Michael,
Thank you for that detailed response.
In my mind, I was thinking about a USB HID client using a Teensy.
Have the Teensy do something and report back to the PC or have the Teensy do something in response to a command from the PC.
You mentioned the Tennsy LC for use with WS21812B.
Can it be used with the Teensy 3.2 OctoWS2811 Adaptor ?
Would adapter need to be modified?
I dunno. Note, we are talking about much different scales. Using the propshield or the LC alone, you can drive 100 lights or so. Using the octows2811 adapter is much heavier duty, when you have hundreds and hundreds of LEDs, and you need to issue the LEDs in parallel. Also when you get up to that level, the cost of the lights far outweighs the cost of the Teensy (or Teensys). But that is not for a beginner. I would say learn how to control a small number of LEDs first, and then you can go into the advanced techniques (FastLed, OctoWS2811, etc.). I don't believe the LC can run the Octows2811 library. At the moment, the Teensy 4.0 also can't run it, but I would expect sooner or later it might (though perhaps like the audio shield, it may be Paul will have to come out with a shield that targets the Teensy 4.0 directly).
The LC has a lot less memory than the 3.2. It should be able to handle at least 100 LEDs. I tend to use it for things like my steampunk wooden bowtie where I have a single 32 LED ring, and the Teensy does the processing, and I don't need any extra space for voltage conversion. But there some things it can't do. At the moment, the 3.2 is perhaps the best for an all around Teensy. The Teensy 4.0 is roughly the same price, but it was just rolled out, and there are still things being worked on, but the 3.2 has been around for several years now, and it supports most things in the infrastructure. The 3.5/3.6 have things that the 3.2 can't do, but they are also a little bit more expensive.
One thing I forgot to mention is if your code does a lot of floating point (likely not for USB HID stuff, other than some calculations to adjust things), the Teensy 4.0 has hardware double and single precision floating point. The Teensy 3.5 and 3.6 have only single precision hardware support (and double is done via emulation). The LC and 3.2 have no hardware FP support, and need to do everything via an emulator. It really depends on what you ultimately want to do.
Or as you grow, be flexible and as you need the additional features, you will then upgrade at that time. But you might not need those features, or you might change your mind.
Or course as you can see by my answer:
- “Ask not the elves for advice, because they will tell you both 'yes' and 'no'.”