Not planning to cycle it in that way, at all. It'll function as a simple ON/OFF to turn the string on or off via a mechanical switch. The only reason I want to do it this way is because of the high amperage being drawn by the string. I would've needed a rather large mechanical switch, for which I do not have the physical space for. So going for a much smaller, lower amp switch means having to do something like this ...
The setup is a single Li-Ion battery powering everything, both the MCU as well as the strings. However, there's an ON-OFF-ON switch that on one side will only turn on the MCU so I can dick around with it without needing the strings also on, and when flipped the other way, both MCU and the strings will be on. Whether I connect that signal to the MCU, or straight to the battery (via the switch) remains to be seen. I probably will as I've discovered that the LED drivers being used have a tendency to come on at full duty cycle when first powered ... so you get this blindingly bright white string till it received a signal from the MCU to do something else. So that's one argument to use an MCU pin and bring it up only after it starts sending data, potentially an 'OFF' instruction for 2 seconds while it turns the string on as well. Kind of a dirty hack, but oh well.