Daft Punk Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE

[Minneapolis]

I'm trying out the Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE board with the Mini Skinny Neopixel Digital RGB LED strip (144 m). It's for the Daft Punk helmet and I've made a 5x32 matrix. Most of the leds will light up, but not all of them. After I select one animation, it's fine. The moment I try to select a different one, it freezes. After resetting or unplugging the battery, none of the leds turn on. I tried connecting the Circuit Playground Express to the matrix but nothing happened. The led strip is fine, but I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong with the board. The battery I'm using is the Lithium Ion Battery - 3.7V 2000mAh. Do I need more power?

[blnkjns]

Neopixels run off 5V, so you need additional power for the LEDs as well.

[Minneapolis]

I added more power to it, but I'm still getting the same results.

[Franklin97355]

What are you powering this with and have you tried to run your program on a small strip of pixels? You might need a level shifter to make the signal consistent.

[blnkjns]

Yes, a level shifter is mandatory. I thought 32U4 and assumend it is 5V logic, but it seems it isn't, it is 3,3V logic. So you need to shift the signals too. What happens is that the first LED's might be able to interpret the lower voltage data line when it is still above the voltage cap, but it will drop below eventually. A 5V data signal will run further into a long string.

[Minneapolis]

Thank you very much! Which level shifter or converter would you recommend?

[blnkjns]

Either a loose IC like
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1787
or a module like
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1875
Depending on your desired form factor.

[Minneapolis]

Do they both require a breadboard?