Connecting the Hardware

The hardware setup is straightforward. There is only one output pin to the LED strip to connect from PB1 (pin 15, defined in pins.h).

Breadboard visualized with Fritzing
Make sure to connect the ground wires from the LEDs and AVR together. Otherwise the digital output from the AVR will be floating, and your lights will flicker randomly.

Here is what it looks like on my breadboard.

Breadboard in real-life

LED Connection

The LED strip has three wires for the data signal, ground, and 12 V. The power rails (12 V and ground) are connected to the AC/DC power supply. The ground wire and data wire need to be routed back to the AVR.

LED Connector

AVR Power

I used my programmer to power the AVR. But once you flash the AVR, the programmer can be removed and replaced with any 5 V power supply.