The example a lightly-edited version of Adafruit_NeoPixel’s “strandtest_wheel”. If you want to try two-wire NeoPixels out in Arduino, one way is to change your “strip.show()” (if using Adafruit_NeoPixel library) to the function “strip_show()” shown below.

This technique works with most any WS2812 / NeoPixel library on Arduino or CircuitPython.

Select FLORA as your board type before compiling (ToolsBoardAdafruit BoardsFLORA). Its now more like a normal Python sequence and features slice support, repr and len support. Library manager (SketchInclude LibraryManage Libraries): AdafruitNeoPixel TimeLib AdafruitGPS Other libraries used here are part of the stock Arduino distribution. This is a supercharged version of the original MicroPython driver. To keep the strip powered, make sure to set the data line HIGH after every frame of data sent. Adafruit NeoPixel Library Documentation, Release 1.0 Higher level NeoPixel driver that presents the strip as a sequence. Make sure the Ground wire from the Neopixels connects to BOTH your power supply ground.

The capacitor holds the charge (mostly) for the LEDs as the WS2812 data line goes LOW and the diode keeps the capacitor’s voltage from interfering with the data line. Recent versions of the Arduino IDE (1.6.2 and later) make library. For our Metro Mini (compatible with the Arduino Uno), we can use either pin 2 or pin 3: include define RINGPIN 3 define RINGCOUNT. two wire neopixel library arduino

The trick is that the data line is carrying power, and a capacitor and Schottky diode are on the strip to separate out the data from the power. This is my take on this hack that Parallax Propeller forum user “Tubular” posted about in 2014 (!) Neopixel LEDs with only two wires?! Just data & ground? What kind of magic is this?

Two wire neopixel library arduino