APA102 and FastLED

Projects Programming
1

I'm looking for a very, very basic example just to turn on one APA102 LED just one color using the FastLED library. Google is not being my friend. I'm finding many bloated examples but I wan't to start with understanding the basics first. I have a strip of WS2812B LEDs and I can get them to work but not the APA102s

I am however familiar with what is needed to make them work but not with arduino code. I've controlled APA102 LEDs with a Raspberry Pi but it's been a while.

PS
It would also be nice to see raw code to turn one on without using a library. I'm very green at arduino programming but I'm good at learning by example.

2

If you have the library installed on the IDE, load the File -> Examples -> FastLED ->Blink sketch

It has all the supported types commented out so simply uncomment the APA102 definition and it should blink the first LED on/off as red

3

Fantastic. I didn't realize that there were examples like that. I've have it working. Thanks!

4

The APA102 protocol is something of a Kabuki Dance, but not as bad as the WS2812B (IMO). Check out:

If you want to see how they are controlled by code, check out the source code of Adafruit DotStar library. It’s much simpler that trying to work your way through the FastLED library: