Programmable LED

Programmable LED are much simpler to operate than simple RGB LED:

• Uniform Voltage: for RGB LED, the different currents required by each of the three internal color LED is automatically adjusted by the internal driver chip.
• Digital Control: to display a given color and brightness, you send a digital control signal to the LED. There is no need to manually calculate and provide the individual current to each of the three LED to mix the desired color or set the desired brightness.
• Daisy Chain: LED can be daisy-chained which reduces dramatically the wiring. Each LED in the string can still be controlled individually.

Programmable LED do need a digital control signal. They are perfect for microcontroller projects. They cannot be used without one. If you don’t want to program your own microcontroller, there are numerous cheap ready-to-use RGB Contollers available.

Controllers

Since native RGB LED are difficult to operate, it was obvious that a dedicated cheap and small controller would simplify this tremendously.

The initial approach was the WS2811, a dedicated chip capable of driving three different LED (R, G, and B). The revolutionary approach was the design of a new one-wire communications protocol that enabls LED to be easily daisy-chained:

Whenever the control signal passes a LED, the individual LED controller decrements a counter in the data package before it passes it on to the next LED, so each LED dynamically gets its own Id, based solely on its position in the string. This way, a mirocontroller can individually address each LED.

Since then, the controller chip was further reduced in size and finally integrated into the LED itself for further simplification. Today, these are the most common controller chips:

These controllers can be embedded into various single color, RGB, and RGBW LED. The APA106 is typically available as single LED only and used as programmable indicator LED or as part of large-size LED walls and public viewing screens.

There are many more LED controllers using different data transmission techniques. The controllers listed above all use the common 800kHz fixed-frequency one-wire protocol. Controllers like i.e. the APA102 come with more capable variable-frequency two-wire protocols: one wire serves as clock, allowing the controlling microcontroller to increase or decrease the data transmission speed as needed.

The brightness and color quality does not depend on the controller. It solely depends on the type of LED the controller is embedded in, and on how many LED are used per length or area.

Colors

Each LED brightness can be controlled in 256 steps.

For a RGB LED, the total number of colors is 256^3 = 16777216.

Voltage Drop

This parameter affects color and brightness deviations in long strips with many LED.

When LED strips grow longer, the voltage drops. The further away a LED is located from the power supply, the more you see differences in brightness and color deviations. This voltage drop largely depends on the operating voltage: 5V systems (like the very popular WS2812) are more prone to voltage drop than 12V or 24V systems.

To alleviate this, long LED strips need power injection: the supply power is repeatedly connected to parts of the strip.

For 5V systems, this may be necessary as often as once per 2.5m (depending on the number of LED per meter). 12V systems may require this only every 5m.

Data Frequency

This parameter affects the maximum number of LED that can be daisy-chained. Since virtually all LED controllers support the same very high data frequency of 800kHz, and since this frequency is sufficient to transfer the control data of virtually any practical number of LED, it practically does not play an important role. It may still be interesting to know.

The primary benefit of the LED controllers discussed here is their simplicity: they need just one data wire to daisy-chain any number of LED.

This one data wire carries all the control information for all of the connected LED, and there is no separate clock wire that would enable external timings. Instead, each controller relies on a strict static timing: the impulses must come in a fixed speed, the frequency.

This data frequency is fixed and determined by the mentioned communications protocol. More modern controllers such as the WS2815 are more tolerant towards frequency deviations than older controllers like WS2812.

Update Frequency (Refresh)

This parameter controls flicker, especially when video recording.

Controllers use PWM (pulse width modulation) to control the brightness of a LED. This is not only important for overall brightness but also for mixing red, green and blue to emit all other colors.

Unless you are selecting a pure red, green or blue at full brightness, PWM is active.

The update frequency controls how often per second PWM refreshes the LED. The initial WS2812B for example came with an update frequency of 400Hz. This relatively low frequency caused visible flicker when video recording a scene illuminated with these LED.

Recent WS2812B versions now use a much higher update frequency of 2000Hz and eliminate this flicker. Other controller types used higher frequencies from begin on.

Reset Time

This parameter affects the smoothness of animations and the promptness of color and brightness changes, but only very marginally.

The LED controller uses a reset time after each data package that it processed before it is ready to process the next. This improves robustness because it clearly distinguishes one data package from the next. This is also why extending the reset time is a good thing, and most controller types today use significantly longer reset times than initially.

Even the popular WS2812B today uses a reset time of 280us while the initial batch used 50us.

Keep in mind that the reset time is added only at the end of each update. When your microcontroller updates the color and brightness of i.e. 100 LED in your string, it sends 100 individual configurations, each with the address of the particular LED, and only then adds the reset time.
So the influence of the reset time on the maximum possible frame rate (updates per second) is neglectible.

Make sure the libraries and the code you use account for reset times >280us to be compatible with any LED controller.

Frame Rate

What matters most to users - at least when playing animations or running video screens - is the frame rate: how often can the LED composition be updated per second?

This depends on these factors:

• Number and kind of LED: This is the most important factor. Each LED is addressable individually. Updating the entire string requires sending one control information per LED. RGB LED require three pieces of color information, RGBW LED require four.
• Microcontroller: the microcontroller producing the control signal for the entire LED string must provide the control signal fast enough in the first place: it must be fast enough to compose the control signal for all LED in the strip at the desired frame rate. A ESP32 can calculate roughly 65k-85k LED per second. At 1000 LED this is a 70Hz frame rate, dropping to 35Hz at 2000 LED.
• Data Rate: the data rate is roughly the same for all LED controllers with fixed data rate (without a separate clock line): 800kHz.
• LED Controller Reset Time: the mandatory reset time at the end of each data packet adds to the overall time it takes to transmit one information packet.

Calculating Frame Rate

To calculate the maximum possible frame rate for RGB LED, put the values from above into this formula:

framerate = 1 / (( (24*[total LED])/800.000) + [Reset Time] )

For RGBW LED, replace 24 with 32.

For a WS2812 LED strip with 144 RGB LED/m and a length of *1m, the values would be:

framerate = 1 / (( (24*144)/800.000) + 0.00028) = 217.4 frames/sec

The maximum frame rate calculated is the limit set by the LED controller. To achieve it, you need to make sure your microcontroller can actually deliver the control data fast enough.

A relatively powerful dual-core ESP32 can calculate roughly 65k-85k LED per second. At 1000 LED this is a 70Hz frame rate, dropping to 35Hz at 2000 LED. Less performant microcontrollers like ESP8266 perform considerably worse.

Keep in mind that for animations, typically you do not need to change all LED at the same time at each frame. The real frame rates for a given change are therefore most probably much higher.
If for example you run 2000 LED but need to update only 100 LED at different spots, even very weak microcontrollers can handle this with excellent frame rates.

Frame Rate Calculator

Here is a PowerShell script that you can use to calculate frame rates for LED strips:

function Get-LedStripDetail
{
  [CmdletBinding(DefaultParameterSetName='framerate')]
  param
  (
    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='framerate', Mandatory)]
    [int]
    $Framerate,
    
    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='framerate', ValueFromPipeline)]
    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='ledpermeter', Mandatory, ValueFromPipeline)]
    [int]
    $LedPerMeter,
    
    [int]
    $ResetTimeMicroSec=280,
    
    [switch]
    $IncludeWhiteLed,
    
    [ValidateRange(1,10000)]
    [int]
    $DataRateKhz=800,
    
    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='ledpermeter', Mandatory)]
    [double]
    $StripLengthCm,
    
    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='totalled', Mandatory)]
    [int]
    $TotalLedCount
  )
  
  process
  {
    if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('ledpermeter'))
    {
      $TotalLedCount = $LedPerMeter * $StripLengthCm / 100
    }
    
    $bits = if ($IncludeWhiteLed)
    { 
      32 
      $type = 'RGBW'
    }
    else
    { 
      24
      $type = 'RGB'
    }
    
    $timeforSinglePackage = $bits / ($DataRateKhz * 1000)
    
    if ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq 'framerate')
    {
      $resetTime = $ResetTimeMicroSec / 1000000
      $datarate = $DataRateKhz * 1000
      
      [int]$totalLed = $datarate * (1/$framerate-$resetTime)/$bits
      
      
      if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('ledpermeter'))
      {
        [PSCustomObject]@{
          LedCount = $totalLed
          Type = $type
          StripType = "${LedPerMeter}LED/m"
          StripLengthCm = [Math]::Round(($totalLed / $LedPerMeter) * 100, 1)
        }
      }
      else
      {
        [PSCustomObject]@{
          LedCount = $totalLed
          Type = $type
          StripType = 'n/a'
          StripLengthCm = 'n/a'
        }       
      }
    }
    else
    {
      # led count is given
      $timeForPackage = $timeforSinglePackage * $TotalLedCount
      $totalPackageTime = $timeForPackage + ($ResetTimeMicroSec/1000000)
    
      $frameRate = 1 / $totalPackageTime
    
      [PSCustomObject]@{
        LedCount = $TotalLedCount
        Type = $type
        Framerate = [Math]::Round($frameRate,1)
        'DataTime (us)' = $totalPackageTime
      }
    }
  }
}

Calculating Framerate Based on LED Count

When you know the number of LED (either absolute or as a combination out of LED/meter and length of the strip), you can calculate the maximum possible framerate:

PS> Get-LedStripDetail -TotalLedCount 100 

LedCount Type Framerate DataTime (us)
-------- ---- --------- -------------
     100 RGB        305       0.00328



PS> Get-LedStripDetail -LedPerMeter 144 -StripLengthCm 150

LedCount Type Framerate DataTime (us)
-------- ---- --------- -------------
     216 RGB        148       0.00676


# submitting a list of LED/m values:
PS> 60,90,120,144 | Get-LedStripDetail -StripLengthCm 150

LedCount Type Framerate DataTime (us)
-------- ---- --------- -------------
      90 RGB        336       0.00298
     135 RGB        231       0.00433
     180 RGB        176       0.00568
     216 RGB        148       0.00676

Likewise, when you know the desired framerate, you can calculate the number of LED you can drive at this framerate:

PS> Get-LedStripDetail -Framerate 305

LedCount Type StripType StripLengthCm
-------- ---- --------- -------------
     100 RGB  n/a       n/a          



PS> Get-LedStripDetail -Framerate 148 -LedPerMeter 144

LedCount Type StripType StripLengthCm
-------- ---- --------- -------------
     216 RGB  144LED/m            150

# submitting a list of desired framerates:
PS> 336,231,231,176,148 | Get-LedStripDetail -LedPerMeter 144

LedCount Type StripType StripLengthCm
-------- ---- --------- -------------
      90 RGB  144LED/m           62.5
     135 RGB  144LED/m           93.8
     135 RGB  144LED/m           93.8
     180 RGB  144LED/m            125
     216 RGB  144LED/m            150

Fail Safe

The initial controllers like WS2811 and WS2812 came with the revolutionary one-wire data line.

Soon it was appreciated that one data line is nice from a point of wiring, but bad from a point of reliability: once a single controller fails, all remaining LED in that string also fail because they no longer receive the data signal.

That is why today there are also controllers like the WS2813 and WS2815 that come with two data wires. The data signal can skip one failed controller (but not two or more).

Form Factors

Sophisticated LED Strips often use WS2812 LED that come with full RGB color, an internal controller chip per LED, and four connectors: two for supplying power, and one each for data in and data out. data out then forwards the received data to the next LED.

A clever signal protocol makes sure that each LED in this string is individually addressable even though all LED are connected by just one wire.
Simplified, each LED increments a counter in the data protocoll when the signal passes. This way, each LED knows its position in the string. Commands to change color or brightness can therefore be addressed to an individual LED in the string based on its position.

LED matrix displays are essentially a variant of an LED strip, just in a different form factor:

Primarily targeted towards strips and matrix-configurations involving many LED, programmable LED are available as single LED in a traditional form factor, too:

These individual LED are a very smart idea when designing devices with many indicator LED: Instead of wiring each LED separately, and instead of investing one precious GPIO pin per LED, you use the same one-wire-protocol used in LED strips to control all your indicator LED with just one GPIO pin - the ability to display any available color is an added extra bonus.

Some vendors call programmable LED based on the WS2812B chip NeoPixel.

Single LED

LED controllers can also be embedded in normal LED form factors. Such LED have four “legs”:

• Two different lengths: some LED come with legs in two different lengths: two legs are shorter than the other two.
• Four different lengths: typically, each leg has a different length.

Single programmable LED can be daisy-chained just like strips or matrix displays and controlled by just one GPIO pin. This makes them ideal for controlling muliple indicator LED in DIY microcontroller projects as it significantly reduces wiring and reduces the number of required GPIO ports to just one, regardless of the number of LED needed.

Power Connection

The two inner legs are connected to the 5V power supply. The longer leg is GND, the shorter leg is +5V.

Digital Connection

The two outer legs carry the digital control signal. The leg next to V+ (shorter pin) is the digital input DIN. The leg on the other side (longer pin) is digital output DOUT.

Connect DIN to your microcontrollers’ GPIO output, and connect DOUT to DIN of the next LED in the daisy chain.

Considerations

Here are a few points to consider when using programmable LED:

• Microcontroller: You need a microcontroller to operate programmable LED. Either program your own, or use one of the readily available and cheap RGB Controllers
• Voltage: Always make sure you know the specs of the type of programmable LED you use. Their supply voltages may vary. While WS2812 are operated with 5V, there are other types that need 12V or even 24V.
• Current: A higher supply voltage lowers the required current which starts to matter when you daisy-chain more than just a couple of LED. LED strips operated at 5V can quickly exceed currents of 10-20A. For long LED strips, it’s more efficient to use an LED type that takes 12V or 24V supply voltage.

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