I am making an art installation using some NEOpixels strands and I need some help figuring out how many Arduino's I may need.
I am using 7 meters in 3 equal chunks of the 30 LED/m strips.
I am controlling it over DMX using this shield for the Arduino: Tindie Arduino DMX Shield
I am "planning" on using this library for it: DMX Library for Arduino download | SourceForge.net
My question is: "Can I get away with using a single Arduino with 3 sections of NeoPixel strips with this setup? Or do I need 3 separate Arduino's?"
See NeoPixels Revealed: How to (not need to) generate precisely timed signals | josh.com.
There is more than one type of Neopixel, but the principles may well apply to you. That guy drove 1000 LEDs (36+ feet) with minimal RAM usage.
His trick was to not try to keep all 1000 x RGB codes in RAM at once, but to generate them on the fly. The article makes an interesting read.
And he drove it with one Duemilanove (similar to a Uno).
Thanks Josh!
I am going to go the singular Arduino route as it will most likely be easier to start with as well.
I would not profess to understand the memory trick but by my math it looks as though one should be able to make this happen!
I will be starting a thread on this project and creating a running dev log of the progress.
Cheers