I am brand new to Arduinos and LEDs. I am using an Arduino Mega. I got it to work and learned to upload simple sketches and power a few kit projects that came with the board.
Now I am trying to use it to control a 2 meter 4 wire digital RGB strip (Flex Pixel #FLX775) from Elation Lighting https://www.elationlighting.com/flex-pixel-p40wp.
I have several of these strips installed in my loft by a lighting professional, powered by a DMX controller, but I have to boot up a laptop to run the DMX controller every time that I want the LED strips to light up. So to simplify this, I am trying to build an Arduino to do a series of color shifts and chases that will go on every time I turn power on to the lights and board.
I wired it up according to a NeoPixel diagram I found here: Basic Connections | Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide | Adafruit Learning System
I found the FastLED library and chose the simple Blink sketch. I tested it and my wiring out on NeoPixel strip and it worked fine.
By trial and error, I found out that if I put // in front of the default line of code that tells the program which LED strip is being used: [FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, DATA_PIN>(leds, NUM_LEDS); // GRB ordering is assumed], which I gather is the way to make the program ignore it. And then I deleted the // in front of line: FastLED.addLeds<P9813, DATA_PIN, CLOCK_PIN, RGB>(leds, NUM_LEDS); // BGR ordering is typical, that I got my LED strip to blink red, as the sketch is intended.
Now I am looking for a sketch that will control all the 144 pixels in the strip and have them change colors, act as a chase lights or other color effects.
I tried a few other from the FastLED library but none of them did anything. Perhaps, the P9813 that I stumbled on only works for the simple Blink sketch?
I would so appreciate any help.
