Powering the LEDS

Using Arduino LEDs and Multiplexing
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Hello Folks,

I'm brand new to LED's, although not brand new to microcontrollers. Forgive my ignorance if this is a well documented question, but...well...here goes.

I have a shield with a bunch of male 3-Wire JST Connectors. It so happens that a strand of 50-Neopixels that I just purchased can plug directly into this with its 3-Wire Connector. However, I know that I'll likely need to inject additional (5 Volt) power to the strand. Will I need to add a diode so it doesn't backfeed into the Arduino? Or should I just cut the two power lines and feed separately with only the data wire coming off of the controller? Or is it safe to have both the Arduino and the separate power supply feeding into the same line?

Thoughts? Thanks for the help.

Mac

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MacLaddy:
I have a shield with a bunch of male 3-Wire JST Connectors.

Sorry, that's a non-starter.

In order to talk sense, you need to cite which shield, giving a Web reference to it so that we can at least attempt to find the corresponding schematic to answer your question.

Without that information, it's all nonsense.