Adalight strange behavior

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harmony_
 
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Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 6:21 am

Adalight strange behavior

Post by harmony_ »

Hi.

I'm trying for a while to get Adalight up and running. With no luck. I compiled and uploaded the code to the board, checked wiring three times but can't get it to work.
I plug in the power for the strand and as soon as i connect the Arduino to my PC the first light turns on, ocassionaly 3-4 more. At the beginning the LED is pale blue, but when i wiggle it at little it goes from bright blue to white. Now i disconnect the board and the pixel stays white until i disconnect the power too.

I try'd checking the strand with a multimeter. Red and blue are fine, but for the other two don't make a sound. Is this normal, because i have 3 strand and all are the same.

Has anyone any idea what is wrong?

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pburgess
 
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Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:29 am

Re: Adalight strange behavior

Post by pburgess »

There's several stages that all need to be working for Adalight to operate. Best way to troubleshoot is to break it down into smaller problems.

Most likely, it sounds like the Arduino and LEDs aren't on speaking terms. Make sure GND is connected between the two, and confirm the data and clock pins go to the right Arduino pins (11 and 13 for Adalight).

If the connections are correct, next step is to download the Adafruit WS2801 library for Arduino, and get the strandtest example sketch working (changing the code slightly to use pins 11 & 13 instead of 2 & 3). This will tell you if the Arduino and LEDs are connected right.

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-WS2801-Library

If it still won't play nice, please try to get some photos that clearly show all the connections between Arduino, LEDs and power.

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