Qwiic LED Stick

The Qwiic LED Stick features ten addressable APA102 LEDs, making it easy to add full color LED control using I²C. Write to individual LEDs to display a count in binary, or write to the whole strip for cool lighting effects. You can even add more LEDs to the end if you need to¹. We’ve written an Arduino library that takes care of the I²C and communication to the LEDs so all you have to do is decide what color each LED should be.

The LED Stick has a default I²C address of 0x23 but can be changed with a simple command, allowing you to control up to 100 LEDs (10 Qwiic LED Sticks) on a single bus¹! The address can also be changed to 0x22 by closing the solder jumper on the back of the board.

This board is one of our many Qwiic compatible boards! Simply plug and go. No soldering, no figuring out which is SDA or SCL, and no voltage regulation or translation required!

We do not plan to regularly produce SparkX products so get them while they’re hot!

NOTE: The I²C address of the LED Stick is 0x23 and is jumper selectable to 0x22 (software-configurable to any address). A multiplexer/Mux is required to communicate to multiple LED Stick sensors on a single bus. If you need to use more than one LED Stick sensor consider using the Qwiic Mux Breakout.

1: Using a lot of LEDs can draw a lot of current. Make sure to consider the power limits of your setup. If adding an external power supply, cut the trace on the back of the board from VLED to 3.3V. If you expect more than 1A of current, connect your external supply directly to VLED. Closing the jumper from VLED to VCC will add a 4.7uF decoupling capacitor.

Documents:

• APA102 Datasheet
• Example Arduino Sketches: For example sketches please search the Arduino library manager for 'Qwiic LED Stick' to quickly get many helpful example sketches
• Eagle Files
• Schematic
• Library Repo
• Please visit the repo for the latest firmware and hardware designs.