So i’m basically making the same thing as in the video. I’ve finally gotten to the LED part, the head is mostly finished (just needs assembly) So i have a couple questions on how to go about the LEDs as this is my first actual LED/Arduino project. (I’m using a Nano BTW) Can i use different pins to control different parts? For example, pin 4 for ears, pin 5 for face? Would using separate pins be advised to make controlling different parts of the face easier? I’d like to have a button for LED brightness control, and another button for LED modes(maybe even different modes for different parts of the face). I plan on using the FastLED3 ColorPalette example code for the modes and then just adding a couple static colors. Would it be possible to change the secondHand variable or increase an integer to change modes with a button? Another big question i have is whether it would make more sense/be easier to program the strip, if i have everything running off one pin , so eyes would be connected to ears, then face, ect. Basically everything would be one long strip and i’d have to remember which led # was which part of the face, OR would it be easier to have different parts of the face run off of different pins, but then would it be possible so send the same pattern across all the pins?, just like i would if i had one strip. For example, the rainbow spectrum on on longs strip. Also would it be possible at all to make the ears work like a non standard matrix (like one of those displays basically). The thing is it wouldn’t be a square or rectangle, it would be more of a circle because not all the strips are the same length on the ears. THanks for you help so far guys, and have a Merry Christmas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elsuN6f1wj8
Everything you want is possible, but it might need some time and efford to explore, how to do it. The only valid reason for multiple pin usage is the desire for more speed. For the code itself it makes no difference, how the leds are connected. Also, parallel output works only on ARM controllers, not on the Nano. The first thing to achieve when running multiple effects on different areas of the strip is, to write code without any delays. To be honest, it is an ambitious project in case you just started writing code but again: yes, definitely all you mentioned is possible.