08-FastLED Code Helpers - LED Strip Arduino Tutorial - RGB LED Effects

Episode: FastLED Code Helper Macros, such as EVERY_N_MILLISECONDS, and the beat timers.

Learn Arduino step by step with this FastLED LED Strip effect tutorial for beginners on up. Watch live on the LEDs as Dave works in the editor and debugger, showing you how to craft your own LED strip effects for ARGB (individually addressable RGB) LEDs.

The Heltec ESP32 module used in the video is available at the following link:

Software Prerequisites: Install the following!

Even though we will not be actively using their IDE, the Arduino software must be installed on the machine even though we'll be using VS Code. Thus, we install the desktop IDE and then never use it. You may wish to launch it and install the ESP32 platform to make it useful for quick scratch projects, etc.

(2) Install Visual Studio Code from

Visual Studio Code will be our editor and IDE.

(3) Install the PlatformIO IDE

PlatformIO IDE is an "environment" for VSCode that includes the compilers, tools, and everything you need to compile, build, and run projects for many systems. The Arduino ESP32 is but one of those, so we must install the ESP32 platform within PlatformIO:

(4) Within PlatformIO/VSCode, install the Espressif ESP32 Platform for Arduino

All code is available on github:

[JB-xtzm]

this is one of the coolest most valuable channels on youtube

[qwer.ty.]

Dave you are a genius! I recently saw that you are the father of the task manager in windows! Your code explanation is really nice! Thank you very much for everything!!

[geoffreyanderson]

"... two essential topics to achieve LED greatness..." - that is certified gold.

Great stuff as usual!

[benjaminfishel-brown]

Thanks a ton for posting these videos. I'm a developer but they were really helpful to get me in the right mindset to think about how the LEDs need to be approached logically. Have a good one!

[jhordyperez]

It would be great if one of these days you give us a platformio tutorial, for those of us who are still starting with this IDE. Greetings and thanks for sharing.

[RicardoPenders]

Thank you Dave, your videos help me a lot to make sense of things.

[penttipirinen]

Awesome Dave! I think I'm going to have to play around with this for a bit. :-) Thanks again for the great work you put into your videos.

[FilmFactry]

Thanks Dave! I haven't lit anything up yet, but getting closer. I just ordered a couple $1 ESP-01s boards with LED Driver module. Some come with a small WS2812B ring light. The ESP-01 is pretty cool for $1ish. Its a 8266 chip.

[andymouse]

These tutorials are solid gold I'm actualy learning ! I'm a hardware guy just getting to know the Arduino/MCU world and beginning to get over not having a soldering iron near me, all my simple projects have been a copy and paste massacre but I would like to know if any of you stunning examples are available for me to look at somewhere please ? I learn by plugging in other numbers and seeing what happens however I'm ok if they all get set to white I can handle that bit !....cheers.

[mrhomely]

Dave, I just discovered your channel via reddit. I absolutely love it, keep making great content.

[simonmarkham]

Hi Dave, 2:50 I think you will find <LED_BUILTIN> is 25 for the module you are using. Or is this a 'work it out for yourself moment'?
I think this series is a little pot of gold and enjoy your insights very much. Glad to see the subs are climbing well, but what have you done with Clive?

[unitedeverything]

Any change of using a .mov file to change the color of the pixel? I would have a 1 pixel x 120 pixel video - each pixel is one led

[fleckditchburn]

I have followed your videos and instructions, when i have 20 LEDS I can get them to fad in and out but with 60 LEDS they snap on and off. What am i doing wrong?

[pcmobiletechnicalsolutions]

fastled how to change output led pin while code is running

[vunguyenhoang]

i'm using an esp8266, is it capable of control 6000 LEDs connected in series

[FlasH]

Thanks for video! What's the point to use infinite loop inside "loop" function? Has it any pross or you simply like it?)

[kennethgrainger]

Cylon is right. Though the Nightrider reference reminds me that there once was a DL named hasselhoff.

[FantasizingHere]

Super useful!! Wish though that you covered what the "timebase" and "phase_offest" variables in the beat function in FastLED did, I'm still struggling to figure that out :(

[HorochovPL]

I am dumb. Was googling for "libation.h cpp math library" and similar phrases instead of wait a minute for You to switch from camera view to IDE and see the proper *"lib8tion.h"* card name...

[louiscelenza]

I love your videos. Thank you for putting them out there. I was wondering if you could help me with a problem I am experiencing. If I use FastLED with more than 70 LEDs, the whole strip flickers. With less than 70 LEDs, they display colors and transitions smoothly. I experience the same issue when using an Arduino Nano, Adafruit QtPy, Teensy 4.0, and Teensy 3.2. One temporary solution is including the WS2812SERIAL non-blocking library, but it only works with Teensy boards. That's fine, but I still need FastLED to work with more than 70 LEDs using other boards. NOTE: My circuit is wired using a 12v WS2815 LED strip. Can you please help me?