Hey guys, so I’m momo from Team 4719 and concerning next year’s competition we are willing to find out how to work any set of LED systems (as seen on many robots :’( ) Comment on your favorite ones and possible teach me?
There are definitely some threads on this out there.
There could be others. Remember, search is your friend 
Personal Favorite
Addressable RGB LED Strip 5v
http://www.amazon.com/Addressable-Waterproof-WS2801-Connectors-Pre-Soldered/dp/B008F05N54
Well I still Don’t get it like which one to use and how to use them… Like I want to be able to program it so that When I fire a frisbee (or fire something next year) the lights will illuminate programatically kinda like the robonauts 118 2013. I use java and trying to understand whatever that was (Guessing Cpp) makes my head hurt… Sorry for the inconvenience >.<
The method of control for LEDs will vary depending on what you want to do with them.
If you have single color LEDs and you just want them on, you simply plug them into the power distribution board.
If you have single color LEDs and you want to be able to turn them on and off, you plug them into a spike, which is a very standard control method in any of the currently supported languages.
If you want multi-color (typically tri-color) LEDs, then you will have to go a bit more complex. One common method is to connect the LEDs to an Arduino, then control the Arduino via the analog module. If you go this route, prepare to do some more research into control methods. There are a number of hacker/maker websites out there (eg Make magazine, Instructables) that have guides of doing all sorts of things with LEDs.
My team (WildStang) set up an I2C link between the cRIO and an Arduino serving as the LED controller. In our cRIO code, we had a class that watched for events of interest, such as our kicker firing or intake motors turning on, as well as the robot state and alliance color. Upon those events, we sent a series of bytes indicating which event just took place to the Arduino. The Arduino watched for said bytes, and when it got them it illuminated the LEDs in a predefined pattern. We plan on releasing our code base at some point this year, so you’ll be able to see exactly how we did this (we also used Java.)
I was talking to a Robonauts’ member about the lights and I believe they said they would release their lights’ code in their online library sometime during the off-season.
Add another to the list:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116011
::rtm::
I posted about the adafruit tutorials. OP got his working, after following the adafruit information. Perhaps you could adapt their information to your system.
A bunch of people were asking about this at championship in reference to the hat I made that was lined with LED’s. Investing in an Arduino OR Teensy (cheaper) is the best method I know of. Then adafruit will guide the way from there.
There are also LED strips that can set the colors for individual LEDs. The LED driver will typically read an array via i2c and you simply place the color values for each LED in the respective position of the array.