Burning out neopixels/Neopixel best practices vs project dia

[colinm3]

Hi,

I am new to NeoPixels and read the best practices which mention a capacitor across the dc input and a resistor on the signal in of the first neopixel in the chain/ring. But then I look at the circuit diagrams for the projects and they don't have these two elements
https://learn.adafruit.com/flora-geo-wa ... it-diagram
https://learn.adafruit.com/flora-pixel-brooch
So I tried wiring single neo pixels and a neo pixel ring without a capacitor and resistor to a FLORA and seemed to have burned them all out instantly. So I will try following the best practices to get at least a light to turn on, but I am concerned that once I try to assemble a project according to the tutorials without those elements I will be risking the neopixels.
Also is there any way to test my neopixels without risking their destruction?

[adafruit_support_mike]

We've added the capacitor and resistor to our Best Practices list recently due to an uptick of dying pixels over the winter. Our older projects don't contain those components because we didn't know about the problem when they were written.

Post a photo of your hardware and connections and we'll see if we can spot any likely sources of trouble.