rpi_ws281x VS Adafruit-QT-Py-RP2040-PCB

Connect the led strip data pin to an available Io pin on the pi, connect the strips and to pi gnd pin and to a 5V power supply gnd pin, and connect the strips + to the 5V power supply.

Then use a library on the pi, for example this: https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x

I'm sorry, but bit banging WS2812 on that hardware is stupid. Find some peripheral that you can use to output WS2812 bitstreams, and use that. For example, for the Raspberry Pi there is a library at https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x that can use either PWM, PCM or SPI to do this. I know you're dealing with a different CPU, but this should give you ideas about how you can use its peripherals. The data sheet is available: https://github.com/milkv-duo/duo-files/blob/main/hardware/CV1800B/CV1800B-CV1801B-Preliminary-Datasheet-full-en.pdf

E.g.: https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x

The library it's based on specifically notes SPI usage in the readme, and details on how to use (that's where I got the steps that I double-checked in the OP)

Regarding the error though, it sounds like there are a bunch of slight cpu variations that aren’t all clearly defined. I can’t reproduce it myself (guess I have an older board). But there’s a solution suggested by the maintainer on a GitHub issue here https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x/issues/483 so I’d suggest trying that out first.

You can run them direct off gpio but if xlights is your “end game” the falcon pi cap is more inline with the ecosystem of xlights, falcon player and a overall Christmas light display end game where gpio pins is more of a “electronics project” https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x

The LEDs are controlled via the SPI interface of the Raspberry Pi. The rpi_ws281x library is used to manage the ring from python code. The library also provides the possibility to control LEDs via PWM or PCM, however this either disables either analog or digital audio output, which is quite disadvantageous for a music server. On a Raspberry Pi 4, there is one thing to look out for: SPI requires a stable clock, and the Pi 4 throttles itself by default. This can be avoided by adding core_freq_min=500 to /boot/config.txt. Raveberry takes care of this during install if you enable LED visualization.

I have one too, when I plug it in the lights just stay white, unless its losing power in which they flash red. I wanted program them with python and I found a module to use but it wasn't really working. There was a script the came with the module that made them change color, but I haven't been able to write any scripts with the module myself. the module is called rpi_ws281x. You can install it using pip for python and I saw more about other programming languages too. for the button I was able to get that working as power button with this tutorial. Hope this helps.

[2] https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x