Datasheet

The Magic of NeoPixels

Incorporating scads of LEDs into an electronic project used to be a hairy prospect, a veritable rat’s

nest of wires and code. The arrival of dedicated LED driver chips brought welcome relief, offloading

grunt work from the microcontroller and allowing one to focus on the application. Much simpler, but

still not “Christmas light” simple.

The WS2812 Integrated Light Source — or NeoPixel in Adafruit parlance — is the latest advance in

the quest for a simple, scalable and affordable full-color LED. Red, green and blue LEDs are

integrated alongside a driver chip into a tiny surface-mount package controlled through a single

wire. They can be used individually, chained into longer strings or assembled into still more

interesting form-factors.

Important Things to Know About NeoPixels in General

Not all addressable LEDs are NeoPixels. “NeoPixel” is Adafruit’s brand for individually-

addressable RGB color pixels and strips based on the WS2812 and WS2811 LED/drivers,

using a single-wire control protocol. Other LED products we carry — WS2801 pixels,

We know you’re eager to get started…but If this is your first time using NeoPixels, please at

least read the “Best Practices” page before connecting anything!

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