What’s more fun than individually addressable RGB LEDs? Many, many individually addressable RGB LEDs. What’s more fun than all the miscellaneous soldering involved in connecting many of these cheap and cheerful strips together? Well, basically anything. But in particular, these little widgets that [todbot] designed help make connecting up strips of RGB LEDs a snap.
[todbot]’s connectors aren’t particularly groundbreaking, but they’re one of those things that you need the moment you first lay eyes on them. And they’re a testament to rapid prototyping: the mounting holes and improved routing patterns evolved as [todbot] made some, soldered them up, mounted them, and then made some more. We’d like to see some odd angles, of course, but that shouldn’t be too hard to arrange. Everything is up on GitHub, so you can go check it out.
Of course, necessity is the mother of invention, and she’s got many kids. Which is to say that we’ve seen a variation of this hack before precisely because other folks have stared at this matrix-of-strips problem before and come up with similar solutions. Still, we really like the mounting holes and overall aesthetic of [todbot]’s solution, and if you ever find yourself joining WS2812 strips together, give it a try.
Will they get you high or is this adafruit product placement?
Only if you let the smoke out :P
I’m not sure what your problem is…after all, mentioning WS2812 is a product placement.
Yes, but not for a specific retailer. I guess Joe doesn’t like Adafruit.
“Neo*” implies adafruit to me, but I’m glad to see HAD using the proper name for the LEDs themselves this time (ws2812)
HaD should use proper manufacture part# instead of trademark/name. No one outside of the small group know exactly the specs of Arduino-neo-zero-WTF uses. Say it is an ATMega328 or WS2812. The target reader is hackers not mindless consumers that would go blindly buy brand “A” products to replicate a hack. A skillful hacker would be able to duplicate that with what he/she has available.
HaD should focus on *how* hacks are done instead of *what* brand name parts top buy and *what* buzz words of the day are used to create a hack. No need to say “3D printing” in every single headline if/when the rest of the headline are interesting.
Getting pretty tired of the “neo” branding of everything, especially commodity LEDs that can be purchased in bulk for pennies on the dollar Adafruit charges. It’s brand-name pricing on cheap LEDs, and it’s a bit ridiculous.
Of course, their LEDs last much longer than the 99 cent eBay special.
Have you done a study? Can you show a histogram of lifetimes?
HaD contributors, please remember — HaD’s policy is “One neo-pixel article per week”, not “per contributor per week”. Voluntarily going above the mandatory requirement creates a clueless keyboard tapper image which is not good for your career (unless your career is with HaD)
Can’t tell if this is troll or true.
Can’t tell how I feel either way though so… meh
you must see this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-L-Shape-Quick-Splitter-Right-Angle-Corner-Connectors-rgb-4-pin-connectors-for-12V-5050/32702880195.html
My first thought as well, but this version is 4-wire, so good for apa-102c (or com,r,g,b)
I really like the ones that use wireless power and have the control signals modulated onto the power signal. Once you map their locations in 3D space you can use the little 3D app from the manufacturer to sequence a light show. You know those ones that went on sale Q2 2018….
Somebody’s smoking too many NeoJoints :)
Anyway, why not include an additional WS2812 LED module footprint on the adapter PCB, so there’s no “dead spot” in the strip?
Better yet, put a power jack on there so that the power distribution is better…
The footprint for the module onboard would look very cool for some applications for sure! I’m still pushing for more angles than 90° and 180° too. If we combined forces, we’d have stars and hexagons in no time.
I think the intended purpose started out with making matrixes where you won’t see the ones on the end anyway. But that’s not to say we can’t improve…
That is what they said last time… oh boy did they look silly in the end.
Connectors like these have been available on Ali, Amazon, and other sites for at least a year, and they’re made from the same flexible base material that the strips are made from.