Connect your lights to the Sparkle Motion board as shown:

• DI (data IN) to GPIO of your choice: Note the number and remember this number for the Config step
• +5v to 5v
• G to G

You can power most projects through the USB port on the Sparkle Motion boards. The board will support up to a 4A draw, which is different from a lot of microcontrollers: if you did this with the QT Py Pico it could fry your board. The Sparkle Motion is designed for this kind of project, so can power a lot of LEDs.

However: if you have a LOT of lights -- more than 800 or so -- it's still good practice to power the lights as shown in the third graphic, so you're not pulling all that power through the board.