How do I connect the Plasma 2040 to a 24 LED NeoPixel Ring? Other than the USB-C to USB-A cable, what other wires do I need? All documentation I have found, I can’t make sense of. Have any of you used these two things in combination?
This is how I would wire it up.
Plasma 5V screw terminal to Power 5V DC on Ring.
Plasma DA screw terminal to Data Input on Ring.
Plasma - screw terminal to Power Signal Ground on Ring.
I am not sure about your NeoPixel ring, but the ones I have all need some soldering of three wires to the ring. I use standard three-wire cables. Once soldered, connect them like @alphanumeric said.
If you need additional infos, please post a link to your ring or post some images.
what cables do I need? I’m more of a software person
How long a cable do you need?
This is what I usually use, it’s what I keep on hand anyway. I have an assortment of colors.
Wire Spool – Red (pimoroni.com)
If it’s just a short distance jumpers will do. You just cut the end of, and strip a bit of the insulation off to get bare wire at each end. Then solder them on.
Jumper Jerky Junior – Socket to Socket (pimoroni.com)
I got a NeoPixel ring when I first started messing about with LEDs and microcontrollers a few years ago. To begin with, I just pinned it down onto breadboards with jumper wires pulled tight against the terminals on the ring. Surprisingly this made good enough connections for both power and data for the ring to work!
Soldering wires onto the ring is the way to go though as others have already said. In my case I eventually soldered a cable with a JST SM connector onto the ring as follows:
- Red → PWR +5V
- Black → GND
- Green → Data Input
Since I have a Plasma 2040 as well I just tried it out to confirm it works. I used another cable with corresponding JST SM connector on one end and bare wires on the other that goes into the Plasma 2040 screw terminals as follows:
- Red → 5V
- Green → DA
- (CL not used)
- Black → -
Here is a photo of it working:
Of course you could just use three wires without the connector in the middle, but anyway I hope this shows you can get the two working together.
1 Like