I bit off more than I can chew. I'm building a dragon puppet for a performance venue in NYC, and thought the LED component would be much simpler. The project is due Tuesday, and I'm in over my head!
Ok, the basic idea is there should be a timed color sequence the LED strips go through, which I start at the beginning of the song and plays through the act. The LEDs light up the dragon from the inside. Because it's a puppet, everything needs to be portable and not plugged into the wall.
So I went to Tinkersphere in NYC and was advised by a super helpful person there of all the components I need. I'm a quick learn, but I'm still lost and unsure about a bunch of things.
My main concern is making sure I have enough power, and making sure I hook everything up correctly so I don't fry components or screw the whole thing up.
Here's what I got:
Arduino starter kit
2: 1 meter RGB addressable LEDs - higher density, with the plugs on the end. WS2812B
Mobile power supply -
In: DC 5V-1000mA
Out: DC 5.3V-1000mA(MAX)
Capacity: 2600mA
Connector to power LEDs from power supply
Arcade buttons
Questions:
Should I use one power supply per LED strip, or will one power both of them?
What tutorials will help me the most with this project?
Originally I wanted to use the buttons to switch modes, but that might be too complicated at this point. How do the buttons get connected?
What am I missing or overlooking?
Originally I wanted to use the buttons to switch modes, but that might be too complicated at this point.
Yes, it is not complicated but it makes the writing of the display patterns code more complex unless you can hold the button down until a sequence ends.
Your battery can supply 1A. Those strips can require up to 3.6A each (assuming they are 60 leds each, you were not clear on that point). You will need at least 3 or 4 of those batteries or a single battery with a much higher output. You can run the Arduino on the same 5V supply, it will use equivalent of 1 or 2 rgb leds. Uno was not a great choice. The shop sold you what they had available, not what was ideal for your project. All shops do that when you don't know what you want. Do not run the current for the leds through the Arduino board. Wire the buttons from a digital pin to ground and use pinMode(n, INPUT_PULLUP).
So you have 2 meters of WS2812B LEDs.
You say 'higher density' so I'm guessing 60 LEDs per meter.
120 LEDs @ 60mA = 7200mA max draw (full brightness all-white)
You have 1000mA from your powerbank.
To give you an idea of what you're looking at, even a single color at half brightness is 1200mA.
Slightly underpowering WS2812B LEDs will result in erratic behavior- wrong colors, stuck pixels, etc
Severely underpowering WS2812B LEDs will probably kill your powerbank.
For triage purposes, are you able to make do with just 1 meter of LEDs and parallel 2 powerbanks?
You'd have to limit brightness in code.