Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
ViralCipher
 
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:44 pm

Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by ViralCipher »

Hello,

I am interested in starting a project involving Adafruit's neopixels and the Arduino.. To be more specific I want to use them as lights for a Christmas tree like in this project (https://learn.adafruit.com/wifi-control ... e/hardware).

I am very new to electronics and only started a few weeks ago when I purchased an Arduino Uno with the Vilros starter kit https://www.vilros.com/ultimate-starter-kit.html. I completed all of the example projects included in the booklet that came with the kit, so I understand the basics of how to program and use the Arduino, find and use libraries etc, control leds etc. However, since I do not have any electronics background (I am a software developer) I am not 100% sure how to wire the Neopixel strips or what to expect when I purchase them from Adafruit.

I had done some research and read the Adafruit site. From my understanding these are the items I need to purchase.

I plan on purchasing the the neopixel strip of 30

https://www.adafruit.com/products/1376

In order to have enough power I need a power supply
https://www.adafruit.com/product/276


This adapter for easily connecting the neopixels to the power supply
https://www.adafruit.com/product/368


1000uF 6.3V Capacitor to protect the neopixel strip from power surge
http://www.amazon.com/1000uf-6-3v-Capac ... citor+6.3v


Wires for connecting the power supply, led strip, arduino
https://www.adafruit.com/products/824


I have read both the Adafruit guide https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neo ... e/overview and the the project guide here https://learn.adafruit.com/wifi-control ... e/hardware and I did some Google searching, but I am still not sure about a few things. I have a few questions.

First the Adafruit guide suggests that I use a resister between the Arduino outpin pin and the input pin of the first led pixel as additional protection from power surges. How is this resister supposed to be connected and with what? https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neo ... -practices


Also, I have never soldered anything before and I do not currently own a soldering iron and I do not know much about it. I have watched a few guides on soldering on Youtube, but I am not sure what I should know specifically for soldering wires to the led pixel strip or if I need to? What type of soldering iron is best, and what temperature etc. Also, are there ways to connect a "solderless" adapter to the pixels similar to the ones that Adafruit has for the other types of LED strips they have? I know they will not work with the neopixels because they do not have the same wires. I am not against learning to solder, but if I can make the project easier and cheaper, but not having to buy a soldering iron and materials for it that would be best.

Am I missing anything from the items above? Is there anything I can add/change about the items to make the project easier?

Also, since I am new to electronics (but, not new to programming) is there anything I should learn before starting this project? What other types of projects can I do that would help give me the experience I need to do this project? Is this project too advanced for a beginner or can I start doing it now?

Thanks

User avatar
Franklin97355
 
Posts: 23910
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:33 pm

Re: Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by Franklin97355 »

You have most of what you need. I would add this
To wire up these strips we suggest picking up some JST SM plug and receptacle cables. You'll want one of each, one wire is for ground the other is for signal.
As to the soldering iron it depends on how much of this you plan to do in the next year or so. The minimum would be something like this and the next step would be a Hakko if you have no small hand tools this might be a good option and it includes the iron. Something like this would help while learning but you probably could find an old electronic device you could take apart and practice on. Become competent soldering before you try anything you want to keep as it is as easy to ruin a good product as to learn to do it right. For solder I like 0.031 solder for through hole and general soldering. This should get you started. Let us know how you are progressing.

User avatar
ViralCipher
 
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:44 pm

Re: Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by ViralCipher »

I finally decided to order all of the things necessary and some other things from Adafruit a week ago. Prior to this I did some general practice soldering, but I still make a few mistakes here and there as I haven't done a lot yet.

I tried soldering the 22AWG soild core wire https://www.adafruit.com/products/1311 and the https://www.adafruit.com/products/319 wires to the neopixel strip (input side) because only the output side already had the wires and connector, but I had quite a bit of trouble today. Firstly, before I soldered anything, I made the mistake of thinking the wires and connector already soldered to it was the end to connect the Arduino to, but instead what happened was the NeoPixel strip acted really weird with random leds lighting up, and staying lit, with random rainbow colors, (some seemed to pulse a very bright close to white color). 5v on the strip was connected to the positive terminal of the adapter for the power supply https://www.adafruit.com/products/352 . I used the big one because I purchased 3 meters (90 pixels), so that it will be long enough to wrap around a short (4 foot) Christmas tree come the holiday season. Gnd was connected to the - terminal, and the DIN was connected to PIN 6 of the Arduino. I also placed a capacitor in the terminals as recommended by the uberguide. The Neopxiels acted weird, and a lot of them didn't light up and they even acted the same way when they weren't even connected to the Arduino (only connected to the power supply), so I double checked the uberguide again and saw that I overlooked that the arrows should be pointing -> away from the connections, so I assumed this erratic behavior was because I was connecting the wrong end.

So, I went to try to solder wires to the other end. I had already bought the things I needed to solder because based on reading the uberguide and tutorials I was already expecting I was likely to have to solder. I cut and stripped a short piece of the red solid core wire and I soldered it to the 5v. Then I soldered the wires for the male JST connector (one wire to DIN and the other to GND). Being pretty new to soldering and this being my first time soldering wires, I had a tough time at first. The soldering didn't look pretty, but the wires were on tight or so I thought. I had the most trouble when trying to solder another wire to the GND (the wire that is supposed to connect to the - terminal) with the other wire for the JST already soldering in. When I melt the solder, the other wire would just fall out, so I tried to twist the leads for the wires together and solder together then solder it to the GND. This got really messy, and may have been my problem.

When I finally got everything hooked up, the Neopxiels again acted almost the same as when I had the wrong end connected, only this time there was some different colors, there were several red ones in a row, but there were gaps where there wasn't any led's let up like when I had it connected to the wrong end. Sorry, that I don't have any pictures because when I tried to play around with the wires, I broke them off the solder, one of the leads broke on the wire for the JST connector, and I damaged one of the solder pads for the first Neopixel (it ripped off with the wire). I cut the first neopixel off where you are supposed to cut it, and I am going to try again another day. Hopefully, I didn't ruin the strip in all this and that I will have the other 89 pixels working.

Does anyone have any recommendations for soldering the wires to the end of the neopixels? I tried keeping the Neopixel strip in place without it moving by using one of the "Helping Hands" with the magnifying glass when I soldered. The clamps to hold things seemed pretty tight, so I made sure it wasn't on any of the pixels. For the soldering iron, I borrowed one of my dad's Weller PH1201 soldering irons. Its old, but still works really well when I tried it on other things for practicing. For the tip, it is a pencil style tip. Let me know if either the iron or the this type of tip is best for soldering the wires to the neopixel strips or if I need to use a different iron or tip. For the solder I used what franklin97355 recommended https://www.adafruit.com/products/145. I was able to successfully solder the leads to an Adafruit 5v Trinket today and it only took me about a minute to do so, so I feel like I am confident in simply soldering component leads to PCBs, but not so much the wires to these strips, so if anyone has had experience with this can tell me what they do for soldering these that would be much appreciated!

Another question I have is about the capacitor, I used this one 4700uf https://www.adafruit.com/products/1589 because it was the one Adafruit has available and it was in my recommendations when I was purchasing the larger power supply. Is that too large? The uberguide recommends 1000uf.

User avatar
ViralCipher
 
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:44 pm

Re: Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by ViralCipher »

I just realized that the Neopixels are supposed to use a 5v supply and I bought and used a 12v by mistake (see post above). Did I possibly just destroy my Neopixel strip? :(

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88091
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

I'm afraid so. A 12v supply will kill a 5v strip pretty quickly.

User avatar
ViralCipher
 
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:44 pm

Re: Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by ViralCipher »

Ok thanks. Next time I will be much more deligent. I did read the über guide before, but what happened was I didn't buy the Neopixels right away after reading the guide because I wanted to practice soldering first. When I was ready to buy the Neopixels I switched from 1m to 3m and remembered from the guide I would need the bigger power supply. Instead of looking back at the guide I searched the website and the one I purchased was the first one that came up. Forgetting that the guide said to use a 5v supply and not realizing adafruit sold more than one kind of supply I went and purchased and used it. I guess this is what I get for being to eager to get started and not reading and rereading the guides on this website. Lesson learned.

User avatar
bramuno
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by bramuno »

watch the adafruit tutorial video on soldering and it will help you in soldering a Neopixel strip.

use something heavy to hold down the strip from moving. hold the iron on the lead contact for about 2-3 full seconds, getting it solder-hot. then touch some solder to the tip and the solder will grab onto the hot contact of the strip making a nice little ball of solder that sticks to the strip. be generous with the solder, more is better, just make sure they dont touch any of the other contacts. once you have a soldered contact, hold the wire in your other hand and use the iron to re-heat the solder on the contact. the solder turns into liquid and gives you a chance to insert the wire into the solder, then just remove the iron and let it cool. repeat with the other contacts. remember the longer it takes to insert the wire, the hotter the wire will get...do it fast.

while this does work as it has worked well for me, the contacts are not as strong as they need to be so i advise reinforcing the wires with some kind of epoxy or even hot glue.

User avatar
oflander
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 6:12 pm

Re: Adafruit NeoPixel Project with Arduino

Post by oflander »

Might I suggest using stranded wires coming off those small contact points. I ruined 2 ring strips by using solid wire and the pad pulled off and the ring is done,because there is no where else to solder the data line to. The standed will get you off the connection, then you could go with solid wire.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Glowy things (LCD, LED, TFT, EL) purchased at Adafruit”