Recommended board fastLED project

Darthvader123

New member
Hi,

I am a bit in doubt which board to use for a project.. Still quite new to Teensy..
I'll need to control a WS2812 pixelstrip; however, it will output a static color (per section a different color).

The pixelstrip will have a maximum length of 300 pixels.
I need the most reliable board available to run for 2 years

So which board to use? And I'm also interested in knowing the technical limitations/motivation for the use of that board.

Side questions: I need to make at least 50 pieces of this setup.
Is there any advice where to buy such amount with perhaps some discount? (and shipping to EU)

Thanks!
 
What's your programming environment?

You can find cheaper boards than Teensy. However, Teensy 3.2 is my go to board for small and large projects. perfect for fastLed code/led projects. I use arduino IDE. Teensy has Plenty of speed and storage. Small size. 5V tolerant on just about every pin, never had one fail or crash unless I smoked it or wrote a crappy program. And with arduino and teensy installer, I NEVER have issues seeing the board on the IDE (have had many boards at once hooked up USB without issue too). This is the biggest selling point for me. Very robust Teensy 3.2 USB connection!

A C++ led array would be perfect for lighting different sections of your 300 long strip. in two years, your leds or power supply will probably give out before the teensy....
 
I use the Arduino IDE. The boards will run in the end (obviously) standalone, so they receive external power, as well as the LED strip.
My only experience with Teensy is the 3.2, which was great.

Just curious if the LC will do the trick as well. Since they are cheaper in the end.
 
I haven't used the LC, but I know the 3.2 will work well for this purpose. The 3.2 combined with the OctoWS2811 board works very well. If you're just running 1 strip per teensy at 300 pixels long, then probably any teensy would work. I have ran a strip of 300 pixels from an arduino uno, which is not nearly as capable as LC. You said you need 50 of these setups. Are the 50 strands of 300 pixels each going to be located near each other? If so, a single controller may work for multiple strands, thus lowering your overall cost.
 
The only trouble with recommending a Teensy 3.2/3.5/3.6 right now is evidently the supply is getting thin due to the global chip shortage. Paul has said in another post that PJRC has run out of Teensy 3.2, 3.5, and 3.6's, but still has the 4.0's and 4.1's, and the long term outlook is better for those chips. PJRC will eventually get restocks, but it may take some time. Other retailers might still have stock (Digikey had 2,968 when I checked). I don't use FastLED, so I don't know if there are any compatibility issues with the Teensy 4.0 or 4.1.

My sense is if you are dealing with a lot of lights, that at some point the cost of the microprocessors is rather small compared to the cost of the LEDs and the infrastructure. If the LEDs are spread out, it is likely better to have one microprocessor per cluster of lights, rather than depending on transmission over a distance (and note, the WS2812B/SK6812 protocol is very timing sensitive since it doesn't have a separate clock signal).
 
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