Guide for connecting several small RGB 5050 ledstrips?

[Cliff Karlsson]

I tried searching the forums but did not find any description of how to connect a 5050 led strip to an arduino and "Mysensorize" it.
I would like to know how to connect four small 5050 strips to one arduino to be able to control all four led strips individualy.

[BartE]

@Cliff-Karlsson using the search feature and searching for RGB gave me this hit (#8)
https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4871/fire-pit-rgb-striplight-controller

looking at the examnples gave this link: https://www.mysensors.org/build/dimmer

You can combine the two of them...

And there is a very recent post https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4938/rgbw-setup

[Cliff Karlsson]

@BartE said:
Yes I have already looked at those links and the first link has an sketch. The second link is for a white-only strip and I guess you have to connect them diferantly to be able to control the colors.
The last link I also looked at but found the pictures pretty hard to follow how all copnnections was made.

[BartE]

@Cliff-Karlsson it is basically 4 times this https://www.mysensors.org/build/dimmer wiring. These LED strips share the ground

[Cliff Karlsson]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up for me. What would the smartest way to connect four induvidally controlable short strips? Can I use one mini pro to control 16 mosfets? (I want to be able to light up four shelves in a bookcase)

[BartE]

@Cliff-Karlsson if you want to dim the strips it requires PWM (pulse width modulation) pens and the nano only has 6 of them (D3, D5, D6, D9, D10 and D11)
D11 and D10 are occupied by the MySensors radio leaving 4 to controll the LED strip.
So you will requires either:

• list itema different Arduino (the MEGA has 15 PWM's)
• or using ShiftPWM (http://www.elcojacobs.com/shiftpwm/)
• or use 4 Arduinos

[LastSamurai]

I am using my RGBW controller like that. I have some of these nodes controlling multiple strips. Although if you want to controll them individually you need a controller for each one. (or build one that has more mosfets, then you are only limited by the number of pwm pins on the arduino you are using).