Flora and LED Sequins and RGB LEDs

[digity]

I'm looking into using Flora to program some LEDs to twinkle and fade...

how many Adafruit LED Sequins (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1758) can Flora support? how many feet can the run be? how can Flora be configured to extend the run (i.e., use higher voltage or amperage, add more power after X feet or make a whole new run with another Flora)?

Aslo... how many NeoPixel 5050 RGB LEDs (https://www.adafruit.com/products/1655) can Flora support? how many feet can the run be? how can Flora be configured to extend the run (i.e., use higher voltage or amperage, add more power after X feet or make a whole new run with another Flora)?

[Franklin97355]

Can you be more specific in what you are trying to accomplish?

[digity]

I'm trying to string 50 to 100 LEDs together (not sure yet if it'll be RGB or the warm white sequins) with each LED at least 1 to 2 feet apart which means the whole thing may be 50 to 200 feet long. So, I'm basically trying to find out Flora's limitations and how I could get around them if necessary

[adafruit_support_bill]

To drive that many sequins, you would need something like a MOSFET to switch the current. https://www.adafruit.com/product/355
For RGB sequins, you would need 3 of them.
The MOSFETs can drive several thousand sequins. Note that unlike Neopixels, sequins are not individually addressable. All sequins in a string will react the same.

The Flora can handle several hundred neopixel easily. Neopixels have their own built-in drivers and are individually controllable, so you don't need the MOSFETs. However, the spacing could be a problem. 6" spacing is easily achieved. Beyond that requires careful wiring and in some cases additional signal buffering.

In all cases (Neopixels or Sequins) you will need a power supply capable of supplying current to that many LEDs and wiring adequate to carry the current without excessive voltage drop over the distance.

[digity]

On the Sequin product page it says "You can make the LEDs fade and twinkle by using the PWM (a.k.a. analogWrite) functionality of your Gemma or Flora..." Since I can't control them individually, can I at least set random lights to randomly brighten and dimmer while others stay lit at a certain brightness?

[Franklin97355]

can I at least set random lights to randomly brighten and dimmer while others stay lit at a certain brightness

You can make all the leds on a certain pin blink or fade at the same time and have more than one pin controling leds but you can't pick the individual leds with the sequins.

[adafruit_support_bill]

The processor has only so many PWM pins. You can connect a string to each of the PWM pins and control the different strings separately, but all the sequins on a string will react together.

If you want random changes, there are these LEDs. They will randomly flash by themselves without any need for a microprocessor:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/680
https://www.adafruit.com/products/679