Fun with the NeoPixels
I didn’t get too fancy with the NeoPixels but I did try to get all of mine connected in series. Unfortunately I could only get the first one to work after hooking all that up. I double checked all the connections and everything seemed lined up correctly. + to + and – to – and all the arrows pointing in a row. I decided it must be a jumper wire so I unhooked the three additional NeoPix that I’d connected to the functioning one and began connecting them out one at a time (note to self this is probably a good practice for the future) and when I didn’t get that 2nd one to light up I began swapping jumpers.
I totally lucked out that the first one I tried seemed to be faulty. This is the second jumper wire I’ve discovered like this and I’m wondering if with the multimeter I could test the wires for continuity. (I set the jumpers aside but tied them in a loose knot so I know not to use them unless I figure out how to fix them.)
I began switching numbers around and was able to figure out what all the parameters did. First it displays each specified color at the brightness determined on the scale of 0 to 255 for a time determined by the 4th number in each series. When I made the number smaller the delay was a shorter time. (Not sure what unit of time this number represents. I assumed it was milliseconds but it seem longer than this.)
I was confused by the difference between rainbow and rainbow cycle. I changed the parameters and deleted one and then the other line. It seems like the cycle is a longer smoother thing. The number which follows seems to make it happen faster or slower.
I decided to try adding the switch to my device so I could turn it on and off while I was rewriting code without plugging and unplugging the USB cable. The switch worked but I got this error message on my computer.
I’m not sure why adding a switch would cause the whole system to draw more power. I noticed that in the Getting Started with Arduino book there’s a resister included in the switch circuit. Maybe that’s why? Need to find out more about this.
