Powering LED

I wanted to use addressable LED strip for probably more than a year now and I finally got the chance to use it!  I was always afraid that it was complicating to use, but it was surprisingly not that difficult.

Here is a brief steps that I took to power the strip.  If you want to know more about the specific details, please feel free to ask me.

I bought the strips from Sparkfun (SPARKFUN LED STRIP) last semester for 451 project even though I didn't get the chance to actually incorporate it in the game.  The hookup guide that can be found in that link was VERY useful and straightforward.  Once I got power, it didn't take too long until I figured out how to control the lighting using sensors; programming on Arduino was pretty straightforward.

It was powering that confused me.  I completely underestimated how much current each strip eats up.

^So, I ended up using this power supply. JamecoPowerSupply

First thing I did as soon as I got it was to find an AC cable and then stripping it up to obtain three cables inside (as shown in the photo above).  Spade terminal is used to connect things.

^Double row terminal blocks were used (one for ground and the other for vcc)  

^Overall picture of how everything is setup

Can multiple addressable LED strips be controlled using only one Arduino code?  YES!
I just used two different PWM pins and made a second LED strip class within the code.  Controlling it with a sensor wasn't that bad either!

Can't wait to use it more in the future.