Control WS2812 LEDs with a Raspberry Pi
Colorful Lights
© Lead Image © Nelli Valova, 123RF.com
Control a matrix of WS2812 LEDs with the Raspberry Pi.
You are probably familiar with the large colored LED strips in many shop windows. Often these light strips use WS2812 RGB LEDs. Ready-made controllers are available, but they usually have a very limited feature set. In this article, I show you how to control a matrix of WS2812 LEDs with the Raspberry Pi.
Power Games
The WS2812 is a programmable RGB LED that is driven by a small controller that has a data byte for each of the three basic colors (red, green, and blue). This arrangement makes it possible to display more than 16 million colors with one LED. Each LED has four connections: two for the 5V power supply and two (DI, data in, and DO, data out) for asynchronous serial data transmission.
The output of one LED can be connected to the input of the next, which theoretically allows any number of WS2812 units to be connected in series. However, at some point, it takes so much time to write the values into the LEDs that they start to flicker. With 1,024 LEDs in series, it is just about possible to supply all the LEDs with data 30 times per second so that no visible flickering occurs.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Photoshop on Linux?
A developer has patched Wine so that it'll run specific versions of Photoshop that depend on Adobe Creative Cloud.
-
Linux Mint 22.3 Now Available with New Tools
Linux Mint 22.3 has been released with a pair of new tools for system admins and some pretty cool new features.
-
New Linux Malware Targets Cloud-Based Linux Installations
VoidLink, a new Linux malware, should be of real concern because of its stealth and customization.
-
Say Goodbye to Middle-Mouse Paste
Both Gnome and Firefox have proposed getting rid of a long-time favorite Linux feature.
-
Manjaro 26.0 Primary Desktop Environments Default to Wayland
If you want to stick with X.Org, you'll be limited to the desktop environments you can choose.
-
Mozilla Plans to AI-ify Firefox
With a new CEO in control, Mozilla is doubling down on a strategy of trust, all the while leaning into AI.
-
Gnome Says No to AI-Generated Extensions
If you're a developer wanting to create a new Gnome extension, you'd best set aside that AI code generator, because the extension team will have none of that.
-
Parrot OS Switches to KDE Plasma Desktop
Yet another distro is making the move to the KDE Plasma desktop.
-
TUXEDO Announces Gemini 17
TUXEDO Computers has released the fourth generation of its Gemini laptop with plenty of updates.
-
Two New Distros Adopt Enlightenment
MX Moksha and AV Linux 25 join ranks with Bodhi Linux and embrace the Enlightenment desktop.