So the bits started to arrive, early on were the first order of WS2812B LED Strip and a 5v power supply. So I started looking for a way to test them.
These strips had 3 wires - 5v, Ground and Data. I needed to find a way to send data, and then it hit me - Arduino - so out of the stash I dragged and Arduino Uno. Found some examples of how to drive the pixels with the FastLED library. As it had been a while since last using arduino this to a little bit of effort to remember all the steps, but I got a proof of concept up and running.
Next we needed to think about mounting the LED strips on the house. After a bit of research on auschristmaslighting.com I found that a recommended method was to cable tie the strips to conduit and then mount hte conduit on the house. This filled in a couple of days buying/measuring/cutting and mounting it on the house. Then taking the conduit down to mount the lights on the conduit. Care needs to be taken to not over-tighten the cable ties as you do not want to damage the strip, also you should resist the urge to pull the strip tight along the length of the conduit as this can cause failure.
(the reading I have done since buying strip would indicate that it is less robust than strings of LED and a number of people have had many failures)
During this process I also learned to shorten strips of led and also join strings of LED. With care you can join it pad to pad like it is from factory.
With all the LED strips joined (total of 600 LEDS) the limitations of the Uno memory with FastLED became apparent. I flashed the code the an Arduino Mega and this problem was eliminated for now.
During this process the DMX SPI decoders arrived. So it was time to have a play, the end result was that until I could find time to work with sequencing software and true control of the lights this was a simple answer to drive the lights when they first got up on the house.
The reading continued looking at controllers and software....
