Or once more in English
gmsolutions:
It seams to me the original solution for sending the led configuration using a program on the host was the correct one.Due to the way addressable led strips work you can save yourself a lot of time taking advantage of the fact that addressable led strips while have tight timing only need to be signaled when updating the lights. On the PC side you send the configuration data for the lights using the Arduino as a hardware interface but the Arduino doesn't need to store that data so effectively you can have all 1500 lights lit at any time or in any config but only do the transfer from PC to led strip once per display change.
Assuming that your talking about one strip along the entire production line rather then 1500 for each worker then the line manager's PC can send the configuration to all workstations for the product being processed. If each worker has 1500 lights and an Arduino, then again the Arduinos can be chained and a single PC then can send the entire configuration through the chain, and the Arduinos then feed the data to the led strips and again this only needs to occur once.
Using rs485 modules which are dirt cheap if each worker needs to signal a specific stage to update the workstation status then a button or many (i2c expander/s connected to Arduino) can be used to tell the PC to send a configuration to the workstation and the pc can then respond to the workstation directly and all this can be done with very little memory on the Arduino such as using an atmega168.
By thinking of the Arduino as just a way to move data rather then a way to store data since it is already stored in the led strip, you can continue extending the system. Then when a change needs to occur, such as a new product is developed, the changes only need to occur in one language at one location and, if the program is written correctly, can be as simple as exporting a CSV from a spreadsheet and feeding it out to the production line.
The Arduino mega can easily feed an entire production line worth of lights and that data can easily be stored on SD card as already mentioned. This removes the need for a host PC and all the previously suggested configurations and possibility's will still work. This means the file on SD can be feed directly to a pin serially and still have most of the memory and program space available minus the 512b overhead of SD card blocks.
Mark:-
Original clarity of English 3/10
Technical information 7/10
Remember each sentence starts with a capital letter, and break up the sentences into paragraphs for easy reading.
but the Arduino doesn't need to store that data
Yes it does, it needs 3 bytes for every LED you have as the Arduino can not read from a PC and transfer it to the LEDs without an intermediate store, due to the tight timing requirements required by the LEDs.