RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

Used an external power adapter into Arduino Uno (7.5v 1.5A; manual says 12V, but this one worked)

Demo code, both the patterns and 7 segment (although I didn't cut the strip apart) worked right out of the box.

Not sure why there are comments about memory being a problem; demo code is about 4k and Uno has 32k available.

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

The source code and examples provided from radioshack are not very good at all. I recommend using the source code for pololu's led strip.

https://github.com/pololu/pololu-led-strip-arduino

For some reason the rgb values are mixed up. I'm not sure if it was from the source code i was using but it's wasn't that big of an issue for me.

So far i have programmed a light show that beats to music, an ambient light and a strobe light. The light given off is fantastic.

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

Very nice and bright, it also works well with the Atmega 2560 board, which is what I'm using. Someone else said the UNO doesn't have enough memory to run the supplied sample driver code, but I have to wonder as the Atmega's executable from the same source code is only about 4K and both controllers are RISC, so the UNO's AVR executable shouldn't be much different.

The strip will, just as mentioned in the instructions, require an adequate 12v supply to light it. This is independent of the 5v USB supplied power, which may or may not be active when running the strip. If 5v is being supplied, the strip will simply go dark when the 12v side is unplugged, leaving the controller still running quietly.

One note: If you use the Atmega board, you will have to comment out and uncomment the appropriate define statements at the top of the code. The code comes approriately marked to make this super easy.
#define DATA_1 (PORTF |= 0X01) // DATA 1 // for ATMEGA
#define DATA_0 (PORTF &= 0XFE) // DATA 0 // for ATMEGA
#define STRIP_PINOUT DDRF=0xFF // for ATMEGA
//#define DATA_1 (PORTC |= 0X01) // DATA 1 // for UNO
//#define DATA_0 (PORTC &= 0XFE) // DATA 0 // for UNO
//#define STRIP_PINOUT (DDRC=0xFF) // for UNO

All in all, this strip works exactly as advertised, but it's super pricey, so I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

And one last thing, here's the exact URL to that elusive code sample, found right below the main product picture but not highlighted as a link very well..
http://www.radioshack.com/graphics/uc/rsk/Support/SoftwareDownload/2760249.zip

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

The code that RS provides works AFTER ignoring the manual and plugging the red and black wires into an external (not Arduino) 12v power source.

Another problem RS never mentioned: An Arduino UNO does not have enough RAM to run this code without errors. So unless you are willing to add memory to your Arduino, don't bother. Go with analog instead, it's simpler. Even better, get Adafruit and avoid this product all together.

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

I thought it would be better than the one from sparkfun, but it ended up being worse :-/

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

Nice for adding some custom colors to stuff, the packaging is substantial and seems good quality. However, the hexadecimal colors for the sample code are NOT in standard website format (RRGGBB). To use website hexadecimal colors, you must move the first two digits to the end (GGBBRR).

To set color, the sample code is under the Product Summary tab. It uses hard-coded PROGMEM functions, which can be time-consuming to type out, especially when you are trying to figure out what color you want.

Also, the 8 AA battery holder works well to power the Arduino+LED strip, gives the full 12V needed. Model: 270-387, use with snap connector Model: 270-324, and attach to a 2.1mm plug that has the center pin positive (soldered to the red wire).

Here is some Matlab code that will convert standard hexadecimal colors for you. Or you can use the Matlab code as an example to write code in your preferred language. Two examples are below: (1) all LEDs the same color, and (2) LEDS in three alternating colors.

---------------One-Color-------------------------
function colorname_code_generator(color_name,hex_color_string,n_lines)
%draw a hex matrix to generate arduino code for radioshack LED strip

%10x10 strip. Each '1' controls 3 contiguous LEDs.
%Use to convert hex color codes. The radioshack strip has a non-standard
%color format. Hex color code for websites is RRGGBB. the Radioshack LED
%strip is GGBBRR (move the two R units to the end).

%it will output a filename, 'this_color.txt' that will contain the Arduino
%formatted color

%example code:
%color_name = 'green_003C00';
%hex_color_string = '003C00';
%n_lines = 10; %number of color lines to print out
%colorname_code_generator(colorname,hex_color_string,n_lines)

%%%%pre-set by the LED
n_addressable = 10; %number of unique addressable LED spots on strip

%%%%%%%%%automated code generator%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%color_split
R1=hex_color_string(1);
R2=hex_color_string(2);
G1=hex_color_string(3);
G2=hex_color_string(4);
B1=hex_color_string(5);
B2=hex_color_string(6);

RS_hex = sprintf('%s%s%s%s%s%s',G1,G2,B1,B2,R1,R2);

starting_line = sprintf('PROGMEM const unsigned long %s[10][10]={\n',color_name);
ending_line = '};';

%to repeat the same color across all LEDs
center_colors=sprintf('0x%s',RS_hex);
for i=1:(n_addressable-1)
center_colors = sprintf('%s,0x%s',center_colors,RS_hex);
end

center_line1 = sprintf(' {%s},',center_colors);

center_lines = sprintf('%s\n',center_line1);
for n=1:(n_lines-1)
center_lines = strcat(center_lines,sprintf('%s\n',center_line1));
end
%%%%now put it all together

all_together = strcat(starting_line,sprintf('%s\n',center_lines),ending_line);

filename = sprintf('%s.txt',color_name);
fid = fopen(filename,'w');

fprintf(fid,'%s',all_together);

fclose(fid);

--------------Alternating Colors-----------------
function colorname_stripe_code_generator(color_name,hex_color_string1,hex_color_string2,hex_color_string3,n_lines)
%draw a hex matrix to generate arduino code for radioshack LED strip
%pattern is
%color1,color2,color3,color2,color1,color2,color3,color2,color1,color2

%10x10 strip. Each '1' controls 3 contiguous LEDs.
%Use to convert hex color codes. The radioshack strip has a non-standard
%color format. Hex color code for websites is RRGGBB. the Radioshack LED
%strip is GGBBRR (move the two R units to the end).

%it will output a filename, 'this_color.txt' that will contain the Arduino
%formatted color

%example code:
%green, white, orange stripes
%colorname_stripe_code_generator('irishflag_stripe','003C00','FFFFFF','FF7F00',10);

%%%%pre-set by the LED
n_addressable = 10; %number of unique addressable LED spots on strip

%%%%%%%%%%automated code generator%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%color_split
R1=hex_color_string1(1);
R2=hex_color_string1(2);
G1=hex_color_string1(3);
G2=hex_color_string1(4);
B1=hex_color_string1(5);
B2=hex_color_string1(6);
RS_hex1 = sprintf('%s%s%s%s%s%s',G1,G2,B1,B2,R1,R2);

R1=hex_color_string2(1);
R2=hex_color_string2(2);
G1=hex_color_string2(3);
G2=hex_color_string2(4);
B1=hex_color_string2(5);
B2=hex_color_string2(6);
RS_hex2 = sprintf('%s%s%s%s%s%s',G1,G2,B1,B2,R1,R2);

R1=hex_color_string3(1);
R2=hex_color_string3(2);
G1=hex_color_string3(3);
G2=hex_color_string3(4);
B1=hex_color_string3(5);
B2=hex_color_string3(6);
RS_hex3 = sprintf('%s%s%s%s%s%s',G1,G2,B1,B2,R1,R2);

starting_line = sprintf('PROGMEM const unsigned long %s[10][10]={\n',color_name);
ending_line = '};';

% % %to repeat the same color across all LEDs
% % center_colors=sprintf('0x%s',RS_hex);
% % for i=1:(n_addressable-1)
% % center_colors = sprintf('%s,0x%s',center_colors,RS_hex);
% % end
center_colors=sprintf('0x%s,0x%s,0x%s,0x%s,0x%s,0x%s,0x%s,0x%s,0x%s,0x%s',RS_hex1,RS_hex2,RS_hex3,RS_hex2,RS_hex1,RS_hex2,RS_hex3,RS_hex2,RS_hex1,RS_hex2);

center_line1 = sprintf(' {%s},',center_colors);

center_lines = sprintf('%s\n',center_line1);
for n=1:(n_lines-1)
center_lines = strcat(center_lines,sprintf('%s\n',center_line1));
end
%%%%now put it all together

all_together = strcat(starting_line,sprintf('%s\n',center_lines),ending_line);

filename = sprintf('%s.txt',color_name);
fid = fopen(filename,'w');

fprintf(fid,'%s',all_together);

fclose(fid);

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

For the few that cannot find the place to download the files, just look under "Downloadable Content" and the next 4 lines is the Sketch and the user's guides:
Support PDE Files and Schematics (ZIP format)
User's Guide (English)
Errata Sheet (English)
User's Guide (Spanish)

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

The manual states that I can download example code from here. Wheres the download at? Cant download the manual here either. I have no Idea how to use this because there is no support.

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

Could really use links to download the manual and the example code.....

Comments about RadioShack® 3.28-ft. (1 Meter) Tricolor LED Strip:

Impossible to find the PDE>... not user friendly.!