Driving a WS2811 RGB LED Strip with an Arduino
I recently purchased a WS2811 RGB LED strip for PC case modding purposes. I will be making an ATMega-based controller for it, so I decided to use an Arduino for testing and prototyping.
I found two libraries capable of driving this strip:
- Adafruit’s NeoPixel Library
- The latest FastSPI2 Library (earlier versions did not support the WS2811)
- Teensy’s OctoWS2811 Library (requires the ARM-based Teensy3.0)
Plus many great links regarding the WS2811 at the Noisebridge Wiki.
I recommend trying out funkboxing’s FastSPI2 effects as great examples of using the FastSPI2 library. You will need to use the line LEDS.addLeds<WS2812, 13, GRB>(leds, NUM_LEDS); to properly initialize the code.