How to run Fast LED programs on addressable LEDs using Arduino

Fast LED is a library of programs for controlling addressable LEDs. Before using the libraries or working on writing your own code you need to know what LEDs you are using and how many of them will there be. Make a note of what pin, or pins will you be putting the LEDs onto.

Download the latest release of the Arduino IDE for your operating system. You may already have this.

Open Arduino.

In the 'Tools' menu navigate to 'Manage Libraries'. In the 'Filter your search' box type 'Fast LED'. You should get something like this:



Click on 'install', wait until it installs then from 'File' 'Examples' scroll down and 'Fast LED' should be down towards the bottom of the list. You can then select one of the Fast LED libraries for example 'ColorPalette'. Select this and the code opens in Arduino.

Among the first few lines are the ones to alter depending on your requirements:

#define LED_PIN     5
#define NUM_LEDS    50
#define BRIGHTNESS  64

#define LED_TYPE    WS2811

Change these to match the string of LEDs you are using. 

In my video example below, I'm using Pin 5, 22 LEDs, 100 brightness and a string of WS2811 addressable LEDs.