details in making led projects work that aren't permanent installs. Like for example making an LED costume.

[@bencooper2467]

Fantastic video. Insight it to the code is much better for me. Looking forward to more on these, don't suppose you could cover a bit on rgbw addressable in a future video even if it's just code differences thanks for the vids

[@TheHookUp]

I know rgbw isn't naively supported by the fastled library yet. There is a fork with support, but I haven't tried it yet.

[@TheHookUp]

natively... autocorrect.

[@bencooper2467]

@@TheHookUp yer I've tried 1 and it is good. Uses neopixel library but with my inexperienced eyes I wonder how much of the code is left over from fastLED and is unnecessary

[@lifeasnikhil]

Bro you are the best instructor I have seen so far. I love working with LED Strip lights, Still learning, half of stuff you explained; went over my head but Still - you did an amazing job at explaining. Is there any website to learn about- Adruino,adafruit and other related stuff ? Thanks

[@imho2278]

Heaps. Go to the Arduino webpage. Lots and lots of simple stuff. Your local library may run Arduino sessions too.

[@savageprepper9504]

Just starting to learn about this type of thing so the explanation is really helpful. What I don't understand I backtrack to.

[@Artificial.Unintelligence]

What about much more complex 'scenes'? Like Christmas light shows to music, does someone painfully manual set each second up (doubtful, even if it could fit the file size). Or generation of generally more complex effects? There's got to be a way to not manually type every color/time interval. (I know this was basics, but ideas for the future).

[@alibargh]

Useful information, thanks for sharing 😊

[@platoh]

Thanks for the walkthrough. I'm new to Arduino development and general hardware stuff (haven't soldered for years), but I think I can handle the software side. Do you have any advice or example pictures that demonstrate how to wire/attach stuff to the board? I saw the conceptual diagrams, but I'm not sure where to begin in terms of knowing when to solder, or if I should be investing in a breadboard or what.

[@imho2278]

Go over to Ben Eater and copy what he does on his breadboards.

[@phil7455]

Great video. Using the single message to convert to payload is smart; is that all set up in Node Red? Could it be used to dynamically control the strip from a website updating (like an HTTP Endpoint); such as flashing when a team scores or show positions in a race; like if a Ferrari driver is first in F1 the first LED would be red, or showing what places school kids are in a running race? Seen some IFTTT creations do something similar, but since the ESPN applet was removed from there you can no longer do this.

[@juanpa980]

I ordered everything in the hardware you said from the websites that you recommended, now I need to hook up with the arduino, can you help with that please? I saw one , I will have 112 lineal feet of lights on my house, i will do 2 zone’s, the bidirectional board is very small, the one thing I don’t understand is the pins and how to connect them to the board i can see the wires directions but on the back of the arduino board you have pins on another board and that’s where i get confused, on the software that you have I think i can manage that by changing the numbers of led’s and use the same type of animation you have

[@jameswiz]

I could use some help with some Arduino code if you'd be up for it... I want to make an addressable RGB Thermometer using the "LIXIE" style acrylic 0-9 numbers like a "Nixie" tube would. So say the temp in the room is 58. (2 column; A=5 & B=8) Using 2 WS2812B leds per number.. then from anything under 32degrees F would be Blue, 33-50 would be light blue, 51-70Green, 71-80Yellow, and 81-90 Orange and anything above 91Red... So as temp goes up, so the the color temp. Then it would be an input from a LM35 transistor for temp, which uses a 0-1vDc to measure temp. or maybe a Thermocouple of some type. That part shouldn't change the code much. But the hard part comes in the actual numbers. So say it needs to read 01 on the display. The 1st 4 leds would need to be off, off, on, on, at color, X,X,160 going upto say 69 at whatever # led that would be via rows of 4 or 8 I guess... This is the part I'm REALLY LOST!!! So lets think about this.. I have 2colums, with 2leds each. That 4.. 4leds per ROW. with 10 Rows.. So I have 40leds, in 10 rows. 4x4x4x4x4x4x4x4x4x4=0123456789 & 0123456789 respectively.... So if i want 69 I'm guessing that's LED#'s 21&22 plus 35&36 with a color of 96... . Follow me? Do you think you could help?

[@kbxbr]

Really nice explanation! Thanks!

[@snjairbeater]

Wow, I love it. However, I have no idea how to program an Arduino Where can I find a video that will teach me the fine art of programming the code?

[@Maher-]

Thanks for the video, did you use any resistor for the led strip?

[@DarkSpartan062]

Love the video and info! I did have a question. I want some leds for my statue collection but I’d like to configure the leds to be different colors for different pieces, display. Basically each led may be different. Am I biting too much off being a novice to this sort of thing?

[@TheHookUp]

That is a great beginner project in my opinion.

[@alex_2002_1]

Great video! Definitely explain the code!

[@fabiolus2007]

Its important to have the details, I mean for better understanding. Copying codes and not even knowing how it works or why you used certain parts would be useless in my opinion.

[@GaryRudd]

Great explanation. One thing I couldn’t quite understand (and something that’s driving me insane with my own project) is how you interrupt your loop with a new MQTT message. I’m trying to run looping animations indefinitely unless a new MQTT message arrives. I have had minimal luck but if the animations run too long my 8266 resets. Any explanation would be fantastic. I’m sure problem lies somewhere between my chair and my keyboard.... Thanks again!!

[@seantadez]

Awesome videos very informative.. I have a question... every time I do power injection on my LED's from there on all the lights became unresponsive and can't be controlled if I don't use power injection well, everything works well but it dims every led more and more been green and yellow almost gone... any suggestions? I've been trying everything I see and nothing makes it work

[@cobusbenade3502]

Great tutorial. But also a tiny bit scared off as well. Not ready for coding yet... think I might import me some philips hue strips in the meantime. 🤭

[@rkaid7]

Both. Sorry, is the light bar in the class, being controlled by your home.io setup at home?

[@DavidFindlay]

Thanks for the amazing videos. I have a question. For individually addressable RGBW pixels (40mm series lights, not strips) to be installed for general and holiday lighting around the house roof line, would you recommend DMX addressing or SPI? The number of addresses seem to be a limitation.

[@TheHookUp]

I use SPI for 90% of the year with my own programming on a small nodeMCU microcontroller. I switch to DMX controllers to do my Christmas light show because the popular sequencing software all uses DMX (e1.31).

[@DavidFindlay]

The Hook Up thanks for responding, what controller do you use for your Christmas lights? How many LEDs do you run in series for communications?

[@TheHookUp]

@@DavidFindlay I have both a Falcon F16V3 and a HinksPix Pro for my show. Check out this part of this video for more info: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3qVgaadrrCNhsk

[@inlaymansterms...9303]

Can you cut the straps at the connector points and extend the strip sections with segments of wire and still maintain the individual control.? I want to use the programmable leds in a model kit. Being able to extend the strips with wire between segments of the model would be extremely handy as I intend using strobes etc....??

[@Test12066]

I have an unopened box with 24V HUE LED extension strip, from back, when I did not know better. 😆 Can i connect this to my arduino or do I I need some special software to use this strip?

[@bhimabehera5069]

Please make video TLC5947 Arduino uno RGB LED Project

[@Isaacthompson]

You're a great teacher! Thanks..

[@JHsadler]

Hi there, is there a maximum as to how many LEDs I can control in a row? I am looking at buying 40m of 60LED/metre strip. Will I have any issues controlling them all in one row (providing the strip is all powered correctly)...

[@QUABLEDISTOCFICKLEPO]

For years I've thought of building a vertical panel with multiple lights that would be activated in programmable pattern (time and sequence). It would be used for boxing practice and to improve reaction time, I think would be an extremely easy thing to do for someone who has some knowledge of the subject, but I have NONE. How can I get started with such a project? Could it be that there are plans available for such things? (Jan 2. 2022).

[@osbodav]

I need a microcontroller that will work with 5v on a 72v e scooter. What would you recommend?

[@Brian_Shurtliff]

Thank you for your videos, I've had a lot of fun. Would it be possible to run the timer off of Node-Red interface instead of home assistant? Thanks.

[@TheHookUp]

Of course. Check out my node red dashboard video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoLJoIuamMukgas

[@howtimflies204]

I need help with these ready controllers like the SP107E or 108E? My project is a 4m long 60/m led 2812B with 20A power supply. Do the controllers take power off the same 20A supply? This is for a backlight on a glass chalk board for work and this project is kind of a gateway before I try the Arduino.

[@squalazzo]

i like this video format!