About a year ago, I ordered a few WS2801-type addressable RGB LED strips, and have been very happy with them since. Today I was curious how much they cost nowadays, and if anything new was out in China. It appears that a lot has changed since the last time I looked. Back then there were a few different chips, but the WS2801 was the only one doing 8-bit PWM, now there’s even a chip doing 12-bit PWM! However, it also appears that the protocol that was used back then (basic two-wire SPI) has been replaced by single-wire protocols requiring precise timing.
Seeing as there’s just too much choice and the information is scattered all over the place, I figured I’d do a summary of all I could find. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to actually get engineering samples of any of these strips, but I’m hoping that I can still compile a summary using only the datasheets. So here goes in alphabetical order! Continue reading Digital Addressable LED-strips