This is a library for easily & efficiently controlling a wide variety of LED chipsets, like the ones sold by Adafruit (NeoPixel, DotStar, LPD8806), Sparkfun (WS2801), and AliExpress. In addition to writing to the LEDs, this library also includes a number of functions for high-performing 8-bit math for manipulating your RGB values, as well as low level classes for abstracting out access to pins and SPI hardware, while still keeping things as fast as possible.

We have multiple goals with this library:

• Quick start for new developers - hook up your LEDs and go, no need to think about specifics of the LED chipsets being used
• Zero pain switching LED chipsets - you get some new LEDs that the library supports, just change the definition of LEDs you're using, et. voila! Your code is running with the new LEDs.
• High performance - with features like zero cost global brightness scaling, high performance 8-bit math for RGB manipulation, and some of the fastest bit-bang'd SPI support around, FastLED wants to keep as many CPU cycles available for your LED patterns as possible

We've created a custom repo you can try to start your projects. This repo is designed to be used with VSCode + PlatformIO but is also backwards compatible with the Arduino IDE.

PlatformIO is an extension to VSCode and is generally viewed as a much better experience than the Arduino IDE. You get auto completion tools like intellisense and CoPilot and the ability to install tools like crash decoding. Anything you can do in Arduino IDE you can do with PlatformIO.

Get started here:

https://github.com/FastLED/PlatformIO-Starter

When running the Arduino IDE you need to do the additional installation step of installing FastLED in the global Arduino IDE package manager.

Install the library using either the .zip file from the latest release or by searching for "FastLED" in the libraries manager of the Arduino IDE. See the Arduino documentation on how to install libraries for more information.

How quickly can you get up and running with the library? Here's a simple blink program:

#include <FastLED.h>
#define NUM_LEDS 60
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];
void setup() { FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, 6>(leds, NUM_LEDS); }
void loop() {
	leds[0] = CRGB::White; FastLED.show(); delay(30);
	leds[0] = CRGB::Black; FastLED.show(); delay(30);
}

If you want to make changes to FastLED then please

• Fork the https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED repo into your github account.
• Open up the folder with VSCode.
• If you don't have VSCode
  • Install PlatformIO extension if you don't have it already * and then exit your VSCode IDE.
• Once FastLED is loading with platform, give it some time to download the dependencies (esp32-s3 (default) has a 1+GB download!)
• Click the platformio compile
  • Then upload to your device

The following picture show what the final state should look like when you are ready to work on a patch

• You are editing the platformio.ini
  • We use esp32-s3 by default because it is dual-core, cheap and is a feature rich platform pushing LEDs to the limit.
  • Be mindful of whether you are testing the esp-idf 4.x (Arduino IDE prior to ~July-2024) or the esp-idf 5.1 version.
    • Both versions are available in the platformio.ini file, see comments.
  • You can also change the platform to something classic like uno, see examlpes on the internet.
• You have the dev/dev.ino ready, where you are going to edit your changes.

To make changes just edit the dev/dev.ino file.

When changes are made then push to your fork and issue a pull request.

If you need help with using the library, please consider visiting the Reddit community at https://reddit.com/r/FastLED. There are thousands of knowledgeable FastLED users in that group and a plethora of solutions in the post history.

If you are looking for documentation on how something in the library works, please see the Doxygen documentation online at http://fastled.io/docs.

If you run into bugs with the library, or if you'd like to request support for a particular platform or LED chipset, please submit an issue at http://fastled.io/issues.

Here's a list of all the LED chipsets are supported. More details on the LED chipsets are included on our wiki page

• Adafruit's DotStars - aka APA102
• Adafruit's Neopixel - aka WS2812B (also WS2811/WS2812/WS2813, also supported in lo-speed mode) - a 3 wire addressable LED chipset
• TM1809/4 - 3 wire chipset, cheaply available on aliexpress.com
• TM1803 - 3 wire chipset, sold by RadioShack
• UCS1903 - another 3 wire LED chipset, cheap
• GW6205 - another 3 wire LED chipset
• LPD8806 - SPI based chipset, very high speed
• WS2801 - SPI based chipset, cheap and widely available
• SM16716 - SPI based chipset
• APA102 - SPI based chipset
  • APA102HD - Same as APA102 but with a high definition gamma correction function applied at the driver level.
• P9813 - aka Cool Neon's Total Control Lighting
• DMX - send rgb data out over DMX using Arduino DMX libraries
• SmartMatrix panels - needs the SmartMatrix library (https://github.com/pixelmatix/SmartMatrix)
• LPD6803 - SPI based chpiset, chip CMODE pin must be set to 1 (inside oscillator mode)

HL1606, and "595"-style shift registers are no longer supported by the library. The older Version 1 of the library ("FastSPI_LED") has support for these, but is missing many of the advanced features of current versions and is no longer being maintained.

Right now the library is supported on a variety of Arduino compatible platforms. If it's ARM or AVR and uses the Arduino software (or a modified version of it to build) then it is likely supported. Note that we have a long list of upcoming platforms to support, so if you don't see what you're looking for here, ask, it may be on the roadmap (or may already be supported). N.B. at the moment we are only supporting the stock compilers that ship with the Arduino software. Support for upgraded compilers, as well as using AVR Studio and skipping the Arduino entirely, should be coming in a near future release.

• Arduino & compatibles - straight up Arduino devices, Uno, Duo, Leonardo, Mega, Nano, etc...
• Arduino Yún
• Adafruit Trinket & Gemma - Trinket Pro may be supported, but haven't tested to confirm yet
• Teensy 2, Teensy++ 2, Teensy 3.0, Teensy 3.1/3.2, Teensy LC, Teensy 3.5, Teensy 3.6, and Teensy 4.0 - Arduino compatible from pjrc.com with some extra goodies (note the Teensy LC, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 4.0 are ARM, not AVR!)
• Arduino Due and the digistump DigiX
• RFDuino
• SparkCore
• Arduino Zero
• ESP8266 using the Arduino board definitions from http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json - please be sure to also read https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/wiki/ESP8266-notes for information specific to the 8266.
• The wino board - http://wino-board.com
• ESP32 based boards

What types of platforms are we thinking about supporting in the future? Here's a short list: ChipKit32, Maple, Beagleboard

Information on porting FastLED can be found in the file PORTING.md.

Wait, what happened to FastSPI_LED and FastSPI_LED2? The library was initially named FastSPI_LED because it was focused on very fast and efficient SPI access. However, since then, the library has expanded to support a number of LED chipsets that don't use SPI, as well as a number of math and utility functions for LED processing across the board. We decided that the name FastLED more accurately represents the totality of what the library provides, everything fast, for LEDs.

Check out the official site http://fastled.io for links to documentation, issues, and news

TODO - get candy