LED Strip

[MrsKaminski]

Hi,

I ordered a 5 meter LED strip, thinking that it was 5 separate LED strips, with 30 LEDs each, that my students could use with their Arduinos. I wanted 5 separate students to be able to program the LED strips. Now that I have one large LED strip, I would still like to figure out a way for my students to to use them with the Arduinos. How can I cut the LED strips so that each student has a piece to use? Also, how do the students connect the strip to their breadboards/Arduino?

Thanks,
Cassie

[adafruit_support_bill]

What kind of LED strip did you purchase? Please post a link to the product. Most strips can be cut. But the details vary depending on the type of strip.

[MrsKaminski]

I ordered 5 of these:

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

[adafruit_support_bill]

OK. Neopixels are easy. You can cut them at the solder-pads between any two pixels. In the photo below, you can see a line with a little scissors icon across the middle of the solder pads.

Instructions for connecting and powering Neopixels can be found here: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide

[MrsKaminski]

Do you have any suggestions for connecting these to the Arduino without soldering? Also, why is a capacitor necessary?

[adafruit_support_bill]

You could use alligator clips on the solder pads. https://www.adafruit.com/?q=alligator
But they can move around and cause short circuits. If possible, soldering some short wires to the pads before you give them to the students would give the alligator clips something better to grip.

The capacitor is mostly to protect the pixels from damage from power-on spikes from the power supply. If you are powering short strips directly from the Arduino, you don't really need the capacitor.

Also, if you keep your connections reasonably short (less than a foot or so) you don't really need the recommended resistor on the signal line.

[BullisInnovator]

I ordered a 5 meter Neopixel LED strip, to cut into 1 ft strips of 9 lights to be connected to ATTiny85
Which connectors do I need?
Which battery packs do I need?

I was planning on adding 3 additional LEDs to the ATTiny85 and using 2 battery packs with 3 AA batteries.
Here's an example without the strip added of the student project.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aK__nl ... sp=sharing

[adafruit_support_bill]

For a fixed installation, you can just solder wired between the ATTiny and the Neopixels. If you need them to be detachable, any 3-pin connector will work for a short strip like that. I often use a servo extension cable. Cut it in half and solder one side to the processor and the other to the pixels: https://www.adafruit.com/product/973

For batteries, 3.7v LiPo cells work well. As do 3xAA or AAA alkaline battery packs.

This guide has all the information about how to connect and program them: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neo ... e/overview