Teensy 3.6 and OctoWS2811 Adaptor board

[Peavey5150]

Can I use the Teensy 3.6 and OctoWS2811 Adaptor board together?

I also want to use the FastLED library...

 

[PaulStoffregen]

Yes, Teensy 3.6 works great with the OctoWS2811 board.

The using double insulator pins and sockets are recommended, since Teensy 3.6 is longer. Those taller pins plus the sockets allow Teensy 3.6 position high enough to overhang the RJ45 connectors, as you can see in this photo.

This info & photo can be found on the OctoWS2811 board page (scroll down if using a small screen), with links to the pages for those pins and sockets.

https://www.pjrc.com/store/octo28_adaptor.html

Also lower on that page you can find details about the rugged enclosure the OctoWS2811 board is meant to fit.

 

[Peavey5150]

Mr. Stoffregen,

Thank you for your help!

 

[billtubbs]

Does FastLED library work with OctoWS2811 Adaptor?

I also want to use the FastLED library...

I also have this question.

Since the product page says the following, I am not optimistic:

• This adaptor board connects Teensy 3.2 - Teensy 4.1 to thousands of LEDs using the OctoWS2811 Library.

Does anyone know the answer?

 

[PaulStoffregen]

Yes, FastLED can use OctoWS2811 as a "driver", so you use FastLED to do all the color & animation stuff and it uses OctoWS2811 to actually talk to the hardware. You get the best of both worlds... all of FastLED's special RGB rendering features together with the highly optimized non-blocking data transfer of OctoWS2811.

To see how it's done, in Arduino click File > Examples > OctoWS2811 > BasicTest_FastLED.
Or File > Examples > FastLED > Multiple > OctoWS2811Demo.
Or File > Examples > FastLED > Ports > PJRCSpectrumAnalyzer.

Or you can view those examples on github (without having to install Arduino + Teensyduino)

https://github.com/PaulStoffregen/O...mples/BasicTest_FastLED/BasicTest_FastLED.ino

https://github.com/PaulStoffregen/F...es/Multiple/OctoWS2811Demo/OctoWS2811Demo.ino

https://github.com/PaulStoffregen/F...PJRCSpectrumAnalyzer/PJRCSpectrumAnalyzer.ino

As you can see in the examples, the key to making this work is you first include OctoWS2811.h and define USE_OCTOWS2811, before you include FastLED.h. Then you use FastLED.addLeds<OCTOWS2811> rather than the normal FastLED.addLeds<WS2811, pin, color>.


FastLED can also use WS2812Serial this way.


Do make sure you install the latest version of Teensyduino (1.56). Older versions had some timing bugs with FastLED and Teensy 4.x. This stuff works well in version 1.56.

 

[billtubbs]

This is great thanks! I thought FastLED was a driver like OctoWS2811 but the fact that I can use the FastLED API and OctoWS2811 driver is great.

So far I only tested FastLED with my LED strips connected directly to the teensy with a breadboard. Next step is to plug them into the OctoWS2811.

Thanks for the installation tips.

PS: Just ordered two new Teensy 4.0s!