I need a certain palette of colors (about 6 pixels GREEN, 3 pixels YELLOW,

turgan_s · August 6, 2018, 8:13pm

I need a certain palette of colors (about 6 pixels GREEN, 3 pixels YELLOW, 2 pixel BLUE) travel up and down an already RED lit strip.

Checking out Kriegsman’s updated “sinelon” with no visual gaps and wondering if there is any way this can be modified to traverse this pattern down a red strip?

Anyone have any pointers on how to achieve this animation? Using Apa102’s with Mega and WS2812s with Nano.

John_Sullivan · August 6, 2018, 9:17pm

Create your palette array, then loop through it and replace any black color set with your red…

marmil · August 6, 2018, 9:47pm

If you’re just looking to move a simple pattern along the string here’s a quick solution.

github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/moving_simple_pattern.ino

//***************************************************************
// Moving simple pattern
// It will wrap around, and the direction can be reversed.
// This is done a bit different then you might expect as I'm
// filling a seperate CRGB array with the custom colors/pattern
// just once in setup().  Then coping that into the main leds
// array as needed when moving it around.  There are certanly
// fancier ways to do this, but this gets a simple pattern like
// going quickly.
//
// Marc Miller, Aug 2018
//***************************************************************

#include "FastLED.h"
#define LED_TYPE LPD8806
#define DATA_PIN 11
#define CLOCK_PIN 13
#define NUM_LEDS 32
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB
#define BRIGHTNESS 255

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turgan_s · August 7, 2018, 8:35pm

@marmil thank you Marc this worked great! but if you have time I had two issues I couldnt solve after a nights work: - I have been trying to move " fill_solid( base, NUM_LEDS, CRGB::Red); // base color" anywhere other than setup so I can use this with other code using a rotary encoder. Is it possible to use fill the red outside setup? Also if I wanted the pattern to generate before first one reaches the end (In other words at some point there would be 2 or 3 patterns moving across the strip.) what should I do?

marmil · August 7, 2018, 9:03pm

Yes, instead of filling and setting up your pattern in the setup section, you could move that part into a function. Then that function can be called from setup, or at any other time from the main loop. You could even change/update what’s in the base CRGB array based upon a variable when you call the function, or have different functions and change which one you call to update base.

Here’s an example (see line 45) where I called a function in startup that did some stuff with the LEDs. This startupLEDsTest() function could also be called at anytime during the main loop too. You can do something like this for setting up your custom pattern.

github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/Glediator_test1.ino

//***************************************************************
// Testing out reading RGB data sent from Glediator
// http://www.solderlab.de/index.php/software/glediator
//
// For Glediator’s serial protocol each frame starts with 0x01,
// which is then followed by all the pixel data.  The number of
// LEDs (matrix size) needs to be set in Glediator, and also
// the output needs to be set to:
//    Output Mode:  Glediator_Protocol
//    Mapping Mode: Single_Pixels
//    Pixel Order:  HL_BL (for a single strip, or one of the the others per your setup)
//    Color Order:  RGB
//
//    Baud-Rate:    1,000,000 was suggested, but you can use 
//                  whatever as long as they are both set the
//                  same here and in Glediator.
//
//    *** Upload and have this code running first, then start up
//    Glediator otherwise it won't give you a COM port number.
//

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And here’s a variety of other programs you can explore to give you some more ideas to try out.

github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/moving_colored_bars.ino

//***************************************************************
// Moving colored bars
// Original code by Richard Bailey,  Feb. 2017
//
// Modified to allow a few other options (which might be
// useful for Christmas!)
// You'll probably need to adjust stuff for longer strips.  I only
// tested with a tiny 32 pixel setup.
//
// Marc Miller, Dec 2017
//***************************************************************

#include "FastLED.h"
#define DATA_PIN    11
#define CLK_PIN     13
#define LED_TYPE    LPD8806
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB
#define NUM_LEDS    32
#define BRIGHTNESS  64
CRGBArray<NUM_LEDS> leds;

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github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/patterns_of_blinking.ino

//***************************************************************
// Patterns of Blinking!
// Each pixel repeats a certain color pattern.  Each pixel's
// pattern can be different in both colors and length.
// All patterns blink at the same rate.
//
// This example was inspired by Mike Thornbury's forum post:
// https://plus.google.com/101708620681849403392/posts/J1HPyNBj7ET
//
// Initially there is a bit of manual setup needed to add the
// patterns and fill some things into the arrays.  There is
// probably fancier (less manual) ways to do this, but this
// works for now!
//
// Marc Miller, April 2018
//***************************************************************


#include "FastLED.h"
#define DATA_PIN    11

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github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/repeating_block_pattern.ino

//***************************************************************
//  Basic example that repeats colored blocks of random size down
//  the strip.  The block size is changed every several seconds.
//
//  Important to note is there is a check to make sure we don't
//  try to write data to pixels that don't exist (ie. values
//  equal or greater then NUM_LEDS).  Trying to write pixel
//  data to pixels that don't exist the causes bad things to
//  happen in memory.
//
//  Marc Miller, July 2017
//               May 2020 - replaced delays with EVERY_N
//***************************************************************


#include "FastLED.h"
#define DATA_PIN    11
#define CLOCK_PIN   13
#define LED_TYPE    LPD8806
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB

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github.com

marmilicious/FastLED_examples/blob/master/repeating_pattern.ino

//***************************************************************
// If we want a pattern to repeat every 5 pixels then the
// first pixel set to light up would be: 0,5,10,15,20...
// This can be represented by:  leds[5 * (x - 1) + 5]
//
// Let's put this into a loop with some variables!
//
//
// Marc Miller, Nov 2015
//              May 2020 - replaced all delays with EVERY_N
//***************************************************************

#include "FastLED.h"
#define LED_TYPE LPD8806
#define DATA_PIN 11
#define CLOCK_PIN 13
#define NUM_LEDS 32
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB
#define MASTER_BRIGHTNESS 100
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];

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If you get stuck on something you can put your code on http://gist.github.com and share the link. (For a number of reasons please don’t post code here in G+)

turgan_s · August 8, 2018, 8:22pm

had to do it as such in the end: https://gist.github.com/nervusvagus/a5e38866606781491074c2f02c6af853 two issues I have with it is that, one it is memory intensive (for nano at least) and also I couldnt find a way other than adding array members one by one to create the extra pattern sliding through the strip :-0

marmil · August 8, 2018, 10:51pm

Glad you have it working. Or is it working??

A few things I noticed…
Because your NUM_LEDS is more then 255, the pos variable should be uint16_t (instead of uint8_t).

Similarly, for the for loop on line 73, it would need to be uint16_t.

After line 81 I think you’ll need to add a check to make sure pos isn’t going above the value of NUM_LEDS. Something like:
pos = pos + delta;
if (pos == NUM_LEDS) { pos = 0; } //reset

mod8 is only for values up to 255. Instead of mod8 you can change line 75 to use modulo:
leds[ (pos + delta + i) % NUM_LEDS ] = base[i];

Also, looks like you missed setting a base[92] if that matters.

Yes, by having the second array CRGB base, the memory needed is increased. If the pattern you want to slide down your strip only goes up to base[110] though, instead of CRGB base[NUM_LEDS], you could have CRGB base[111] and save some memory there.

marmil · August 8, 2018, 11:08pm

I also occurred to me that you might check out FastLED’s gradient palettes since it looks like you’re building a gradient of un-equal widths (or varying anchor points). That might be another option for you if you only need to set it up once and not change it.