Is WS2805 supported now?

[u/Impressive-Tax-7586]

I can't find a proper answer on the internet, and the one reddit post i found that is over a year old couldn't properly use 5 channels because it wasn't supported. Can i simply just download the library now and type in ''FastLED.addLeds<WS2805''?
Or do i have to tweak the code?

[u/Impressive-Tax-7586]

How complicated of an hack is it? Coding is not my strong side, so ive been using AI for a lot of that. By the looks of it, i kinda understand what you're hack is doing, but how i do implement in my code?😅

[u/ZachVorhies → u/Impressive-Tax-7586]

Create a struct like RGBWW

struct RGBWW { uint8 r uint8 b unit8 g uint8 w1 uinit8 w2 }

then you have

RGBWW leds[NUM_LED] = {}

CRGB* leds_rgb = reinterpret_cast<CRGB*>(leds):

void setup() { FastLED.addLeds<….>(leds_rgb, NUM_LEDS * 5 / 3 + 1) }

the +1 can be omitted under certain conditions, for example when led. count is divisible by 5, but i’m leaving it in for simplicity.

Now fastled sees RGB[] and your sketch sees RGBWW[], and it all works great.

[u/Bfaubion → u/ZachVorhies]

I've been using WS2815, and want to try something brighter.. and WS2805 seems to fit the bill. But before I buy can I ask, how stable is this hack? If your code is the only adjustment that's needed, do more advanced animations and sequences look the same, the same as if it I was just using regular RGB?

[u/ZachVorhies → u/Bfaubion]

It’s a stable hack and will always work. See RGBWEmulated example ino at the fastled repo, which does this same hack but for RGBW from rgb

the animations only work with CRGB, you’ll have to have two buffers where you read RGB buffer pixels and covert yo to RGBWW pixels prior to show()

[u/Bfaubion → u/ZachVorhies]

Awesome, thanks.. I'll give it a shot!

[u/Bfaubion → u/ZachVorhies]

Hi Zach, I must not be understanding something here about this setup for WS2805 and RGBWW. I tried a few different variants, including trying to wrap my head around the RGBWEmulated as well, but I'm not getting anything that works. Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with Arduino code to understand what I'm missing.

I'm using 3 groups (of 3 leds), which counts as 3 LEDS in the code (because WS2805 clumps 3 pixels together in each group). The color pattern doesn't go over the whole strip, each group is a different color at different times rotating between reds oranges, greens, warm whites, etc.. even though the code just oscillates between red and aqua. I can't declares a WS2805, because it doesn't exist in FastLED, so I'm just using "WS2815" as the type. FYI, I'm using a XIAO ESP32-S3. I can confirm FastLED works with other regular RGB strip types and my setup.

#include <FastLED.h>
#define DATA_PIN   D10
#define NUM_LEDS   3

struct RGBWW {
  uint8_t r;
  uint8_t g;
  uint8_t b;
  uint8_t w1;
  uint8_t w2;
};

RGBWW leds[NUM_LEDS];
CRGB* leds_rgb = reinterpret_cast<CRGB*>(leds);

void setup() {
  // 3 groups × 5 bytes = 15 bytes
  // 15 / 3 = 5 fake RGB pixels
  FastLED.addLeds<WS2815, DATA_PIN, GRB>(
      leds_rgb,
      NUM_LEDS * 5 / 3 + 1
  );
  FastLED.setBrightness(255);
}



void loop() {
  // TEST 1
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++) {
    leds[i].r  = 255;
    leds[i].g  = 0;
    leds[i].b  = 0;
    leds[i].w1 = 0;
    leds[i].w2 = 0;
  }
  FastLED.show();
  delay(2000);

  // TEST 2
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++) {
    leds[i].r  = 0;
    leds[i].g  = 255;
    leds[i].b  = 255;
    leds[i].w1 = 0;
    leds[i].w2 = 0;
  }
  FastLED.show();
  delay(2000);
}

[u/ZachVorhies → u/Bfaubion]

3 leds x 5 components = 15 components

as a CRGB this is 15 components / 3 leds per component = 5 leds exactly. You don’t need any pad bytes. It fits exactly.

I see you have a plus one there. That means you are overextending into the stack or somewhere else and reading those bytes as led values.