Install Arduino Libraries
We have example code ready to go for use with the LEDs. It's written for Arduino, which should be portable to any microcontroller by adapting the C++ source.
Only one library need to be installed using the Arduino Library Manager…this is the preferred and modern way. From the Arduino “Sketch” menu, select “Include Library” then “Manage Libraries…”
Type “adafruit ws2801” in the search field to quickly find the library — Adafruit WS2801 Library:
After restarting the Arduino software, you should see a new example folder called Adafruit WS2801 Library, and inside, an example called strandtest.
Example Code
Let's look through the strandtest example code. To use the library in an Arduino sketch, you'll first need to globally declare a WS2801 object to talk to the strip. It is invoked with three variables: the number of pixels and the data and clock pins:
int dataPin = 2; int clockPin = 3; // Set the first variable to the NUMBER of pixels. 25 = 25 pixels in a row Adafruit_WS2801 strip = Adafruit_WS2801(25, dataPin, clockPin);
Next, we initialize the strip in the setup() procedure:
void setup() {
strip.begin();
// Update LED contents, to start they are all 'off'
strip.show();
}
begin() initializes the library, while show() refreshes the displayed colors of the LEDs. You'll need to call show() after changing any pixel colors to see this reflected in the LEDs. This way you can change the entire strip at one time (it takes the same amount of time to change one pixel as it does for an entire strip).
Let's look inside an example function, colorWipe(). This creates a 'chase' sequence that fills the strip with a color. It is basically a loop that increments through every pixel (which you can query with the numPixels() function) and sets the color of each (incremented with i) to the value passed (c — colors are expressed as a 32-bit variable type, though only the bottom 24 bits are used). The strip output is then updated with show(). Finally there is some delay (otherwise this would happen instantly).
Below that is a helper function that converts a color from separate 8-bit red, green and blue values into a combined 24-bit value (suitable for passing to colorWipe()). The brightness range is from 0 (off) to 255 (max brightness).
// fill the dots one after the other with said color
// good for testing purposes
void colorWipe(uint32_t c, uint8_t wait) {
int i;
for (i=0; i < strip.numPixels(); i++) {
strip.setPixelColor(i, c);
strip.show();
delay(wait);
}
}
/* Helper functions */
// Create a 24 bit color value from R,G,B
uint32_t Color(byte r, byte g, byte b)
{
uint32_t c;
c = r;
c <<= 8;
c |= g;
c <<= 8;
c |= b;
return c;
}
For example, in the loop() function we call colorWipe(Color(255, 0, 0), 50) which will fill the strand with full-brightness red light, pausing about 50 milliseconds between pixels.
colorWipe(Color(255, 0, 0), 50); // red fill colorWipe(Color(0, 255, 0), 50); // green fill colorWipe(Color(0, 0, 255), 50); // blue fill
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